The nation went into shock last Friday as the news of the Connecticut school shooting spread. Twenty innocent children shot to death, along with seven adults. Twenty-seven people who would be alive today if the shooter hadn’t had access to guns.
I’ve followed discussions on Facebook and elsewhere that say, “Now is the time for us to grieve; now is not the time to discuss gun control. Wait until our grief abates.”
To that I say , poppycock! Now is precisely the time to discuss gun control. If not now, when? Give me a date…give me a time. I’ll be there. I’ve sent out that challenge. No one has responded.
So what can you, as a Wednesday Armchair Activist, do?
First, go to Facebook and “like” the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. This is a great place to keep abreast of gun control issues.
Next, call President Obama on a daily basis through the White House hotline at 202/456-1111. (Sorry, I can’t get rid of the Skype hyperlink, but hover your cursor over the blue and you’ll get the phone number.) This is a free call, but you can only get through Monday-Friday during normal business hours. Tell him you want to see REAL leadership from him on this issue, including an immediate call for Congress to enact stronger gun laws. No more silence, no more platitudes, no more excuses.
Then, send the White House an email and say the same thing. It’s time for reform. NOW. Before more innocent lives are lost.
Finally email or call your congressional representative and senators, either at their district offices or in Washington, D.C. Tell them they should immediately enact laws to:
a) Require background checks on every gun sale.
b) Strengthen those checks, particularly in the area of mental health screening.
c) Renew the Assault Weapons Ban.
I can’t give everyone a link to their congressional representative and senators, but if you don’t know how to contact them, or even who they are, you can find by clicking here for your representative and here for your senators.
I want to leave you today with a picture that has been widely circulated on Facebook; I’m afraid I don’t know where it originated, but thanks to whomever created it. It’s time to say NO to guns. Before anymore children are killed.
With the population of Canada being roughly one tenth that of the U.S. those stats above say that we have less than half the gun deaths per capita. Yes, we have gun control. It helps. But even here it does not go far enough. Those that really want them will find a way to get them. And those who go through the licensing process can still collect an arsenal legally. We need to be much stricter than we are. In my opinion NO ONE needs a gun of any kind in a civilian home. Even hunters only need their rifles during hunting season. The rest of the time they ought to be kept locked in a registered public vault to come out only during hunting season. There is absolutely no reason to have weapons of any kind in a home. The purpose for having weapons is to kill. That belongs in a military or policing environment only – not in domestic civilian environments. The stats in England are especially telling. There even the police do not carry arms and it has the lowest death rate. Guns kill – period.
(Sound of Smoky loudly applauding!)
Items A, B, and C on your list above are reasonable and–one would think–would be easier to enact than they are. My sentiments are in also somewhat in agreement with Yvonne, but this is not a goal we can achieve in the U.S. without a Constitutional amendment. I am one of the people who has urged caution in this discussion, though, because this issue is more complex than gun control. Mental health availability, school security, education, and even the way the news is reported are also issues. By itself, getting the guns will not fix the problem, as Australia’s laudable attempt has shown.
News reporting is one culprit because so much of it is slanted and so much of it is more commentary than news. People need to read multiple sources rather than listening only to the sources they agree with. A fair percentage of the news–along with the “signs and quotes”–on Facebook is inaccurate because people hear something and rather than checking it out, spread it everywhere. This obscures the issue and make it appear that fixing one part of the problem will solve the problem. Nonetheless, the gun issue needs to stay on the agenda this time.
Malcolm
I agree the media needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But no civilian needs a gun. Period. Our Second Amendment was written to ensure the militia OF THAT ERA would be legally armed against the British. It is an antiquated law, just as those silly laws you read every once in a while about it being illegal to walk alligators without a leash in downtown Des Moine are. No guns, no dead children.
I agree about the intent of the Second Amendment. Nonetheless, getting it changed will be a very long road that will take years to accomplish. We need a faster solution.
Malcolm, I don’t see anyone arguing against dealing with the mental health care problem. It is a crucial one. Nor do I suggest it will be easy to enact the kind of gun control laws that can be effective. I just saw an article about the amendment enacted in 1939 that stated arms should be available for the militia. Yet it has been used to allow civilians to obtain them as a right. If that amendment had been implemented properly there would be far fewer guns in the wrong hands.
