Why Hasn’t The Public Gotten
Behind More Restrictive Gun Laws?
How
does the United States celebrate Independence Day weekend?
In
2014, Chicago celebrated it with plenty of fireworks, 82 gunshot wounds, and 14
dead! In New York City, 21 were wounded in the last weekend of June. Two were
killed and seven more wounded on July 5th in NYC. In Houston, six people were
shot during a 4th of July festival, and twelve people were shot in a
bar-hopping event in Indianapolis on the 4th. And that is just a snapshot of
some of America's largest cities. I am sure this is exactly what the
founding fathers envisioned for the country 235 years later. No doubt about it.
America, the land of the all night shootout!
Such
gun shootings are just the latest in a series of violent acts that have
plagued the country for years, and will no doubt not be the last if defenders
of the Second Amendment have their way.
So,
what are these self-appointed protectors of gun rights trying to preserve? Are
they trying to form a more perfect union, provide for a common defense (more
like provide for a common shooting gallery), promote the general welfare, or
secure the blessing of liberty? Unlikely! Putting more and more (an unlimited numbers
of) guns into the hands of untrained and violent prone citizens will lead to only one thing--more violence.
Let's
look at the evidence.
It seems obvious to any sane person that getting shot
does not present a pretty picture: shock, trauma, shattered bones, blood,
spinal cord or brain injury, paralysis, and sometimes death. Nevertheless, such
a picture is repeated in the United States over 100,000 times a year! Yes, that
is correct--more than 100,000 people are shot every year. According to
Politifact.com, that comes out to anywhere (given some variation in the
interpretation of the data) from 235 to 270 people shot per day somewhere in
the US.
Let's
break that data down even more.
Back
in the decade of 1950s, (according to FBI stats) gun death levels were kept well under 9,000 per
year. Handgun numbers were relatively small in those days. But, according to a
CDC report published in 2010, beginning some twenty years later, from 1981 to
2007, an average of almost 33,000 Americans died per year during that
twenty-six year period from firearms. (33,000 x 26 years = 858,000) At least
500 of those 33,000 were children. (500 x 26 = 13,000) In addition, the
American Academy of Pediatrics found in a 2013 study that on average
"7,500 children were admitted to hospitals every year in the US with
gunshot injuries," and that most of those injuries were inflicted by
handguns in the home.
It
has been said as a sort of backhanded compliment when talking about gun murder
rates in the United States that at least no one or any one group of individuals
has kidnapped 300-odd school-aged children and attempted to sell them as slaves
or marry them off to some religious fanatic (Boko Raram)! (At least not
recently.) Nor in recent memory have people gone so far in the US as to gang
rape two innocent girls, kill them, and then hang them up in a tree (as they
did in India) as if they were some religious trinkets to be admired. {Though,
sixty-odd years ago hangings were all the vogue in the southern US, though for
different reasons.)
No,
not today! Today, the trend in the US is going in a different direction. Today,
US citizens (for whatever reason) aren't content to kill one or two individuals
in our schools. They seem determined to use their guns to kill or wound people
by the small school bus load every three, two, or even every week; or to pick
off young urbanites in the major cities of the US two or three (or 82) at a
time during the course of an evening. (It's a little like duck hunting without
the ducks.)
But
how does gun violence in the United States stack up with gun violence in other
countries?
Surely,
the US is not the only country in the industrialized world that has a high gun
murder rate. I know people will be shocked, but actually, (with one possible
exception) it is. According to studies, the United States has the fewest
restrictions on gun purchases (big surprise!), it has the most weapons per
capita, and it has the highest gun violence rate of all the other
industrialized countries in the world (See the charts below). In the US, if the
year 2011 is any measure, guns killed roughly 32,000 people that year, though
it should be noted a little over 16,000 were killed during a criminal act. A large
percent of the rest used a gun to commit suicide. That says something too! But,
many people would be reticent to count suicides as victims. Many more would
probably also say that gang member killings don't count, either. They might
even be tempted to say . . . "See, guns have solved some of our
problems!" (We'll leave those people to their aberrant thoughts.)
