Why the same old gun-control answers aren’t comforting
As the father of two small boys, I’m as haunted by last week’s massacre in Newtown, Conn., as anyone who didn’t know personally the victims or their killer.
I have the same fears as all parents anticipating the long, potentially treacherous path ahead of their children in this broken world of ours. My fears are only multiplied by my doubts there are many real options for thwarting future slayings in other unsuspecting towns.
The two primary questions we ask after mass killings are: Why do some people act so heinously? And how can we keep others from doing so?
The first question invariably draws answers like: madness, isolation, social awkwardness or marginalization, familial dysfunction, a craving for fame (or infamy), the prevalence of violence in our popular culture, and evil pure and simple.
The second question typically brings suggestions for treating these mental illnesses and social failures. That, and gun control.
Guns typically don’t make the list of answers to “why,” only to “how.” They are but one means for mass killings — albeit the most common one — not a motivation. Yet, guns become our central focus in times like these.
I understand the impulse. How do we begin to treat the mad, and especially people, such as the Newtown killer, with only mild disorders? As important as it is for us to attempt to rebuild the American family, can we wait the years or perhaps generations such an endeavor might consume, when another mass killing could happen today? How, within the bounds of constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression, does one dial back the violence found in our movies, TV shows, video games and even music?
Whatever a killer’s motivation, guns seem to be his means of choice. Better to address that, right?
As keenly interested as I am in preventing the next mass public shooting, I see little reason to find comfort in gun control.
Consider the high school rampage in Columbine, Colo. The year was 1999, amid a decade-long ban on “assault weapons,” those firearms defined by nothing more than the minds of legislators who drafted the ban on them. (Indeed, the main characteristic common to the weapons banned then seems to be the likelihood one might have seen a similar weapon in a shoot-em-up, kill-em-up movie — an implicit nod to the overriding impact of our entertainment culture.)
One of the Columbine killers was armed with a pump-action shotgun (not exactly a semiautomatic weapon) he fired 25 times. He also fired 96 rounds from a 9-mm carbine while using 10-round magazines — the limit of choice for those who say 30-round magazines are the problem.
When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced his ban on sugary soft drinks larger than 16 oz., most observers recognized the folly of limiting the size of one drink when a person could simply buy two or more of them. Does no one else find it similarly illogical to think a person bent on mass murder won’t just carry multiple weapons with smaller mags, or that lives will be saved in the few seconds it would take an experienced gun handler to change magazines?
I raise these objections not to defend specific weapons or magazines with any number of bullets. Neither I nor anyone I know owns an “assault weapon” (as far as I know), and I have no particular affinity for bullets that come in sets of 20 or 30 or 40 rather than 10. While I generally support gun-ownership rights, I’m open to practical suggestions that can reasonably square with the Second Amendment.
Nor do I think the situation is hopeless, or as good as it gets. I do think we can make our communities safer. But I think the most effective solutions will be less comfortable — such as asking when it’s OK to invade the privacy of those who are dangerously mentally ill — and more expensive — such as ensuring there are armed guards or designated weapons-carrying citizens even at schools and other “gun-free zones” — than merely banning particular weapons and ammunition.
The lives of innocents deserve the fullness of our thought and attention, not old ideas that have been sitting on the shelf, waiting for a crisis.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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457 comments Add your comment
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
December 20th, 2012
7:49 pm
Smoke: No one can cite even one mental hental health bill introduced by the GOP
—————–
Mental health can’t be legislated. Or were you suggesting that this is yet another area our ever-expanding, overspending, liberal fascist government should entangle itself in?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
December 20th, 2012
7:51 pm
Nice load of dog squeeze at 7:47.
Living With Open Eyes
December 20th, 2012
7:56 pm
You’re welcome at 7:51.
Linda
December 20th, 2012
8:02 pm
@7:13, Congratulations, Hillbilly D!
If more youngins’, yuppies & citified people would heed the free advice from those who have the maturity, experience & wisdom from living a long life in the real America, i.e., the rural America from which we came, they would better understand that we are regressing from the ideals on which we were founded.
Hillbilly D
December 20th, 2012
8:04 pm
People are more conscious about getting along with their fellow human beings when they know they will have to back up their mouths with their own bare hands instead of hiding behind guns.
In the world I grew up in, you didn’t have “mouthy” people and “in your face behavior” like you do today. When I was coming up, if you wanted to run your mouth, you had that option but you knew you would be called on it and you’d have to back it up. Things were actually more civil then than they are now, in my world. It was self-policing.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:12 pm
Linda
“real” and “rural” are one in the same?
