On Guns: Facts in America and What We Must Do

One More Time On the Guns

How long, America?

20 children--children, for God's sake--were slaughtered in a school, as we all know.

We did nothing.

59 people gunned down from a high rise hotel in Las Vegas.

Nothing.

Now, 30 people gunned down in two separate incidents, 13 hours apart.

Sure, we're outraged.

Saddened. Disgusted. Repelled. Revulsed. Sickened even.

Will we do anything about it?

And to the gun-lovers and NRA supporters and Right Wingers and Republicans, heck, even Libertarians who say the government should stay out of it and again, do nothing? I give you data, the following from Harvard University studies.

1. Where there are more guns there is more homicide (literature review)

Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the U.S., where there are more guns, both men and women are at a higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.

Hepburn, Lisa; Hemenway, David. Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 2004; 9:417-40.

2. Across high-income nations, more guns = more homicide

We analyzed the relationship between homicide and gun availability using data from 26 developed countries from the early 1990s. We found that across developed countries, where guns are more available, there are more homicides. These results often hold even when the United States is excluded.

Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew. Firearm availability and homicide rates across 26 high income countries. Journal of Trauma. 2000; 49:985-88.

3. Across states, more guns = more homicide

Using a validated proxy for firearm ownership, we analyzed the relationship between firearm availability and homicide across 50 states over a ten-year period (1988-1997).

After controlling for poverty and urbanization, for every age group, people in states with many guns have elevated rates of homicide, particularly firearm homicide.

Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. Household firearm ownership levels and homicide rates across U.S. regions and states, 1988-1997. American Journal of Public Health. 2002; 92:1988-1993.

4. Across states, more guns = more homicide (2)

Using survey data on rates of household gun ownership, we examined the association between gun availability and homicide across states, 2001-2003. We found that states with higher levels of household gun ownership had higher rates of firearm homicide and overall homicide. This relationship held for both genders and all age groups, after accounting for rates of aggravated assault, robbery, unemployment, urbanization, alcohol consumption, and resource deprivation (e.g., poverty). There was no association between gun prevalence and non-firearm homicide.

Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah; Hemenway, David. State-level homicide victimization rates in the U.S. in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001-2003. Social Science and Medicine. 2007; 64:656-64.

5. A summary of the evidence on guns and violent death

This book chapter summarizes the scientific literature on the relationship between gun prevalence (levels of household gun ownership) and suicide, homicide and unintentional firearm death and concludes that where there are higher levels of gun ownership, there are more gun suicides and more total suicides, more gun homicides and more total homicides, and more accidental gun deaths.

This is the first chapter in the book and provides and up-to-date and readable summary of the literature on the relationship between guns and death. It also adds to the literature by using the National Violent Death Reporting System data to show where (home or away) the shootings occurred. Suicides for all age groups and homicides for children and aging adults most often occurred in their own home.

Miller M, Azrael D, Hemenway D. Firearms and violence death in the United States. In: Webster DW, Vernick JS, eds. Reducing Gun Violence in America. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

6. More guns = more homicides of police
This article examines homicide rates of Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) from 1996 to 2010. Differences in rates of homicides of LEOs across states are best explained not by differences in crime, but by differences in household gun ownership. In high gun states, LEOs are 3 times more likely to be murdered than LEOs working in low-gun states.

This article was cited by President Obama in a speech to a police association. This article will hopefully bring police further into the camp of those pushing for sensible gun laws.

Swedler DI, Simmons MM, Dominici F, Hemenway D. Firearm prevalence and homicides of law enforcement officers in the United States. American Journal of Public Health. 2015; 105:2042-48.

And again to the weapons supporters, I say we're only asking--now demanding--3 things:

1. Required background checks, coast to coast, for mental stability
2. Required background checks, again, coast to coast, for criminal history
3. Ban on all purchases of assault style weapons. They have zero place on our streets and/or in our society.

No one who otherwise wants or feels they need weapons will be effected so please don't pull that desperate, pathetic, pitiful "They're going to take all our guns" on us. It's nonsense. Patent nonsense.

For hope today, I point out this article from Uber Right Wing, very Conservative Rupert Murdoch and his Right Wing rag, The New York Post.

Murdoch’s New York Post urges Trump to ban assault weapons

We can do this.

We must.

And it has to come from us, from the people.

Links: 

The Second Amendment has failed America

There have been more mass shootings than days in 2019

List of mass shootings in the United States

There’s No Second Amendment Right to Large-Capacity Magazines

(President) Trump Says He Wants Background Checks

The Next Local Student-Led Weapons Reform Event

From yesterday's very successful March For Our Lives Kansas City event at Theis Park.

April 20 is the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.

National School Walkouts on March 14 

and April 20: What to Know

April 20, anniversary of Columbine, 

is the next gun control

National School Walkout on Twitter: "On Friday, April 20th

We go forward.

Very Proud of the Star Today

Our local Kansas City Star did a fantastic thing yesterday. They printed an op/ed piece from their editorial board that is clear, simple and very true on how and why we must reduce the numbers of innocent Americans shot and killed in our nation.

America's gun violence crisis must end. Here's how

The United States faces an unprecedented crisis of gun violence, a moral and health disaster that threatens every American.

The bloodshed must be stopped. The courageous students in Florida, who just helped bury their classmates and teachers, unmistakably call us all to action.

The voices in Las Vegas, Orlando, San Bernardino, Charleston, Sutherland Springs, Ft. Hood, Columbine, Newtown and other communities bear witness to the slaughter as well.

We start with two guiding principles:

▪ The claim that any one approach “won’t work” and therefore should not be tried, is a dangerous nonstarter.

No law works in every instance. Laws deter behavior and punish aberrance, but they cannot stop every anti-social act. That doesn’t mean we give up on laws.

