Gun Control

Gun Control

This is an issue which I have essentially avoided.  The two sides are so entrenched and reasonableness so unattainable that it just seemed a waste of time. But here goes some charging at windmills. 

This seems an issue best approached with some generalities before confronting specific pathways to any conclusion.  

The following paragraph you might want to skip over. While in my mind it is an appropriate historical reference to the issue, it is not the substance of the rest of this musing. 

Violence begets violence---Americans, for all their constant talk about the violence of others has historically been one of the most violent countries since it's inception. This is not so much in terms of any outright genocide or primitive gang like slaughter and rape of any groups, but---in terms of total body count, or economic and political exploitation---America has been the clear winner. We have invaded more countries, killed more citizens of other countries, established more military bases in other countries (around 700), used more weapons of mass destruction than any other country, and currently are spending more money on military matters than all other industrialized countries combined.  As a consequence, with a government that has repeatedly used violence as the means to an end, it's attempt to instill in it's own citizenry any aversion to violence towards each other has been limited.  It has been almost like violence as a solution is wrong UNLESS sponsored by government with mercenary troops, under the guise of freedom and national security--supported by God, the cheers of sport fans at major sport events, and with the blessing of patriotic clergy of all faiths.  It is almost like Government organized mass killings of others, in the name of national security is patriotic duty, whereas individual killing of others, in the name of personal safety, need, or anger is criminal. 

Any society which has a massive imbalance in it's distribution of wealth or power is going to find itself entrenched with endless incidents of violence.

Any pluralistic society, in which there are highly organized intolerant religious sects, will find violence and injustice against non believers as necessary under the guise of the Will of God. America has been fairly good at religious tolerance. 

To the extent any of the above is true, this only contributes to 'sane' violence, the kind of which is understandable. The rapid increase in suicide/mass killings violence is a beast of another stripe.  These people are almost always mentally ill. Mentally ill people are by the very nature of their illness, unpredictable. 

Gun control has, as it's premise, the notion if people don't have guns or are restricted as to the kind, number, or location of their guns, then fewer homicides will follow. Those against gun control argue that people have a right to defend themselves and their families and that when more people are armed, fewer homicides will be attempted, less home invasions, etc.

These two positions are not totally without data for or against them.  For a start we need decide whether we are talking about guns kept inside a home or guns allowed to be carried outside homes. Then of course is the issue of what kinds of guns should people be allowed to own.  Add to this the question of whether guns of any kind can really be made unavailable. There are a lot of things illegal to possess which most anyone can get if they really want. Entire illegal industries exist to provide the illegal substances or objects in question. 

For starters we need recognize there are many ways to kill a person if the determination is great enough----shooting, stabbing, poisoning, bombs, physical assault, etc. These kind of homicides are near impossible to stop. Perhaps no type of law can stop these kind of homicides. The only answer is to create the kind of society and culture which does not foster this kind of behavior. Some cultures across the globe simply do not have a high homicide rate. Ours is not one of them. For these kind of homicides we have found the enemy, and it is us. Cultures do not change overnight.  We also should realize that the current human overpopulation of our planet fosters increased homicidal behavior. The world human population has doubled in my lifetime. While current population growth is faster in some areas than others, it makes little difference. The crucial point here is that the more people fighting for a share of limited natural resources, the more homicides there will be.  In the near future, energy, food, water, pollution, climate changes, species extinction, etc. are all going to push human conflict to survive. Without any global enforced responsible reproduction, nothing else we do matters all that much---homicide rates will rise, exponentially. 