Another
set of statistics might help provide a better, more stark picture of gun
violence in the US. How do US gun deaths stack up against lives lost in war?
Looking at the combat deaths in the Iraq and Afghan Wars might be a helpful
start. According to DOD statistics, the total number of US soldiers killed in
combined action in both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in over a ten-year period
was approximately 6,800. If we just take the 16,000 for 2011 as our yearly
figure (forgetting about the other deaths for the moment) and multiply it by 10
(years), the number of dead in the US from guns equals 160,000. If we include
the suicides and other deaths, the number of deaths from guns in that ten-year
period doubles to 320,000. So, at least in recent years, it seems that the
number of deaths by gunfire in the US greatly outnumber those on the
battlefield.
Can
that really be true?
It's
actually worse than that.
Politifact.com
has confirmed the following statement to be true:
From
1968 to 2011, "more Americans . . . died from gunfire (in the US) than
died in . . . all the wars of this country's history."
Here's
a summary of deaths by major conflict, according to Politifact:
Revolutionary
War ------------------------------------4,435
War
of 1812 --------------------------------------------2,260
Mexican
War ------------------------------------------13,283
Civil
War (Union & Confederate) ------------------525,000
Spanish-American
War -------------------------------2,446
World
War I -------------------------------------------116,516
World
War II ------------------------------------------405,399
Korean
War --------------------------------------------36,574
Vietnam
War -------------------------------------------58,220
Persian
Gulf War -----------------------------------------383
Afghanistan
War ----------------------------------------2,175
Iraq
War --------------------------------------------------4,486
Total -------------------------------------------------1,171,177
Another
362 deaths resulted from other conflicts since 1980, such as interventions in
Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia and Haiti, but the number is not large enough
to make a difference.
The
figures below refer to total deaths caused by firearms in the US:
1968 to 1980 --------------------377,000
1981 to 1998 --------------------620,525
1999 to 2010 --------------------364,483
2011 --------------------------------32,163
Total -----------------------------1,384,171
Some
might suggest that if it weren't for the National Rifle Association the US
would have the appropriate laws in place to deal with gun violence. But would
it? It should be noted that out of a population of 309 million in the US, the
NRA have a membership of roughly 3.1 million-less than one percent of the
population. At the same time, according to Gallup, about 70 million Americans
claim to own a firearm or about 4 in 10 Americans. With such numbers, it might
be easy to put the problem down at the feet of gun advocacy groups and the gun
manufacturers. It might be easy, but it would lack some accuracy. No doubt,
groups like the NRA and gun manufacturers have much more political and
financial influence on our elections and elected representatives than they
should, flooding Congress with their campaign contributions or backing another
candidate with their money who is more favorable to their cause. No doubt,
their rhetoric and attack ads also influence people, scaring them into buying
more weapons, and creating an inordinate worry about their safety. And no doubt
their tired and oft repeated arguments about how . . . "People kill
people. Guns don't kill people." And "these people are just out to
take your guns away from you!" Or, "they should more rigorously
enforce the gun laws on the books!"
But
as bad as these groups are (and they are bad) they are not the whole problem.
The
question that needs answering is how many people really buy into this type of
thinking and why?
Well,
perhaps more than you'd think. Poll after poll around the time of the Newtown
School shootings (20 children and 6 adults murdered) showed 60 percent of
Americans wanted to see tighter gun laws enacted. One might have expected with
all those tiny dead children blown to bits 90 percent or more of us would have
wanted to tighten gun laws. But not so! Since that time, things have even
gotten worse. Recent polls suggest that that number has come down to roughly 49
percent, while 27 percent want no change and 18 percent want gun laws to be
less strict (27+18=45). Given how polls are tallied, these numbers are well within the
margin of error. So unfortunately, the NRA not withstanding, we seem to be a
country divided on this issue.
