The Truth About Guns in America

Well this video will mark the end of my gun-control blogging career. I had a good run, an illustrious run, a memorable run. My commenters will be missed. Anyway, the video starts out by giving a nice brief overview of the issue at hand in terms of gun control vs. gun rights. I introduce the 2nd Amendment and each interpretation. From there, I go into some good, solid statistics from reputable sources just like I’ve used throughout this blog. I invoke a little emotion by switching to individual events involving guns, specifically using school shootings as examples. Throughout this blog, I have talked a lot about the assault weapons ban, so I spend a good deal of time talking about that on this video. My basic call to action on this blog has been to renew the ban, and that’s exactly what I do at the end of this video. I make it visually clear that the assault weapons ban in a step in the right direction toward reducing and eventually ending the excessive gun violence in this country.

State-by-State Gun Laws: What’s the problem?

Most of this blog has talked about the gun violence problem in the United States as a whole. I figured I’d focus a little more on where a lot of the gun deaths are in the country and how laws in those states relate to the number of deaths.

CBSNews.com has an ongoing study of guns in America on their website where they update gun stats and information continuously. According to their numbers, the states with the top five highest rates of gun deaths are Alaska, Louisiana, Wyoming, Mississippi and Nevada. The same study showed that all five of these states are “shall-issue” states, meaning that pretty much any non-felon citizen has the right to carry a concealed weapon.

In addition, four of the five states do not require any kind of permit or license to purchase a firearm. Louisiana is the only of the five that require parental permission for children under 17 to possess a handgun.

Alaska and Nevada are the only of the five that place a restriction on minimum age to possess long guns (rifles or shotguns). 16 years old is the age for Alaska and 14 is the age for Nevada. There is no waiting period for purchasing a handgun in any of these states.

In comparison, the five states with the lowest rate of gun deaths were listed as Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

All five states are “may issue” states, meaning a citizen must obtain a special permit, usually issues by law enforcement, to acquire a gun. To obtain the license, the citizen must show need to own a gun.

All five states require gun owner’s to have a permit before purchasing. Three out of the five states even require a gun safety course to be taken to obtain such a permit. 18 is the youngest age allowed to possess handguns in any of these five states. Other than Connecticut, 16 years old is the youngest allowed to possess shotguns or rifles, with a few special exceptions.

All five states have waiting periods to purchase handguns, three of the five have waiting periods for any firearms. The waiting periods range from seven days to 40 days.

There is a very clear pattern in this information. The states with stricter gun laws have less gun violence than the ones with more relaxed laws. When it comes down to it, there is no denying that
STRICTER GUN LAWS = LESS GUN DEATHS

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/guns_in_america/html/framesource.html

The Economics of Gun Injuries

According to the Violence Policy Center, the cost of medical care for firearm injuries in the U.S. was $4 billion..and that was 1995. The group also estimated that a bullet sold in the U.S. costs taxpayers, private health insurance subscribers and victims about $23 per bullet. This total is calculated in terms of medical care needed, lost work and lost quality of life for victims.

Even with most of the costs being covered by taxpayers, many victims of gunshot wounds are left with large cost burdens. An American Surgeon study talked about one hospital in Los Angeles that saw 75% of intentional gunshot-wounded patients uncompensated for their medical costs. Hospitals like this one were forced to shut down due to the high number of gun shot victims who couldn’t cover their costs.

The study: http://www.vpc.org/studies/whocont.html

NEA-Health Information Network: Gun Dealers are the Problem, Part 2

The study goes on to say that terrorists have been able to purchase guns through what has been referred to as the “gun show loophole.” At gun shows, unlicensed dealers aren’t required to issue background checks, the report said.  Ali Boumelhem was one terrorist who was banned from purchasing guns at regular gun stores in the U.S. because he was a convicted felon, a Middle East Intelligence report said. However, Boumelhem was still able to purchase guns and ammunition at gun shows in Michigan and ship them overseas before he was arrested.

