Ethics & Religion
Column #1,941
Nov. 1, 2018
The Need for Gun Control
By Mike McManus
The killing of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue last Saturday is not
an unusual event - though it was the greatest massacre of Jews in
American history. In 2016, America's deadliest shooting ever was in a
gay nightclub where 49 were killed in Orlando. That record stood for
only a year until 58 people were slaughtered in Las Vegas last October.
Since the Sandy Hook massacre of 20 children plus adults in 2015, there
were 142 more school shootings that year and an additional 150 mass
shootings elsewhere.
There were 235,700 violent crime incidents from 2007 to 2011 in which
victims used a firearm to threaten or attack the offender. In 32% of
those cases, the offender was also armed.
However, the firearm homicide rate is far higher in the U.S. than in
other high-income countries. For every single gun homicide in Germany,
for example, there were 40 in America!
Interestingly, gun homicides have fallen in the U.S. from 65 per million
people in 1990 to only 40 in 2015. Violent crime has fallen in half from
732 per 100,000 people in 1990 to 383 in 2017.Only 30% of Americans own
guns and only 4.4% are actually hunters.
Yet shootings are common across the country. On an average day, six
children are injured or killed in an unintentional shooting according to
the Centers for Disease Control. From 2012 to 2016, an average of 35,000
Americans died from gun violence annually. However, nearly two-thirds
are suicides!
What can be done to reverse these trends? Here are seven suggestions:
- TIME magazine reports that 89% of gun owners and 89% of
Americans support preventing people with mental illness from
purchasing guns.
- And 82% of gun owners want to block purchases by people on
no-fly or watch lists or with criminal records.
- Even three-quarters of gun owners and 97% of Americans want to
require universal background checks for gun sales. Sadly, there are
no background checks at gun shows, where about 40% of guns, tens of
thousands, are sold annually.
- Bump stocks, that turn a rifle into a machine gun, which was
used in Las Vegas, should be banned.
- Eight of 10 Americans want to create a federal database to track
all gun sales.
- Three-fourths of Americans (77%) want to bar the sale of
assault-style weapons like the AR-15 (but only 48% of gun owners
agree).
- A three-day waiting period for gun purchases would reduce
suicides, which account for two-thirds of America's 32,000 gun
deaths. (If a person appears suicidal, urge them to call
1-800-273-TALK to speak to a suicide prevention expert.)
Yet Congress has not passed the Manchin-Toomey measure to expand
background checks to prevent people with mental illness, or those on
no-fly or watch lists from being able to buy weapons. The Manchin-Toomey
bill was first introduced after 20 first-graders were killed at Sandy
Hook Elementary School in 2012.
In a few days, American will have an important election, in which all
435 House seats are up for vote, plus many in the U.S. Senate.
I urge readers to call or write their Member of Congress and their
newspaper to demand a vote on universal background checks and to bar the
sale of AR-15 type weapons that should only be use by soldiers fighting
wars.
Remember that the National Rifle Association contributed $30 million
just to elect President Trump, and firearms sales topped $17 billion
last year.
The gun debate seems frozen due to the power of the NRA. However, the
election gives millions of Americans a way to fight back. We can demand
universal background checks to prevent those with mental health
problems, criminal records or who are on watch lists - from purchasing
weapons to kill themselves or others. We can bar the sales of AR-15
weapons and those with large magazines. In addition there should be a
three-day waiting period to buy any weapon.
Hopelessly idealistic? States with the toughest laws on gun purchases
have one-third the gun deaths of states which close their eyes. That
should inspire us.
Let's reduce the number of Americans killed by guns every 15 minutes.
You can be the life-saver of someone!
___________________________________
Copyright (c) 2018 Michael J. McManus, a syndicated columnist and past president of Marriage Savers. To read past columns, go to
www.ethicsandreligion.com. Hit
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