These are two separate, albeit connected issues. The bottom line, however, is that if the guns were hard to get there would be fewer deaths. And the proof is in the stats.
Mental health problems will always be with us. Those with mental illness need access to diagnoses and care. Those are woefully inadequate in both our countries. But we must not allow one issue to prevent us from dealing with the other.
You’re so right, Yvonne–mental illness will always be with us. And, if guns aren’t available for civilians, they aren’t available for the mentally ill. Saying people will always be able to get guns is true–but if it’s a lot harder to get them, and illegal to sell them, there will be fewer on the streets. As you say, the proof is in the stats. Just because something is going to be hard doesn’t mean we should not do it.
I agree, Malcolm, it will take a long time to change things, so that’s why we should begin immediately.
Exactly, sweetie. It will take time. It will be hard. But if we never did anything because it was going to be hard and take a long time, a lot of things would never get done. We need to start now, so in 10 years, our children are safer in their schools and we all are safer on our streets.
Smoky, I hope there will come a time when we won’t be able to say “people will always get guns.” I don’t have the statistics here about numbers, but suffice it to say a lot of the guns in the hands of gangs and other criminals we legal guns that were stolen either form owners of shops.
Yvonne, outside of this shooting issue, people have openly been avoiding the mental health care issue by placing state funding cuts for mental health on the chopping block. This is, of course, a human health problem before it becomes, in some case, also a criminal problem and it has been diminished in almost every state in the union because people don’t want to spend the money.
Scott: I doubt thatr the Second Amendment will ever be appealed. But, if it is, I think we’re talking 25 years. That doesn’t mean we don’t push in that direction. But part of getting the guns is forcing higher levels of responsibility. For example, why weren’t the guns in Adam’s house locked up? No house with a child oran unstable adult should have guns anyone can grab and use. We must also stop saying that every gun owner is a menace. That polarizes the issue and keeps gun owners who are sympathetic to strong controls from helping out as much as they otherwise could. Many hunters hate assault rifles and want them banned.
What a great post and discussion, Smoky. Of course, guns are one of my hot buttons.
Malcolm
Yes, I can see that, my friend. Guns are everybody’s hot button.
oops, typos. . .Scott, I meant repealed.
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Chicago is the number one city in America for gun control and it is also is number one in murder and gang violence. In Switzerland, every adult male is legally required to carry a gun. Switzerland has virtually no gun crime for this reason…the imminent accountability if one were to use a gun for explicit reasons. If guns were more prevalent then terrible mass shootings wouldn’t take place. “No Gun Zones” like schools are an invitation for criminals. If teachers were trained in weapons use and were permitted to carry weapons I guarantee kids with hostile intents would thick twice. Over-regulation of guns will only have the opposite impact. Criminals don’t follow laws, so law abiding citizens should be allowed to protect themselves from the social deviants who want to create turmoil and inflict harm. It’s sad that, in our modern society, we must carry guns to protect our family and friends…but this is reality.
I hate to be “that guy” that rains on everyone’s parade, but gun control is a contributing factor to the problem, not the solution.
Sorry, but people kill people is a cop-out. Guns are manufactured for the sole purpose of killing. If that young man didn’t have a gun, there would be 20 children still alive. And people who think gun control doesn’t help are deceiving themselves. Canada. Great Britain. Australia–all have gun control laws, and all have lower gunshot death rates per capita.
I understand your viewpoint, and respect it, but I must respectfully disagree. Guns ARE manufactured for the sole purpose of killing. But the unfortunate reality is that there are people out there that do want to hurt and kill people. That young boy in Connecticut made a decision that day and if a teacher had had weapons training and maybe even a gun in a desk, this crisis could have been mitigated. Criminals don’t follow laws. The regulation of guns takes guns out of law abiding citizens hands…not criminals. I think there should be more media regulation on the glorification of guns and killing. To me, violent video games and violent subculture are the culprits here, not guns. Guns must be respected as they are agents of death, but only God decides when I will die…not a young boy with a mental issue. Gun control is not the answer. Weapons training and a respect gun culture is what America needs. Again, I respect where you are coming from…I’m not a radical gun toting proponent, but I do own guns and I do support the Second Amendment and the right to protect my family.