That is quite funny. Thanks for the belly laugh.
Living With Open Eyes
December 20th, 2012
8:21 pm
Hillbilly D.That’s exactly what I was talking about. Everybody had guns but they left them at home to protect their property (unless they were hunting)..If you wanted to shoot somebody, you had to go home and get your gun.By the time you got to your gun you were cooled off and thought better of it, But in the paranoid world we live in now everybody wants to carry guns on their person and that is why there is so much more gun violence on the streets now.Maybe we should pass laws against carrying guns in public, but continue to allow possessing firearms to defend our homes.
td
December 20th, 2012
8:23 pm
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
7:02 pm
td
It is true that the number of killings based on the number of guns is a low percentage. Well the number of killings if it could be traced to violent movies and games is very low as well, yet you want to apply some sort of special tax to them.
Your logic doesn’t add up.
Please note: I am not advocating any new laws on guns, however I am calling you out for your lack of logic on this issue in regards to movies and games. Unless you have posted or willing to post a study that backs up your assertions, why are you wanting to go after “freedom of speech” via taxes?
There were no movies, TV, internet or video games when the 1st Amendment was written so therefore they do not get these freedoms. Does this argument sound familiar to you from some on this blog?
Hillbilly D
December 20th, 2012
8:23 pm
Living With Open Eyes
Actually, it was just assumed everybody was carrying a gun, then, around here.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:32 pm
td
What does that have to do with you wanting to add a tax to “freedom of speech” when you have yet to produce a study that shows a significant correlation with of murders and games/movies?
Going by your logic of total guns vs total murders. Same logic says that movies/games and murders is very low as well………
Linda
December 20th, 2012
8:34 pm
Bazooka@8:12, I’m a country girl. My husband is citified. We have lived in the Atlanta suburbs for decades. He says one may take the girl out of the country, but one may not take the country out of the girl.
That is a compliment.
If you did not grow up in the country, you have no idea what I’m talking about.
Today, when you are poor, you receive welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, social security disability, job training, Cash for Clunkers, Cash for Appliances, mortgage assistance, etc.
I grew up with a father who never walked a step in his life, who could not afford a wheelchair until he was 40 & who never received a cent of govt. assistance until he retired. We grew our own food, including both animals & plants. My mother plowed, seeded, weeded, harvested, canned & froze, when she was not making our clothes.
If you have any more questions, let me refer you to Hillbilly.
Del
December 20th, 2012
8:35 pm
The gun control stupids won’t consider the root causes of violence in our society. Until they/ we do as a country not much can really change.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:39 pm
“There were no movies, TV, internet or video games when the 1st Amendment was written so therefore they do not get these freedoms.”
While there are restrictions just like there are on guns, you might want to check with the Supreme Court. You can have your opinion all day, but you do not have the right to make up you own facts
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:40 pm
Del
Is everyone stupid that doesn’t agree with Del?
Del
December 20th, 2012
8:42 pm
Linda, God bless you and your family. I can relate but only through the lives of my cousins who I spent a lot of time living with to the extent I was considered a brother to seven children. No running water we hand pumped water out of a well.
Living With Open Eyes
December 20th, 2012
8:43 pm
Hillbilly D. Where I came from in the city, it was damn hard to get a handgun permit for your car but damn easy to buy a gun for your house. If we got mad at each other we fistfought, and everybody called people who hid behind guns cowards. By the way most of those cowards grew up to be either crooks or police officers,
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:43 pm
Linda
Grew up in Pine Mt GA so that nullifies that comment.
Again, does “real” equate to “rural”? In Ga and in my travels throughout the US and abroad, I have met many great people and many nasty people. I never recall rural, city or suburban dominating either category of being “real” or not.
td
December 20th, 2012
8:43 pm
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:32 pm
I have read plenty of studies that correlate what violence on TV, movies and video games have done to exacerbate deviant behavior. I am not doing the research for you but google can be your friend.
Del
December 20th, 2012
8:46 pm
Del
Is everyone stupid that doesn’t agree with Del?
I don’t know about everyone on everything but I suspect you are on most things.
Dusty
December 20th, 2012
8:48 pm
Well, after reading Hillbilly’s comments I may ask for a ban on 2 x 4s. ..