For the sake of academic banter here, we will ignore human over population and all the resulting stresses about to push everyone right up against the wall.  Instead, we will do what we do best of late---simply pretend all of this is not really coming down the pike.  After all, God would not let this happen to his favorite species, would HE/SHE?  Of course not, anymore than God would let a mentally sick person kill 20 kindergarten kids.  It just seems if God has created a system in which kindergarten kids can be killed this way, then we probably need give a bit more thought as to just how much protection God is giving any of us personally regarding his own laws of evolution.  I just can't envision God saying, "Reid, I have your back, but those 20 kindergarten kids are on their own". The reality is, if we dare to think about it, there are millions of kids that age dying a far more cruel death in refugee camps across the globe----and the rest of us humans, collectively, let it happen.  We are far more concerned about whether millionaires need pay a hefty tax on their wealth. They used to, but times have changed and many feel the wealthy have every right to sequester their huge wealth in some sort of family dynasties.  Jesus and every other major prophet of any major religion would be so proud of this. 

Back to gun control. Okay, we have established that the mentally ill will not be affected by gun control laws and the current contest amongst them to see whose mass killing/suicide can be the most repulsive and create the most anguish to others will proceed, no matter what the gun control laws are. As long as they get the endless publicity for their action, the attraction to copy or top previous actions will just grow stronger. 

Some homicides are spur of the emotional actions.  Anger explodes, clear thinking eliminated, a gun is accessible and that is all she wrote. People who think having everyone packing a gun in public is a safety measure must live in a different world.  I suspect most of us can think of instances when, if we had a gun, maybe we would have used it.  Personally I would not bother to carry a gun in public.  In almost all cases we don't realize we are being robbed until we see a gun staring us in the face or pressed against our back. It seems, at that point, reaching for a gun might not be the most brilliant idea. Most of us are not so quick that we can reach for and pull out a gun before the robber squeezes a trigger. Of course the robbers might not be adults, they might be teenagers with no gun, just a knife or already have you in a head lock demanding your money. At that point we would have the delightful realization that they not only are going to get our money, but our gun.  Emotionally crazed teenagers with a gun is not exactly an environment for sane behavior.  We may indeed feel safer with a gun strapped to our side or inside a coat, whatever, but not too many robbers announce a block away: "Ready or not here I come with my gun to rob you". The old fashioned western shoot out is not exactly realistic. Of course we may simply be sitting on a park bench feeling all safe and enjoying the view or weather with our gun strapped to our side and some young teenagers see the gun and feel a need to acquire it. The odds are great that by the time they grab us, and we realize their intentions, the gun will already be theirs. Hey, we thought they were supposed to be afraid of us if they saw we had a gun. Back to the drawing board. 

Ok, this kind of bantering does not effectively prove anything. The truth is we don't really want to consider evidence. Evidence does exist. 

Let's for example consider those top states with the highest gun death rate per capita vs those states with the least gun death per capita. 

The top 5 states with the least gun death rate per capita are below in order:

1. Hawaii----death rate/100,000 pop = 2.2;  percentage of people who own guns=9.7

2, Mass----death rate=3.4; percentage of people who own guns=12.8

3. R. I.----death rate= 4.9 percentage of people who own guns= 13.3 %

4. New Jersey----death rate= 4.99;  percentage of people who own guns= 11.3

5. New York----death rate=5.28; percentage of people who own guns= 18.1

The top five states with the greatest gun death rate per capita are below in order:

1. Louisiana---death rate per 100,000 pop= 19.04; percentage of people who own guns=45.6

2. Alaska---death rate=17.4; percentage of people who own guns=60%

3. Montana---death rate=17.2; percentage of people who own guns=60.6

4. Tenn---death rate=16.4; percentage of people who own guns= 46 .4%

5. Alabama----death rate= 16.2; percentage of people who own guns=57.2%

The states have the strictest guns laws:  Calif, New Jersey, Mass., N.Y., Ct,. Hawaii,

Md, R.I., IL, Penn.  

The states have the weakest gun laws: Arizona, Alaska, Utah---in fact all the weakest gun law states are red states with the exception of Vt, Maine, N.H. 

The states with the most per capita prisoners are: Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, and Ct. (Ct?---doesn't seem to fit)

What is interesting is that those states with the weakest gun laws, the harshest penalties, the most conservative politics, the greatest number of religious fundamentalists, and the toughest talk about crime ("We don't tolerate criminals here, and if you break our laws you are going to pay a stiff price"), the most homicides from guns, and have the most people in jail for crimes are all red states with almost no exception. 