Another important issue dealt with gun storage laws. Gun theft, which is one contributor to guns on the black market, is most likely to happen in states with no laws requiring safe gun storage inside the home, according to Americans for Gun Safety. The 2002 study also concluded that gun theft is more likely in areas with larger concentration of ownership and higher crime rates.

A few more school statistics from the report:

In 1998-1999 school year, 3,523 students were expelled for bringing a gun from school, more than a 2,000 student decrease from two years previous (U.S. Department of Education, 2000).

Somewhere between 36% and 50% of male eleventh graders believe that they could easily get a gun if they wanted one (American Medical Association).

Conclusions:

Its just more signs that measures need to be taken to sure up some of the kinks in the system. The gun show loophole can easily be taken care of by simply requiring the same laws for background checks and licensed dealers to apply at gun shows. Admittedly, even the NRA supports safe gun storage in people’s homes. This should become a federal law, rather than state-to-state. It also trumps the argument that more guns in the hands of citizens make a safer society. Truthfully, if there are more guns, there is usually more gun theft that leads to crimes. This isn’t the first study to show that. There must be a problem when nearly half of 11th grade males think its easy to get a hold of a gun and almost 4,000 students actually did bring a gun to school in one year. Lawmakers need to take notice and start nailing people for allowing minors to get a hold of their guns. It should be similar to serving alcohol to minors, where one can receive a greater punishment.

The report: http://www.neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/gunsafety/statistics.htm#guns

NEA-Health Information Network: Gun Dealers are the Problem, Part 1

The National Education Association’s Health Information Network, a non-profit organization that provides health and safety information to educators around the country, released a report on gun violence in schools in June 2005.

The report pulled from studies done by the Center for Disease Control, the American Medical Journal, the U.S. Department of Education, and other reputable sources.

The report talked about the heavy amount of violence and death occurring in schools and among young children across America, including the fact that “Between 1979 and 2001, gunfire killed 90,000 children and teens in America.” There are various other sets of statistics that demonstrate the high rate of violence among young children in American, but the most important part of the study was the part about illegal possession of guns.

Many people who have commented on this blog have made the argument that gun control laws are ineffective in preventing crime associated with guns. This report states that 20 out of 22 gun laws in the U.S. are NOT enforced. These laws included illegal gun trafficking, gun theft, corrupt gun dealers, lying on background checks, etc.

In addition, 1% of gun dealers are responsible for about 57% of all gun crimes in the U.S. according to the study. This means that there are only a few bad apples, but the lack of enforcement of gun dealer regulations is allowing these bad apples to cause major problems. The study, which was done by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, also concluded that the lack of enforcement could partly be attributed to Congress largely ignoring the issue.

The study even provided examples of terrorists and snipers getting a hold of guns illegally through these corrupt dealers.

Conclusions:
Congress needs to start actually funding and supporting programs that crack down on the source of the problem, the dealers. Assault weapons bans and requirements for background checks will only work if you actually enforce them. Authorities need to shift their focus on gun dealers and black-market transactions rather than just those who commit gun crimes.

The report: http://www.neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/gunsafety/statistics.htm#guns

Washington Legislature Debates Campus Safety Issue

Washington State University’s student publication The Daily Evergreen reported that the state’s legislature planned to bring a few gun-related bills to the floor next year. One bill would ban all guns on campus and one would likely require universities to allow concealed carry permits on campus.

Republican Senator Mark Schoesler believed the bill allowing CCP’s on campus would have passed if it were proposed to the Senate, while others argued universities were no places for guns. “Concerns brought up by the senators…argued that studies showing incomplete brain development until late teens or early 20s mean ‘many students do not have the ability to make judgements about guns.’”

In the wake of two deadly shootings at two universities in the past year, is it really a good time to loosen gun regulations on campus? I know here at WSU, they have installed sirens all around campus in the past year to help alert students in the event of an emergency. They also have an emergency text-messaging system where students receive alerts on their cell phones. With all these types of measure being taken at colleges around the country, it would only be a step backward to allow more guns on college campuses.