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:49 pm
td
Exactly. You are running your mouth, but can’t back it up in sheer numbers. You made a great point about total number of guns and the number of murders, but your a$$ can’t cash the check you wrote on the number of murders directly caused by games/movies, yet you want to infringe on thos e”freedoms” by adding a tax to them. (Yes they are freedoms protected by the Constitution. They are not any less freedoms because you do not think they are. )
Hillbilly D
December 20th, 2012
8:53 pm
Living With Eyes Open
Don’t know how it is other places but in Georgia, you don’t need a permit to have a gun in your car, as long as it isn’t concealed. It’s considered an extension of your home, I believe.
In Ga and in my travels throughout the US and abroad, I have met many great people and many nasty people.
Me too, and geography didn’t have much to do with it.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:54 pm
Del
Thanks for showing your ignorance and stupidity. It fits you like a glove no matter how you attempt to project it on others.
Guess that ODS is on you boy
Del
December 20th, 2012
8:55 pm
Of course Bapuuka, can’t back it up in sheer numbers either or offer real solutions other than ideological talking points.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:56 pm
“Me too, and geography didn’t have much to do with it.”
Exactly. We have and probably never will cross paths, yet similar experiences.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Del
December 20th, 2012
8:56 pm
Guess that ODS is on you boy
Sure Shirley.
Linda
December 20th, 2012
8:58 pm
Del@8:42, God did bless me & my family, more than you would ever know. My father never met a person who was less deserving than he was. He was the most humble man I have ever known. He helped more people than there were people. Was lauded by his town. Street named after him. Events named after him. The older I became, the more I understood & appreciated his legacy. He will always be an inspiration to me as well as thousands of people whose lives he touched & improved.
Thank you.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:59 pm
Del
If you took the time to read before ranting and whining, you would have read where I mentioned I wanted no additional gun restrictions. That isn’t my point. td wants to tax movies & videos and even says those are not freedoms of speech. The Supreme Court and numerous other courts in the land beg to differ. Why are we going to tax one freedom for another?
And why would I produce studies to back up td or your babble?
td
December 20th, 2012
9:06 pm
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
8:49 pm
td
Exactly. You are running your mouth, but can’t back it up in sheer numbers. You made a great point about total number of guns and the number of murders, but your a$$ can’t cash the check you wrote on the number of murders directly caused by games/movies,
No show me exactly where I said their was a direct correlation between games/movies and homicide? I think I said deviant behavior and charging a little more for entertainment that is shown to cause deviant behavior for the protection of our children then I am OK with that. It is a sin tax the same as smoking or drinking.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:06 pm
Don’t let it eat you up Delly.
It has been and is on you. You can’t shake it. It just manifests via your anger and frustration, but you will be ok in 2024 or so……..
bluecoat
December 20th, 2012
9:07 pm
Rope,windlass,bucket.Hand pump would have been a luxury.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:08 pm
so you want to tax something that you can’t even proove is the problem on any great scale? Is that what you are now saying?
Really?
smoking and drinking is a known fact……… Your movie/video assertion on any grand scale that would led to additional taxes is nothing more than conjecture and hyperbole….. Plain and simple
ER Steve
December 20th, 2012
9:11 pm
Here are the points I want to make on the mental health issue and lowering homicides
First, I agree that more mental health funding and beds are needed for a lot of states, but at the same time more funding is needed for trauma centers and the people of Georgia shot down an increase to license plate taxes to pay for more centers, so where is the money for increased mental healthcare going to come from?
Second, what do you define as a mental illness? Is it anything in the DSM-IV (the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) that the manual that health care professionals use to define mental disease? Because if that is the case you are including everyone that has ever suffered from depression, anxiety, drug phobia’s, etc. That is such a high percentage of the population, that doesn’t work. So we must mean anyone suffering from a mental illness that can lead one to do such evil acts. But there is no such disorder in the DSM-IV.
Third, so if we take a look at the prevalence of certain mental illnesses that exist in people who commit homicides we find an interesting fact. In a recent meta-analysis of all scientific studies done in 2009 the most common DSM-IV diagnosis given to a murder was alcohol abuse/dependence. 38% of all homicides had a problem with alcohol. The next highest diagnosis was anti-social personality disorder. Wikipedia the disorder for more info. It was prevalent in 10% of all homicides. Finally 6% of homicides that were committed were done by schizophrenics. So lets look at schizophrenics in particular, being schizophrenic raises your risk of committing a homicide by 10 fold more than someone without a mental illness diagnosis. Now that is a far cry from saying every single schizophrenic is dangerous.
