Only Way to Reduce Civilian Gun Homicides

 

From 1994 through 2004, there was a federal statutory assault weapons ban. The law expired under its own sunset clause and was not renewed. In 2008, Justice Antonin Scalia (in Heller vs DC, US Supreme Court) effectively ruled that with some exceptions, gun ownership was a fundamental right under the Second Amendment. His purported logic, applying “originalism” (that did not look beyond the muskets and flintlocks at the time the Bill of Rights was enacted), not only miscited British law at the time but failed adequately to deal with the “well regulated militia” provisions of that amendment.

Since that ruling, conservative courts and red state legislatures have exploded with new laws and rulings expanding gun ownership at every level. “Stand your ground” gave shooters a get-out-of-jail free pass for what used to be considered murder. Open and concealed carry restrictions have pretty much vaporized. We have more than one firearm for every resident of the United States today, including an estimated 30 million AR-15-style semiautomatic assault rifles, without including the 3-D manufactured and untraceable ghost guns in circulation.

A CBS News report (September 19th) explored a nationwide network of professional gun buyers connected to south-of-the-border drug cartels, resulting in an estimated smuggling of one million guns (including lots of assault rifles) a year from the United States to points south. The vigilance accorded northbound traffic was not remotely applied to southbound traffic. And as politicians rage over the flood of illicit narcotics from points south, particularly the killer drug fentanyl, none will take responsibility for the lax or unenforced guns laws in the United States that have effectively enabled what appears to be an unstoppable drug trade that killed over 100,000 Americans (over 70,000 from fentanyl alone) annually in the last two years, according to the National Institutes of Health, as reflected in the above NIH chart. Without those American-made guns, those cartels would not be able to flood our shores with those fatal narcotics. In my view, those drug overdoses are possible only because of our unwillingness assert reasonable gun control laws here in the United States.

According to a Pew Research Report (April 6th), “The gun death rate among children and teens – a measure that adjusts for changes in the nation’s population – rose from 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 minor residents in 2019 to 3.5 per 100,000 two years later, a 46% increase” … to become the leading cause of death among American youth in that age demographic (as reflected in the above Pew chart). Yet owners of AR-15s, citing NRA gospel that those guns are not just for self-defense but to ensure that an “oppressive” government can be forcibly removed, are clinging to those military-grade assault weapons (a version of what was once Navy SEAL standard issue), daring authorities to try and take those weapons away. Rightwing militia carry automatic pistols and assault rifles as symbols of their resistance to democratic institutions.

We are the only country, not at war, where guns are pervasive. We have hundreds of mass shootings every year, many on school or college campuses, most enabled by those assault weapons. It is painfully obvious that as a country, we are a whole lot more concerned about gun ownership than we do about protecting our children from gun violence. The sizeable radical right believes that that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” representing the only nation on earth that makes that claim. Their solution to school shooting? Arm teachers. See my September 14th The Failed Red State Solution to School Shootings: Armed Teachers and Campus Police blog.

After the litany of “our thoughts and prayers” for the victims of mass and school shootings, relying on the false NRA that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” the right wing relies on the “blame the mentally ill” for this plague. The few gun control laws that have passed rightwing court muster have been variations of “red flag” laws that in theory, based on profoundly inadequate databases, are supposed to identify persons who are not legally able to buy guns, from most felons to those judged to be mentally ill. But there are so many ways for those so designated to get those weapons. From friends and family members (licit or illicit), in “street” purchases… or from registered and licensed gun dealers.

That fundamental reality – those who want guns of any variety can always get them. Some locations, like Chicago where gun violence is dramatically out of control have tried gun limitations, but Illinois’ attempts to limit gun sales are futile when neighboring states (within a relatively short drive) have very few restrictions on gun sales. Frankly, red flag laws, which have withstood judicial scrutiny, also do not appear to have reduced gun violence… at all.

Even in blue California, which is in a constant battle with the conservative Supreme Court and lower federal courts applying those higher court mandates, red flag laws intended to keep those with unambiguous mental issues from buying guns just do not work. On September 16th, 29-year-old Kevin Cataneo Salazar is accused of walking up to a sheriff’s deputy while he sat in his marked cruiser in front of the Palmdale sheriff’s station… and shooting him to death, ambush style.

“Prior to his arrest on Monday [9/18], Cataneo Salazar did not have a criminal record, and he legally purchased and registered a firearm that was confiscated by law enforcement, L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said. It’s unclear if this was the same gun used in the fatal shooting of [Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan] Clinkunbroomer. Investigators are said to be examining Cataneo Salazar’s mental health history and previous contacts with authorities…

“In California, there are multiple avenues for people to receive mental health treatment, either through voluntary or involuntary programs. According to Marle Salazar, Cataneo Salazar’s mother, her son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia about five years ago… She called law enforcement at least twice when he became a danger to himself after not taking his medication, she said. But Cataneo Salazar had never hurt anyone, she said, and she was unaware he owned a gun… ‘They’re only saying he was the one who fired the shot, but no one says he has a [mental health] record,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t my son who did it. It’s the disease that did it.’” LA Times (September 20th). Salazar pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

Bottom line: if someone wants a gun, whether barred from gun ownership or not, they are going to get one. You have to believe that all those hundreds and hundreds of mass shooters have to be, for the most part, individuals suffering from serious mental issues. And still the statistics mount. You don’t need an assault weapon for hunting or self-defense. These are military-grade antipersonnel firearms intended to kill as many people as possible in the shortest time. AR-15 bullets are also designed to kill people. If we do not take guns out of the system, especially those assault weapons that are present in most mass shootings, the problem will only get worse.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I cannot conceive that our forefathers who wrote the Second Amendment in 1789 would condone civilian ownership of a firearm designed to mow people down with extraordinary efficiency.