The statistics I couldn't find are those which compared those states in which people are allowed to carry guns in public with the incidence of robbery, public gun deaths, assault, and frequency of the gun being stolen.

To me, enough evidence is available to confirm that gun control goes a long way in helping to curb the number of homicide deaths. Certainly New York and New Jersey have huge urban ghetto populations and you would think lead the way in homicides per capita. But they don't and just happen to have strict gun control laws. It also seems evident that societal culture plays an important role. Religious views, political views, tolerance level, and harshness of attitudes toward the different/ poorest, and least fortunate amongst us does make the red states stand out. These are always the states last to grant others rights, the states with the lowest minimum wage, the states with the severest criminal penalties, the least fair judicial systems, the weakest support for health care, and the strongest supporters of gun rights. If groups of people are told enough ways that they don't count enough times, at some point they don't care about others either. 

In summary, lest this go on too long (I know, it already has)---gun control affects the number of homicides, but so does culture, politics, and religious intolerance. 

As for suicide/mass murders---nothing much probably will reverse this trend until those who commit these ghastly crimes get no publicity from their acts. Of course they are not around to appreciate the publicity they got, but then nothing they did makes sense. These people have an emotional malfunction, a Central Nervous System malfunction----not always evident or the particulars known before these heinous acts are committed.  We hardly can commit every person who is a loner, socially inept, and behaviorally strange. The number of people who are 'potentially' dangerous in our society is huge. The number who will actually commit one of these ghastly crimes is small. To identify them in advance, in most cases, is probably beyond our current capability. 

Parents feel a real need these days to keep their kids in controlled environments around the clock. Kids learn to fear strangers today much more so than say 60 years ago. Gone are the days when parents told young kids----'You be sure to be back for supper or you will have to make your own supper". What all this means for society beats me.  Gone are the days when kids were like my generation---when I returned home from a day of 'adventure' (which in many cases was boredom) and my mother asked "What did you do today?" the answer would likely be "nothin', just hung out with some friends." "Well what friends?" "Why is that important? I don't bug you with who you chatted with every day" "Well you must have done something with somebody"  "Nothing worth mentioning, just the usual stuff, you just always trying to be nosy". 

But I can tell you something I never did-----worry about getting shot or stabbed at school, getting molested by someone I hitched a ride with to get from here to there, or ever felt free to disrespect an older adult who reprehended me for bad behavior. For practically a mile in each direction we knew just about all the adults (and kids too) and the nearest adult was always in charge. Misbehave and parents never sided with their kids. The verdict was always the same: "Do that again and you won't be going anywhere. I don't like getting phone calls about you being a problem, period. Don't be a problem, that's the verdict."  One time a teacher had me taken to my father's office for some kind of misbehaving in class. I did win that one, my father didn't want me around for the day either and told the teacher, "When he is not in class he is my responsibility to discipline and control, when he is in your class, that is your problem. You can report misbehaving in class and I will deal with it, but you can't send him to me for babysitting." I really disliked that teacher, she was a witch in my mind.  She lived to be 95 or so and my mother tried to get me to contribute money for a gift and write a tribute. My answer was simple: "Like hell".  Where was an assault gun when I needed it?

Countries With Highest Homicide Rates per 100,000 people (not in order)

Belize---34

Burundi---37

Central African Republic---30

Columbia---40

Congo---35

El Salvador---52

Guatamala---45

Honduras----61

Jamaica---60

St. Kitts---35

South Africa---37

Trinidad---40

Venezuela---47

Zimbabwe----34

Countries with lowest homicide rate per capita:

Algeria --- .64

Australia---1.23

Austria----.58

Belgium---1.8

Burmuda---1.6

Canada----1.7

China---1.2

Denmark---1.4

Egypt----.84 (2008)

France---1.4

Germany----.8

Greece---1.1

Italy---1.2

Japan---.45

Lebannon---.56

Morroco---.4

Netherlands---1.0

New Zealand----1.25

Nigeria---1.3

Norway---.64

Poland---1.2

Portugal 1.2

Saudi Arabia---.85

Switzerland----.72

Vietnam----1.85

rate in U.S, : 5.22

Each of you can do your own interpretation of this data. I am too lazy to go and examine the gun laws in each country, which would be informative. 

