By Nick Davis, Guest Columnist.
Guns are dangerous. According to the CDC, in 2010 firearms caused 31,672 deaths, or 17.5% of all injury deaths in the United States for that year. That’s nearly 87 people per day, over 3.5 per hour.
These statistics naturally lead one to believe that people are murdering others to the tune of almost 4 per hour. However, when we dig deeper we find that 61.2% were from suicide, and 35% were from homicide. That is 11,085 murders caused by firearm per year. Or just under 1.27 per hour.
Yet some would have you believe that Ted Nugent and legal gun owners armed with machine guns are slaughtering innocents….and puppies.
On the other hand we have groups like the NRA who think that communist, Muslim, terrorist Obama is coming with the U.N. to confiscate our guns. You may think I am exaggerating, but some really feel this way.
Either of these two extremes illustrated above are not only willfully ignorant, but they are potentially dangerous. They breed mistrust in our government, as well as law enforcement.
Finding a solution to gun violence should be easier than we make it out to be. It simply requires moderation and compromise. It doesn’t require anger, hostility, stubbornness or ignorance of the facts.
First, not everyone can obtain a fully automatic firearm. Fully automatic weapons are illegal in six states. However, in states where they are legal federal law applies.
Federal law mandates that private ownership of a fully automatic requires a background check, permission of local police, and a $200 fee. Also, new weapons cannot be registered; meaning only those legally owned before 1986 can be purchased. Finally, a retailer must be willing to take possession upon your death. This limits supply, and skyrockets cost. Clearly they aren’t easy to obtain.
Usually people are thinking of semi-automatic weapons, not full auto. The difference being, a full-auto will fire until your ammo runs out by holding the trigger down once. With a semi-auto one pull, fires one shot.
Further, looking at FBI crime statistics for 2011, of 12,664 firearms murders in the United States handguns accounted for 49 percent, or 6,220 murders. Rifles of all kinds accounted for 323. That is less than 3 percent. Obviously “assault rifles” aren’t the problem.
To the gun obsessed, Obama is American, He isn’t a communist, Marxist, Nazi, or any other name chosen to disparage his character. Character assassination isn’t funny, it just makes you look foolish. He is not coming to take your guns, he can’t, that’s why we have a system of checks and balances in our country.
Several things can be done to reduce gun violence without running afoul of the Second Amendment.
Most important is the need for a serious overhaul of our mental healthcare system. Even though mental health issues account for a small percent of violence comparatively, they account for nearly all mass murder. Furthermore, I would argue that to murder someone at all you must be somewhat mentally ill.
Next we need to start enforcing existing laws, and make the penalties for crimes with a firearm involved much more severe. There is no reason for someone who commits armed robbery to serve less time than someone who does drugs.
Also, we need to require background checks and 10 day waiting periods on all purchases. Whether from a retailer, pawn shop or a person to person sale, a background check should be required to purchase any firearm. It may take extra time, and be inconvenient but if it saves one life it is worth the effort.
Finally all internet and gun show sales should be banned. It is just too risky, and difficult to accurately track for us to sell firearms this way. It is harder to use a false identity when face to face with someone.
When thinking about gun violence, admittedly my first instinct is to say “we have to protect the second amendment,” and we absolutely do. It’s also easy to say “we need to ban or regulate all firearms,” but that won’t work either. Finally the dad in me kicks in and I think “what if it was one of my babies?” It’s easy to go with your first thought when you have lost nothing, but if you put yourself in a victims shoes, you just might change the way you feel about the issue. What if the child was your child? What if?
