How Many More

 How Many More Have to Die?

End Easy Access to Guns

 

With the killing spree in a Nashville church school this past week, the United States has experienced 130 mass shootings this year according to the Gun Violence Archive. That’s more than one a day since the beginning of the year. Over 10,000 people have died so far this year from gun violence. The leading cause of death among young people in America is gun violence. 

 

How many more have to die or be injured by guns before we as a society do something meaningful to stop the carnage?

 

There are a lot of contributing factors to our gun violence problem. The one constant that runs through them all is the easy access to lethal firearms. 

 

America is not the only country with mental illness, domestic violence, violent video games or hate filled conspiracy theorists. Our gun homicide rate is 26 percent higher than other “advanced” countries that share these same characteristics. The only significant difference between us and the rest of those countries is our obsession with and easy access to lethal weaponry. 

 

Japan has all but eliminated gun deaths. With a population of over 127 million, Japan rarely has more than ten gun deaths per year. It has a long list of tests people who want a gun must pass before they can buy one. They must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, achieve a 95% accuracy rate on a shooting range, pass both a mental health evaluation and a background check which includes criminal records and interviews with friends and family. They can only buy shotguns and air rifles, not handguns, and must recertify every three years. Japan also limits the number of guns that can be sold and the number of stores that can sell them. When a gun owner dies, the family must surrender the owner’s guns. 

 

Clearly, not all of these measures would be allowed in America given current interpretations of the Second Amendment, but the idea behind them has much to commend them. 

 

Everytown for Gun Safety tells us that those states with weaker gun laws and higher rates of gun ownership have higher rates of mass shootings. There are other sobering statistics about mass shootings the organization shares. 1 in three mass shooters are legally prohibited from possessing guns when they use them to kill and maim. In 56% of the mass shootings, the shooter exhibited dangerous warning signs beforehand. When assault style weapons are used in a mass shooting six times as many are shot. Over half of mass shootings are domestic violence related. 

 

Everytown has proposed a series of measures than will certainly go a long way towards reducing our gun violence problems. 

 

First and the easiest would be to implement universal background checks for all gun sales. Now only sales from licensed gun dealers are subject to background checks. Gun show and other private sales do not require these checks. 

 

Extreme Risk or Red Flag laws would make it easier to confiscate guns from people who are experiencing a mental health or medical crisis. These provisions require a court order after a hearing before guns are removed and the guns can be returned after the crisis is resolved. 

 

Firearm possession should be restricted for people with dangerous histories of violence or self-harm even when criminal convictions are not obtained. Hate crimes must be added to background checks. 

 

Assault style firearms, both semi and, potentially, full automatic firing, must be banned completely along with high capacity magazines and bump stocks which can enable more rapid fire semi-automatic functioning. Silencers must remain prohibited. 

 

President Biden renewed his call for Congress to pass many of these measures after the killings in Nashville. We know Congress refuses to take up these more effective measures after passing much more limited gun law reforms last year. Some in Congress are willing to take up the banner and move on serious reform. The Senate Chaplin, Barry Black, recently offered the following prayer opening a session in that chamber.

 

“Lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers. Remind our lawmakers of the words of Edmund Burke: ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.’ ” 

 

To counter the financial pressure from NRA and local wannabe Second Amendment lobbyists, we need to flood our representatives with messaging demanding serious gun law reforms. Until our laws are changed many more children will not live to finish their education or reach their full potential due to gun related trauma in their schools. 

 

We have reached the point where you cannot be “pro-life” and work against serious reform of our gun ownership laws. We need to bring an end to “active-shooter” drills and the actions of those who cause them to be needed. 

 

Thoughts and prayers are of no use to dead and injured children.