On this day, we remember the brave
men and women who died while serving in active duty in the US Military. A
well-deserved holiday, these war heroes should be held reverently in our minds
and hearts for sacrificing their lives to protect our freedom. One-time civilians,
they took an oath solemnly swearing to “support and defend the Constitution
of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic...” Once under the
care of the Department of Defense, they were issued clothing and weapons,
trained in combat, and eventually deployed, with no guarantee for a safe
return. The inherent risk shared by all soldiers is that they can perish in a
foreign country.
I do not want to take away from the remembrance
of fallen soldiers, but another mass murder in California on Friday night has
caused me to ruminate about killings unrelated to war. Today, I am also
thinking of the innocent who have fallen in our own country, killed in streets
and buildings in our cities and towns; never anticipating an attack from the
enemy, not sworn to defend the Constitution against all enemies, in fact, completely unaware
that they even had an enemy. I am thinking of American citizens – residing in a
country that is at peace, going about their daily tasks while living under the
protection of the Constitution of the United States – who became victims of
mass killings committed in our own country.
We are so concerned about sustaining
the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms that we are denying
blameless citizens their overall constitutional right to justice and domestic
tranquility.
In 1995, J. Neil Schulman published SELF CONTROL, Not Gun Control. His pro-NRA
rhetoric is evident on every page and he writes, “Most journalists today write
as if the NRA--usually lumped in with the Tobacco Institute--represents only
the commercial interests of "merchants of death" who don't care how
many lives are lost--particularly the lives of our young people--just so long
as they get to keep selling their product.” He accuses the media of “editing TV
footage to misrepresent the accuracy and firepower of “assault
weapons"--to make them look more deadly than they actually are.” Check out
this four-minute video and judge for yourself the accuracy and firepower of
assault rifles.
Why shouldn’t everyone be allowed to own one of these fine
weapons for hunting, target practicing, or as Wild Bill explains to us liberals
with disabilities in “Who Needs an Assault Rifle?” – they are necessary to
protect our families from gang invasions, or on camping excursions when we
accidentally pitch our tent on a drug dealers territory, or even more
terrifying, when we find ourselves in a natural disaster and a violent mob tries
to steal our food and water.
Schulman cites these statistics from
a survey performed by Gary Kleck, Ph.D., professor of Criminology and Criminal
Justice at Florida State University.
An American gun owner uses a
privately owned firearm 2.45 million times each year in an actual defense
against a criminal.
Every 13 seconds, an American gun owner uses
his or her firearm in defense against a criminal.
Women use handguns
416 times each day in defense against rapists.
In 1995, the population of the
United States was 266 million; so these statistics relate to roughly 1 out of every
108 people in the US used a gun in self-defense. Using common sense, relying on
extensive research on victims of violent crime and abuse, and judging from the hundreds
of people that I know, I find these statistics hard to believe. What I do
find palatable are statistics compiled by academic researchers, legislative
aides, and law enforcement officials that state: ten times as many people are
shot and killed in arguments with someone they know than the number of strangers
who are shot by someone defending their home. Women are six times more likely
to be shot by their husband, boyfriend, and ex-partner than by a male stranger.
For every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, it is used in 7
murders, 11 suicides or attempts, and 4 fatal accidents. And to rebut good ole’
paranoid Wild Bill – how many mass shootings have been stopped by an armed
civilian in the past 30 years? Zero.
Between 1995 and 2013, there were 388
people killed in mass murders. However, the FBI definition of mass murder is “four
or more people murdered in one
event.” It does not take into account mass shootings where people are shot and wounded,
but not killed. Likewise, mainstream news does not typically report on mass
shootings, only mass murders. You can be mutilated, paralyzed, and suffer severe
life-altering physical and mental injuries as the result of a mass shooting,
but statistically, you do not count. The majority of mass shootings are covered
only in local news. Only seven mass shootings out of the forty-eight that
actually occurred between 1995 and 2013 received major national coverage. These seven
mass murders included: 1999 Columbine School Massacre - 15 dead, 24 injured; 2007
Virginia Tech Massacre - 33 dead, 23 injured; 2009 Ft. Hood Massacre - 13 dead,
30 injured; 2011 Tucson Shooting - 6 dead, 13 injured; 2012 Aurora Theater
Shooting – 12 dead, 58 injured; 2012 Newtown School Shooting – 28 dead, 2
injured; and 2013 Washington Navy Yard Shooting – 13 dead, 8 injured. The numbers
from these well-known mass murders account for only a third of those who were killed
and half of those who were injured in mass shootings.
Legislation to extend background
checks for gun sales, ban assault weapons, and limit magazine capacities did
not pass the Senate in April 2013, and gun-rights advocates seem to have the
misguided notion that they are heroes for protecting the Second Amendment. The
NRA loves to criticize the media for its hysterical coverage of mass killings
and has blamed news coverage for encouraging copycat killings, but the truth is
that mass killings are under-reported in the US.
We do what we can to save the lives of those in
our armed forces in enemy territory, but unfortunately, war is hell and soldiers die. We need to fight harder for the war being carried on in our own streets on American soil. We can lobby for
tighter gun control. The irony is that gun advocates swear they love their
country and fellow compatriots, but their insistence on their right to bear
arms is based on fear. They are afraid of their government, afraid of others
with guns, and afraid to admit that gun control could possibly work. I do not
advocate taking guns away from sane citizens, but I believe that stricter regulation
is necessary to stop senseless killings. I believe that I have a right to
walk down the street without fear of being slaughtered by a mentally ill person
with an assault rifle. I think the legislation proposed in 2013 was a good
start and we should continue on this path.
