According to an on-going tally kept by Slate magazine, 2,506 Americans have died in a steady, unceasing hail of gunfire since the Newtown shooting last
December 14. You likely recall exactly where you were when you heard about the 20
schoolchildren, aged 5 and 6, who were cut down in that massacre. Six teachers
also met their doom. It was a brutal, senseless tragedy. It was only 83 days ago, after all. But since
then more than 2500 Americans have died at the end of a gun. That’s more than
30 people per day, every single day.
Each year, more than 30,000 Americans die in gun-related
shooting incidents. Not all those deaths are of the “mass killing” variety, though
all are surely horrific and each leaves behind a tragic, far-reaching network
of grieving loved ones. We owe it to those victims, and to those they've left
behind, to take a serious look at our national fascination with guns, as well
as our reticence to do anything about what really amounts to a serious public
health issue. The time has come to change
our way of thinking about guns.
There was a time in this country when auto accidents killed
more than 50,000 people a year.
Eventually the nation decided that much carnage was unacceptable, and
through a series of public health initiatives, including new seat belt laws,
stricter drunk driving penalties and scores of auto safety requirements, we’ve cut
that number nearly in half.
If you’re of a certain age, you can surely remember the
initial resistance to seat belt laws. Many Americans simply refused to comply,
but the rule has ultimately proved to be an inarguable life-saver, and it’s
almost unthinkable nowadays to get into a car and not buckle up.
Similarly, helmet laws were at first fiercely resisted by
freedom-loving motorcyclists, those icons of the open road and American
individuality, but requiring a brain bucket on our two-wheeled travelers has cut head
injuries among motorcyclists by some 40%. All it took to cut the carnage was the will to
change our way of thinking about seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
There was a time in America when childhood diseases
like polio, smallpox and measles killed thousands of young people each year.
Eventually the nation decided such a plague was unacceptable, and through
vaccine research and required immunizations we've virtually eliminated those
maladies as killers of children. All it
took to stem the tide of misery was the will to change our way of thinking
about immunization.
We live in an America in which cigarettes kill tens
of thousands of people each year. Tobacco-related illnesses account for far too
much disease, so the nation has decided, through increased regulation and an
aggressive public awareness campaign, to make sure people understand the
dangers of tobacco use. As a result, we've seen smoking rates drop some 50% over the past 30 years. All it took was the will to change our way of
thinking about smoking.
Kurt Vonnegut once said of a machine gun that it “sprays
death like a garden hose.” We live in a world
in which firearms are spraying death at an ever faster and more startling rate.
Guns in America
are so commonplace these days that we feel helpless to address what has clearly
become an ongoing, inexorable national tragedy.
It occurs to me that when a tidal wave of bloody disaster
washes over our nation, as with the steady flow of gun-related catastrophe coursing
through our streets and into our schools and shopping malls, it might be time
for people to stand up and say, “Enough.”
It might be time to change our way of thinking on guns.
There are many who will argue, correctly in some respects,
that the Second Amendment is sacrosanct. For them those 27 words are a sacred
document. There are people who say that free and unhindered access to unlimited
weaponry is part of the fabric of the nation. There are those who say that the
solution to the worsening carnage in our midst is more guns. To them I can only say, there are already more than
300-million guns in America . If it were the availability of guns that makes us safe, would we not already be the safest nation on the planet, rather than
one of the least safe? As it stands, our nation is a roiling, bloody Petri dish of gun-saturated insecurity.
It may be clear by now than I’m not a particular fan of
guns, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have friends who are and it doesn't mean I
don’t respect their right “to keep and bear arms.” It doesn't mean I don’t understand that the
Second Amendment is a part of the US Constitution and that it’s there for a
reason. But it does mean that I strongly
believe the time has come to change our way of thinking when it comes to guns.
The old arguments won’t fly anymore. When somebody claims
that limiting access to military-style weapons or high-capacity ammunition
clips won’t help stem the tide of death, I find it hard to take them seriously.
When somebody argues that closing the “gun-show loophole” and enforcing
universal background checks will do nothing to keep guns out of the hands of
criminals, I can’t help but think they are not making a sincere argument. When somebody says arming a school custodian
or a crossing guard is the solution to campus security problems? They are simply not being serious.
Were it up to me I would propose a ban on military-style
assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. I would propose universal
background checks at gun retailers and gun shows alike. I would even propose a
national registry and a “gun insurance” requirement, so that if one’s firearm
does cause death or injury, there’s a mechanism in place to assign responsibility
and pay for damages.
It was Edmund Burke who said, “All that is necessary for the
triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Today in well-armed America ,
evil is triumphant. We have done
nothing.
The time has come to change our way of thinking on guns.
