America's Deadly Fascination

Martin Luther King’s birthday was celebrated earlier this week. His life was one dedicated to peace and social justice. It was ended violently by a gunman in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. Coming on the heels of the Tucson shootings, MLK’s birthday gives us one more reason to reflect on America’s blind and deadly fascination with guns.

Unfortunately, the initial reaction after the Tucson killings was not so much reflection but a rush to buy guns of the same type used in the murders. Fear of violence or fear that more sensible gun legislation may be in the works... who knows?

The homicide rate in the United States is the highest among advanced industrialized nations. Not surprisingly the US also has the highest rate of gun ownership. Data from one of the numerous studies on the subject is given in the following graph.



How is this for an eye-opener? The most recent data (see nationmaster.com) show the United States to have a firearms per capita murder rate six times that of Germany and 27 times that of the United Kingdom.

Some may point out that other countries such as Switzerland and Norway have relatively high gun ownership (but not as high as in the US) and they do not have a high murder rate. That may be a very telling point – not so much that guns don't always lead to violence but that in the United States they certainly do. Gun advocates may want to look at the nature of the gun laws in those countries with low murder rates.

In a recent New York Times article, Bob Herbert wrote of the 2008 lecture at Virginia Tech by the gun dealer who had sold one of the weapons used in that tragedy. “His point: that people at Virginia Tech should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus.” Not that carrying a gun wll actually protect you...in a landmark study published in 2009, Universtity of Pennsylvania researchers found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.  Approximately 100,000 shootings occur in the United States each year. Since Martin Luther King was assassinated, more than a million Americans have died from gun violence (homicides, suicides, accidents).

There are a couple of other cautionary tales in Herbert’s piece and he rightly concludes: “We’ve allowed the extremists to carry the day when it comes to guns in the United States, and it’s the dead and the wounded and their families who have had to pay the awful price.”

So what is to be done about it? The silence since the Tucson shootings has been deafening. A Tea-Partier in Arizona did speak up though – he said we should wait until the dead are buried before beginning any discussion of gun controls. Wait, wait, wait – 3000 shootings and 34 murders a day while we delay. Politicians have been pretty gutless in standing up to the gun lobby led by the NRA. Fearing the impact of all that money attacking them for “betraying” our Second Amendment rights, politicians have generally kept a low profile in working towards sensible gun legislation.

One politician who hasn't kept silent is Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor. He has advocated consistently over the years for stricter gun control legislation. In a Huffington Post brief, he relates the results of a poll commissioned by  the 550-member Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Two of the key findings were:

• The overwhelming agreement (90%) among Americans that felons, drug abusers, and the mentally ill should not have access to guns and that more needs to be done to ensure that their records are in the federal background check system.
• The overwhelming agreement (86%) among Americans that its time to close the loopholes that make it possible for people to buy guns without background checks.

The results should give the average scared politician some cover. Not that I'm advocating governing by poll results – we should strive to do the right thing for our country because it is right not because it may help us get re-elected.

Bob Herbert concluded his article with some great advice: “We need fewer homicides, fewer accidental deaths and fewer suicides. That means fewer guns. That means stricter licensing and registration, more vigorous background checks and a ban on assault weapons. Start with that. Don’t tell me it’s too hard to achieve. Just get started.”

Over to you, Washington.