“In Chicago, 58 people were killed by guns in a span of 28 days, counting back from Sept. 29, two days before the Las Vegas attack. Many shootings were of one person, not mass attacks. In Baltimore, there were 58 gun deaths in 68 days. In Houston, it was 118 days.” NY Times, 10/6
3% of American households own half of the over 300 million guns in the United States. CNN. 10/8
Those who have studied the Second Amendment know that its entire essence is tied to a “well-regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free State” by its own language. It was not intended to empower ordinary people to own weapons… which at that time were pretty primitive muskets and flintlocks. The notion of people having a right to own assault weapons (automatic weapons have been banned since the 1930s, but not semi-automatic weapons easy converted to fully or near-fully automatic guns) is absurd to every single country on earth… except the United States.
The picture above is of a rifle with a so-called “bump stock” that turns a semi-automatic assault rifle into fully-automatic. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed the bump stocks, which currently are the minimum ban that the NRA and many Republicans in Congress… might tolerate. Not much more than that. The NRA will accept an ATF regulation, but many in GOP want it to be Congressional vote that kills this one tool. A little drop in the bucket. What would the Mandalay Bay shooter have done if all he could have purchased was a hand gun with a small magazine?
We also know that the National Rifle Association is currently a well-compensated lobbyist for American gun manufacturers, a far cry from the post-Civil War union officers who started the organization on their own. The NRA has even been able to preclude the federal government – under the so-called Dickey Amendment – from spending any money to track, research and study gun homicides. They are no longer driven by grassroots passion; their financial support system – gun-makers – has told them to do what it has to do to sell more guns.
You’ve seen my blogs on this issue for years. We absolutely know that states and countries with strong gun control have vastly fewer gun homicide deaths. We know you can kill more people with a gun than you can with a knife… and that the faster the gun can fire, the more you can kill quickly. We know there is a huge difference in having a gun in an obvious rural environment versus openly carrying gun inside a big city. Different opportunities, values, risks and physical realities.
“Explosives. Arson. Guns. Driving into a crowd of people… These are the most common tools that terrorists use to inflict fear and destruction on an unwitting public… But a new study suggests that these violent methods, while all horrific, are not equally deadly…. In a research letter published Friday in JAMA Internal Medicine, investigators report that although guns were used in less than 10% of terrorist attacks worldwide between 2002 and 2016, they were responsible for more than half the resulting deaths…
“The database uses a combination of machine learning and manual review to gather information from more than 1 million daily media reports published in 80 languages around the world. For each attack, information on the location, type and number of fatalities is provided… For this study, Tessler and his colleagues looked at data from 2,817 terrorist attacks in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand between 2002 and 2016…. The proportion of terrorist attacks involving firearms was highest in the United States compared with other countries. Between 2002 and 2016, 20% of all terrorist attacks in the U.S. involved firearms.” Los Angeles Times, October 8th.
We know that police chiefs and union bosses are among those often crying for restraint and regulation, but these leaders are often dismissed as being “too politically correct.” Cops are in the front lines of stray or angry bullets; they are frequently the victims of gun violence, so you’d think they would prefer they faced fewer guns… and less sophisticated weapons. You’d think.
I was asked by one of my readers, “but what do rank and file cops think about gun control?” Are they mostly Republican? He added. Not so strangely, I could find no recent, unbiased polls that could provide accurate measurements. Zippo. Just looking at the literature, periodicals of every persuasion – but conservative-leaning journals were by far the majority of such periodicals that cared to comment, there were virtually no journals – even the most liberal – that reported that cops want gun control and are Democrats. The overwhelming conservative take is that cops are basically conservative, pro-gun, and even though they are all government employees, they strongly oppose big government. They think individuals should preempt the government, have a right to defend themselves and think of guns as tools which need to be cherished and mastered. But no unbiased polls!!!
Indeed, whether it’s the “tough on crime” mantra that was the GOP cornerstone for years or that most cops are ex-military, the GOP has always honored cops above just about any other civil servant (except maybe the military itself). “Republican politicians support police unions and unionized fire fighters too, often exempting them from the scorched earth policies they direct toward other public sector unions, like teachers and government workers.
“‘The police are the domestic version of national defense,’ says Sam Popkin, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego. ‘The reason that Republicans love them so much,’ he explained, it that Republicans ‘identify very strongly in a time of change and turbulence with the troops that provide order. The police are very popular with Republicans and with the middle class in general.’… When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker cracked down on collective bargaining rights of public-sector unions, he exempted cops and fire fighters.” TheDailyBeast.com (12/12/14). And the NRA never wants cops to embrace any form of sales… er… gun control.
Officers singled out by the NRA for community recognition are often rewarded with plaques and exceptionally expensive, limited edition guns. “Awards and prizes are just one way that the NRA reaches out to law enforcement, a constituency that’s shaping up as a key voice in the debate over gun control. In 2011, the gun group launched a slick recruiting program called NRA Life of Duty, which offers complimentary memberships and insurance benefits, training opportunities, and steep product discounts to public safety officers and members of the military. The cost of these premium memberships are covered by individual and corporate sponsors such as the gun maker Colt’s Manufacturing, firearms supply house Brownells, and the weapons training company Tactical Response—whose CEO, James Yeager, recently went ballistic on YouTube. (Yeager earnestly claimed that he was ‘going to start killing people’ if the government went ‘one inch further’ in its gun restrictions—a tirade that prompted Tennessee to suspend his handgun carry permit.)