Years ago, the shootings were taking place at high schools like Columbine in Colorado and Santana in San Diego. Afterward, high schools around the country begun instituting “lock down” systems and additional safety measures. As a result, when was the last time you heard about a major shooting at a high school?

Not many people would endorse a bill that would allow guns at elementary, middle or high schools. If that’s the case, is there really that much difference between allowing guns among 17 and 18-year old high school students versus 19 and 20-year old college students?

Original Article: http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/24805

Toy Guns or Real Guns?

In this video, the mayor of Milwaukee raises another important question about guns. Should it be legal to make guns appear to be toys? It can be argued that luring someone into a false sense of security with a toy-looking gun can be more dangerous than an every day looking gun. The other issue is dealing with gun dealers. Should these companies be able to get away with selling guns like the ones on this video? Maybe gun owners aren’t the problem as much as gun dealers. This is just one more on a long list of laws that need to be implemented in this country to control the ownership and manufacturing of guns.

Press Release: Guns rarely used in self-defense

A press release from the U.S. Bureau of Justice reported that about one percent of all violent crime victims between 1987 and 1992 were able to defend themselves with firearms. It went on to mention that in most of those cases, the offender was unarmed. In addition, the Bureau of Justice “estimated that more than 340,000 crimes annually involved firearm thefts. During the period almost two-thirds of such losses occurred during household burglaries and almost one- third in larcenies.” -http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/hvfsdaft.pr

Original Report: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/hvfsdaft.htm

Not only do these statistics ultimately disprove the notion that self-defense is a good reason to own a gun, they also suggest that owning a gun could actually be more dangerous. The data shows that it is more common that a gun is stolen from a victim than a victim successfully using a gun to defend themselves. No matter who’s gun it is, more guns equate to more danger.

We’re #1!…In gun deaths that is.

A study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1998 reported that the United States has much higher rates of fire-arm related deaths than any other industrialized country in the world. The report concluded that overall rates in the U.S. (far left on graph) were 5 to 6 times higher than in Europe and 95 times higher than in Asian countries. The graph above is taken from information from this study.

It is widely known that the U.S. has some of the least strict regulations on gun ownership. Many of these countries have laws that require much more extensive processed in order to obtain a license to own a gun. All out bans of automatic and semi-automatic guns are also becoming more common. There is a clear correlation between how tight gun restrictions are and how many deaths are caused by firearms.
Study: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/27/2/214?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULT

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&FIRSTINDEX=10&sortspec=relevance&fdate=//&tdate=//&resourcetype=HWCIT

NIU Valentines Day Massacre could have been prevented?

On Thursday February 14, a former Northern Illinois University student Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed 5 students in a lecture hall at the school. He later shot and killed himself. This came only 10 months after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech.

Parents and friends of the victims of this shooting are left wondering, could this have been prevented? Gun rights advocates argue that the weapons used to kill the students (a shotgun and three handguns) were all purchased legally. Gun control groups say that this incident could have been prevented with stricter regulations on the background checks on gun owners.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Illinois falls on the more strict side of gun control compared to most other states. (Illinois Rules) Carrying concealed weapons of any kind are illegal in Illinois. Several areas of Illinois, including Chicago, have completely banned hand guns. To purchase a gun in the state, one must pass an instant FBI background check for past felony charges and mental illnesses. Once a background check is passed, a purchaser must wait 3 days before gaining eligibility to own a handgun.

Kazmierczak reportedly passed the background check and wasn’t considered mentally ill to the point of being a threat under the FBI’s guidelines. In fact, most reports say the shooter was mentally ill and was taking medications. Shouldn’t taking anti-depressants like Prozac be enough to send a red flag in the system? If the state keeps track of everyone who owns a gun, don’t they also keep a database which keeps track of what medications someone is taking?

So if a state strict on gun control like Illinois still has problems that allow a mentally-ill person on drugs to commit a horrible act like he did on February 14th, what does that say about states with more loose gun regulations? Gun rights advocates are right, these guns were purchased legally, but maybe thats the problem. The law itself clearly isn’t getting the job done in this country.