Airport security rules failed on Sept. 11, 2001. No one proposed ending those rules because they “didn’t work.” Instead, Americans studied the failure, learned from it and improved the rules where necessary.

A similar approach can work with gun violence.

▪ Several solutions are better than one. While it’s tempting to simply propose universal weapon confiscation — which would sharply reduce the killings — it is not practically or politically possible.

Instead, a series of reforms, linked to a common objective, has the best chance of reducing gun violence.

Background checks and gun purchases

Polls show the vast majority of Americans supports expanded background checks before any weapon is purchased. That means a federal criminal and mental health background check should be required for guns bought privately and at gun shows.

A gun buyer should be required to obtain a federal clearance document, reflecting a background check, which would then be presented before any weapons transaction. Failure to do so would result in criminal liability for the buyer and the seller.

Law enforcement officials must have the resources to make sure background check information is accurate and easily shared.

Mental health screening

Funding for mental health screening and treatment must be increased. Any police officer will tell you mental illness is his or her biggest challenge, and early intervention can prevent a lifetime of suffering.

But Americans must also link mental health screening with preventing weapons possession. It does no good to identify mental illness without tools to take weapons away from those who threaten violence.

Anyone convicted of domestic violence should not have a gun, period. Stronger protective orders preventing gun possession are an option, and those involuntarily hospitalized for mental illness should not have guns.

We must be careful because the vast majority of the mentally ill aren’t violent. Rules must be carefully drawn to prevent indiscriminate detention and confiscation of property.

Security in public spaces

Schools must be made more secure, but that is just a start. Security measures must now be re-evaluated for all public places.

It’s absurd to claim teachers or other employees in public spaces should arm themselves. They aren’t the police. And it’s beyond horrific to expect teachers or any other civilian to put themselves between a bullet and a victim.

Teachers have shown unfathomable courage in mass shooting events. But firing a weapon or becoming a human shield should not be a job requirement.

Violent media

The First Amendment protects artists who use violence in movies, books, music, video games and the like. Yet some images and words undoubtedly impact some people, including some prone to violent acts.

The industry must step forward on its own to curtail the use of such images.

Gun possession

The nation should ban the manufacture, possession or sale of certain firearms, including semi-automatic assault weapons, that are used in mass shootings. At absolute minimum, Congress must raise the age for purchasing such guns.

Bump stocks should be illegal. High taxes on magazines and bullets are another worthwhile approach. A national waiting period for gun purchases makes sense and would pass constitutional muster.

The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms, but it is not absolute — most fully-automatic weapons are banned for civilians, for example. Other weapons of mass murder should be in the same category.

Gun makers should be subject to product liability lawsuits as well.

Reasonable Americans can discuss the mix of laws and regulations needed to address the gun crisis. But make no mistake: Inaction is not acceptable. Stalling for time won’t work anymore.

Voters will judge their representatives on this issue, and elected officials who fail to act will be complicit in the carnage.

On Thursday, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre — who was paid more than $5 million in 2015, according to records — railed against unnamed “elites” for politicizing gun violence.

You’re wrong, Wayne. Ordinary moms and dads, brothers and sisters, friends and classmates are demanding change.

They’re tired of attending church, or school, or a movie or concert fearing for their lives. They’re tired of sending their kids to school wondering if they’ll come home.

They’re tired of politicians more concerned with campaign donations than doing what’s right. They’re tired of burying the dead.

They are not elites. They are everyday Americans. They want to end the slaughter. They will be heard. We join our voice with theirs.

________________________________

What's important to stress is that no one, no one is calling for an end to the Second Amendment, first, and that no one is coming after all the guns, all the weapons in the nation. The alarmists on the other side of this opinion assume and go to that nearly every time. It's untrue and wrong. These simple, intelligent, reasonable measures pointed out here above would go a long, long way to saving innocent American lives in our nation, going forward.

It's not too much to ask.

The Time Has Long Since Come: Contact Your Congressional Representatives

Now we add Las Vegas, too, to the long, long list of cities and towns across the nation that's experienced more needless, avoidable gun and weapons violence and tragedy.

Please, contact your representatives in Congress. All three of them, your 2 Senators and one member of the House of Representatives. Tell them we need the following, at least.

--Background checks, required, for weapons purchases for criminal history, nationwide

--Background checks, again, required for weapons purchases for mental stability

--An assault weapons ban. Again. We did it once, we could do it again. There is no reason assault weapons are available and on our streets in this nation

These, above, are what we should have and do, at minimum and soon as possible. Some additional things we should do are:

--Passing an assault rifle ban 

--A high capacity magazine ban 

--Taxing ammunition 

--Banning convicted domestic violence perpetrators from owning or purchasing firearms for 5 years

--Not allowing people on the "NO FLY" list to purchase guns 

--Instituting a gun buy-back program that would pay people to give up their current assault rifles. 

And I get it. We won't. But we should.

At any rate, please, please do, again, contact your representatives in Congress. Tell them the time has come. Americans need to stop dying, and on our streets. These deaths and tragedies are avoidable. Completely avoidable.

Call Your Rep — 

Congressional Representative 

Contact Information

Please call.  Today.

And thank you, in advance.

Remember Newtown?

Think about it.

If 20 children, 20 beautiful children and 6 adults, being gunned down in a few minutes years ago in Newtown, Connecticut wasn't enough to get America to wake up, pay attention and make changes to gun legislation so these mass shootings don't repeatedly happen, why would adults being gunned down, anywhere else, let alone Las Vegas, make any difference?

Let's speak up. 

Finally.

At long last.

Let's get something done.

Let's change things, America.

Let's be better than this. Finally.