“In addition to free subscriptions to all of the NRA’s magazines and the standard benefits offered to civilian members, Life of Duty members receive $27,500 in free accident insurance coverage and steeper product discounts than civilians are offered—45 percent off hunting and camping products from Browning and Alps Mountaineering, for instance, and big savings on gear at Brownells’ PoliceStore.com.
“The bennies don’t end there: If a law enforcement Life of Duty member is killed on duty, the widow or widower gets a $25,000 life insurance payout, and the children qualify for college scholarships worth up to $8,000. For $50 a year, retired cops can purchase insurance through the NRA that covers up to $25,000 in legal costs should they be sued after shooting someone in ‘self defense.’” MotherJones.com, 1/31/13. But still no unbiased polls!!!
OK, you say, how about a biased poll? “What limited polling of law enforcement has been done does not support the claims of Handgun Control, Inc., that all the police want ‘assault weapon’ prohibition. The Florida chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police polled its membership, and found 75% opposed to an ‘assault weapon’ ban. The most recent poll of police opinion was carried out by Law Enforcement Technology magazine in March 1991. The results were reported in the July/August 1991 issue: ‘75% do not favor gun control legislation ... with street officers opposing it by as much as 85 %.’ In particular, 78.7% opposed a ban on ‘assault weapons.’ (About 37 % of top management supported a ban, and about 11% of street officers.)
“Every spring the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP) conducts a nationwide survey of command-rank police officers (not just top management or chiefs). The survey includes all command-rank officers, including those who do not belong to NACOP. Ninety-five percent said that they believed a citizen should have the right to purchase any type of firearm for sport or self-defense.
“Neither the Law Enforcement Technology nor the NACOP surveys may be statistically precise, since the surveys were compiled from respondents who voluntarily mailed in a reply. But at the very least, the surveys indicate that Handgun Control, Inc's claim to have the near-unanimous support of the law enforcement community is false… In sum, while ‘assault weapons’ may appear menacing, both local and national crime statistics do not indicate that the so-called "assault rifles" are a serious crime or drug problem.” GunCite.com, excerpted from The Assault Weapon Panic (247K). Morgan and Kopel, Independence Institute, 1991. Yeah, 1991… long before the rash of mass shootings that followed. Before Australia banned assault rifles in 1996 after a mass shooting that left 35 dead… long before that change reduced Aussie gun deaths by more than half. Even before the Dickey Amendment passed.
Country music, rural performers, have long been those who have embraced traditionalism, the mainstay of the GOP base. But it was Vegas attendees at a country music event who comprised the vast majority of the October 1st victims. The October 8th Los Angeles Times smelled a change in that community after 58 innocents lost their lives and 527 others faced injuries: “Country music has long idealized the gun-owning lifestyle. From Johnny Cash in ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ to Miranda Lambert’s ‘Gunpowder and Lead’ and Blake Shelton’s ‘Granddaddy’s Gun,’ the genre’s stars have harnessed gun imagery to bolster their outlaw credibility, connect them with kindred fans and conjure a specific image of Americans — self-reliant and violent.
“But after a mass shooter killed himself and at least 58 people at Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest country music festival, voices questioning loose gun laws have emerged from within the country music community, even at the risk of alienating fans… ‘I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night,’ Caleb Keeter, guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band, wrote on social media after the Oct. 1 shooting. ‘I cannot express how wrong I was.’ He had been on Route 91’s main stage just hours before the killing began.
“Rising country singer Margo Price, in an interview Tuesday, said she is a longtime gun owner — she used to live in a tent in Colorado and kept a shotgun to protect herself. Still, she said the shooting may finally lead country artists to speak out.
“‘No one I hang out with thinks that a random person on the street should be able to buy a machine gun,’ said Price, whose sister is a performer on the Las Vegas Strip. Country artists, she added, need to use their credibility with rural and right-leaning voters to advocate for stricter gun control.
“‘Politicians offer ‘prayers and thoughts’ but then take money from the NRA. People have had all these opportunities to speak out, and instead say vague things like, ‘This is a song against hate’ but not talk about reforming gun laws. They’ve got to get their heads out of the sand,’ Price said.
“Such divergence from the pack can have consequences, as Texas trio the Dixie Chicks learned when singer Natalie Maines told a crowd during the Bush administration in 2003 that she was ‘ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.’ Within days, much of commercial country radio had stopped playing the platinum group’s hit songs.” If country music stars can move the needle, will cops join the new trend to limit guns in this country? Overseas? Cops seem to cherish gun control. Here…. Well, not now, but let’s watch.
I’m Peter Dekom, and common sense seems to be a rare commodity in the United States these days… even if the lack of that basic skills seems to be killing an increasing number of us every year.
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