For me, I have already listed gun control, religious intolerance, culture, politics as impacting on homicide rates. I might guess that culture plays a major role in the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland. They have had a laid back culture for a long time.  In countries like Vietnam, Poland, Japan----maybe their recent history with internal massacres by foreign countries has made them particularly repelled by killing. The Vietnamese watched us kill 2 million of them over a decade and maybe they learned that killing is not a good thing. They probably associate killing with horror. We didn't have to watch our own people die right in front of our eyes in that war and thus we still see violence as a possible means to an end. 

It also is noted that countries with the least homicides have little religious strife. These countries are pretty settled with a particular religion or they are known for religious tolerance. It doesn't seem many, if any, of the countries with the lowest homicide rate have strong religious zealots. In fact in many of these countries with the lowest homicide rate church attendance is notoriously low. 

I am surprised that Egypt, Nigeria, and Algeria have such low homicide rates. 

For those countries with high homicide rates the most common thread seems to be an acceptance of violence to solve political or religious differences. Poverty may contribute but there are many equally poor countries with a low homicide rate. Wherever there is a culture highly driven by the accumulation of wealth or power homicide rates seem to soar. Look at how much higher our homicide rate is than Japan, the European countries, Canada, and China. Enough is never enough has been an American mantra from the start of our nation.  One might wonder, if America had taken the advice of George Washington to avoid foreign entanglements and become a giant Switzerland what our violence culture would be today. Instead we were always going after somebody, almost always out of self interest for their natural resources, or to dictate the kind of government they could have, etc.  I think the last time we went into another country to help them defend an invader was Korea. 

I never have understood why we can never say to other countries "As long as you sell your natural resources to us at global market prices, the rest of what you do is your business." Ensuring that American Corporations own industries in other lands is unethical. There is less of that today and it seems our corporations do have to compete more to get whatever in a foreign country. Now it is time to question just exactly why we need 700+ military bases all over the world. How many 'lost' wars is it going to take before we realize that engaging ourselves in another country's internal war is hopeless? Starting with Vietnam we have lost every such war of that sort, and the carnage for us, and even more so for them, is just unconscionable. We badly need to take care of our domestic needs and forget about spending more on military matters than all the other industrialized countries combined. The obsession for all this military stuff is markedly harming other aspects of our society---education, health care, infrastructure, parks, scientific research, new energy source development,  fighting global warming, protecting natural resources, etc. 

My own personal opinion about gun control, at this point in time, is that it is ok to own and keep a gun in your home, but never ok for carrying it around.  As for hunters---there are so few real old fashioned hunters today that this is a minor group to placate. Only guns used by hunters should be available to purchase, no automatics, no assault rifles, etc, should be legal for anyone. The red states have failed miserably to demonstrate any benefits to weak gun control. All the stats demonstrate that. 

Finally, I just read where the NRA has proposed there be a policeman in every school. They are at least consistent. They have never made a proposal which did not involve increasing the number of guns in our society and favorable to the gun industry.  For this guy in Ct, the only change in his plans would have been to take out the lone cop first, then proceed.  I suppose, when more guns doesn't prevent much of anything, then they will suggest that each of us be supplied with an assault weapon, a personal body guard and a Sherman tank. I was a member of the NRA for many years----not that I ever signed up, but they signed me up and refused for years to remove me. Never paid a dime in dues or anything, but they needed lots of names so they could claim huge membership. I had to threaten to go to the state attorney general before they would remove my name. At least they didn't shoot me. They are just like irrational religious fanatics, only guns are their religion.  Guns don't kill people, it's just that people with guns too often kill people.