Apparently,
Americans seem to have gotten used to more guns and gun deaths. As if to back that
up, a study found that the United States has more guns and gun deaths than any
other developed country in the world. The U.S.
has 88 guns per 100 people and 10 gun-related deaths per 100,000 people - more
than any of the other 27 developed countries they studied. According to the
study, (and with one exception: See South Africa) there seems to be a direct
correlation between the number of guns in a population and the number of firearm related deaths. That seems straightforward enough. The more
guns, the more gun deaths. And guns can kill larger numbers of people in a
shorter period of time than any other weapon available to the public.
Here's
the full list:
Country
----- Guns per 100 ----- Total Firearm-related Deaths per
100,000
United
States ------------88.8 --------------------------10.2
Switzerland
--------------45.7 ---------------------------3.84
Finland
-------------------45.3 ---------------------------3.64
Sweden
------------------31.6 ---------------------------1.47
Norway
------------------ 31.3 ---------------------------1.78
France
-------------------31.2 ----------------------------3
Canada
------------------30.8 ----------------------------2.44
Austria
-------------------30.4 ----------------------------2.94
Iceland
------------------30.2------------------------------1.25
Germany
---------------30.3 ------------------------------1.1
New
Zealand ----------22.6 ------------------------------2.66
Greece
------------------22.5 -----------------------------1.5
Belgium
-----------------17.2 -----------------------------2.43
Luxembourg
-----------15.3 -----------------------------1.81
Australia
----------------15 -------------------------------1.04
South
Africa ------------12.7 ----------------------------9.41
Turkey
------------------12.5 -----------------------------0.72
Denmark
---------------12 --------------------------------1.45
Malta
--------------------11.9 -----------------------------2.16
Italy
----------------------11.9 -----------------------------1.28
Spain
--------------------10.4 -----------------------------0.63
Ireland
-------------------8.6 ------------------------------1.03
Portugal
-----------------8.5 ------------------------------1.77
Israel
--------------------7.3 -------------------------------1.86
United
Kingdom -------6.2 -------------------------------0.25
Netherlands
------------3.9 -------------------------------0.46
Japan
-------------------0.6 --------------------------------0.06
So,
where does this leave us? Within the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that
the United States will adopt any laws that will make a substantial impact on
gun violence and death. As a nation, the US will continue accumulating more and
more victims of violence. As it has in the past, victims will appear randomly
across the nation in cities, small towns, and suburbs. One or two here, five or
six there, fifteen or twenty somewhere else (again 82 in some places), but they
will keep coming. The roll call will be endless. It will go on year after year.
Victims will range in age from the very young to the very old. They will be of
various religious affiliations and ethnic groups. And the victim and their
families will be powerless to do anything.
As I
see it, there are at least two main obstacles to passing gun laws.
First,
the gun lobby, which apparently is just too strong for politicians to resist;
and second, the average person doesn't seem to have the desire or the will to
fight for a change. I can understand why the gun lobby doesn't want legal
restrictions placed on gun sales and manufacture. But what about the average
person, what is their reason for not pushing for a change?
I
have a theory.
Maybe
you have heard this before. It is an old story or experiment about how best to
cook a live frog. The experiment goes like this . . . Fill two large pots with
water about 4 to 5 inches deep. Set them both on separate burners. Heat one of
the pots of water to boil and then put a live frog into it. Observe the frog's
reaction. If your first frog jumps out of the pot, then you did this part of
the experiment correctly. Now, take a different frog and place it into the
tepid pot of water and very slowly turn up the temperature until it reaches a
boil. Observe the frog's reaction during this entire time. If the frog stays in
the pot (getting used to the increased temperature--a type of sauna) and slowly
cooks, then you have successfully boiled your frog. Congratulations!
In a similar experiment, I wonder if one could
transport people from the 1950s to the present, and watch how they react to the
gun violence in our schools and our society? My guess is that they would react
like the first frog and jump the hell out of the boiling water! The rest of us are responding much like the second frog in the second pot, sitting and watching, unwilling to do anything, as our society slowly destroys itself in a stew of violence and death.