Finally, what do we do with people with diagnosed mental illness, that we might even suspect might be dangerous, but refuse treatment and have not committed any crime? Do we force them to be hospitalized and take medication? Do we take away their rights preventively to protect people from what they might do? Who makes the diagnosis? Do you want psychiatrists to determine it? Isn’t that a huge danger to our rights to give the government the power to lock you up just to make sure you don’t commit a crime? All I see that doing is preventing mothers from bringing in their kids to get help in the first place. You put the fear of a diagnosis inside the heads of people and they won’t come for help anymore.
Something to think about when people shout fix mental health care and solve the problem.
Linda
December 20th, 2012
9:15 pm
Bazooka@8:43, The fact that you grew up in Pine Mt. has nothing to do with growing up rural. Maybe you grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth. Yes, rural does equate to real. You may travel from one end of the earth to the other, but you will never meet anyone anywhere in the entire world more “real” than the people in the Southeastern US who were raised in a country setting. I know, from experience.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 20th, 2012
9:19 pm
Well, the “civility” was short lived.
************
It looks like gun control isn’t polling too well for the socialists. Look for them to back off in the next week or so.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:20 pm
Linda
Maybe this, maybe that. You don’t know me
You keep changing your original assertions to satisfy your close minded narrative. No need to vilify me for your idiotic statement.
td
December 20th, 2012
9:21 pm
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:08 pm
smoking and drinking is a known fact……… Your movie/video assertion on any grand scale that would led to additional taxes is nothing more than conjecture and hyperbole….. Plain and simple
Type this into google: do violent movies increase violent behavior studies. More then 100 pages of scholarship on the subject. I guess it is a little more than hyperbole?
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
December 20th, 2012
9:21 pm
Yes, rural does equate to real.
So does urban and suburban,
Your experience is no more or less valid than anyone else’s
Dusty
December 20th, 2012
9:29 pm
Blogs are the new anti-weapons! Yes, sir, just like exercise. Keep everybody blogging and we’ll all be in good shape. Frustration and forment will be exhausted and excised.
. First the moderation machines are disabled. Then everybody can fuss, cuss, describe your mother, laugh at your looks, rate your lying, evaluate your ignorance, sigh over stupidity, and blame all badness on your politics.
In a real hissy fit, you may shoot your monitor ( if you have shoot- monitor training). Frequent buyers of new monitors must have mental evaluations before purchase.
Go ahead. Thank me. I may win the Pulitizer Peace Prize for this precious panacea.
Linda
December 20th, 2012
9:29 pm
Kyle, You were trying to clean up your blog & you were making headway.
I hereby “report this comment” from Bazooka @ 8:40, 8:49 & 8:54 & 8:59..
These comments have no place on a family blog.
I’m out of here until this blog is cleaned up.
Maybe you should shut down your blogs in the evenings until foul-mouthed liberals can clean up their acts/mouths.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
December 20th, 2012
9:31 pm
I’m out of here until this blog is cleaned up.
Not intended to be a factual statement.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:36 pm
td
Murders? on what scale?
thought so
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:43 pm
Dusty you just might win it
Dusty
December 20th, 2012
9:49 pm
KAMCHAK,
Do you still have a garden? I think you were the one growing great tomatoes. I never got a single one from what I planted. The plants grew like Topsy and then fell over.
Dusty
December 20th, 2012
9:51 pm
Ah! One vote for my Peace Prize. Thank you, Bazooka.
td
December 20th, 2012
9:52 pm
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:36 pm
td
Murders? on what scale?
thought so
Back on topic. So which one of my guns do you want to take away: My AR-15 with 2 50 round clips? My 9mm, .40 cal, 35 Marlin with a 3×9 scope?, Semi auto 30-06 with a 10 x 30 scope?, 12 gauge Semi auto? Which ones can I keep and which ones must I give up?
@@
December 20th, 2012
9:53 pm
Still no toxicology report?
I’d be willing to bet Lanza was on an SSRI (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) commonly known as “pharmaceutical straightjackets”. The side effects can prove deadly. Doctors are prescribing them for simple depression…giving them to younger and younger children too. Tragically, educators aid and abet in the practice.
Not to defend Lanza’s actions…they’re indefensible, but until we find alternatives to dealing with behavior disorders in young children, these assaults will continue.
All children K thru 12 should be taught coping skills. Life is hard…they should be taught how to deal with the disappointments, frustrations, losses that come with it.
I was taught to believe that sociopathy and psychopathy could be linked to mental illness. Nowadays I’m not not so sure. They may a thread woven into the fabric of our culture.
Alecia
December 20th, 2012
9:55 pm
Since we are talking about gun control laws in other countries, let’s not forget to mention all of the countries with very tough laws. Mexico has very tight restrictions(much tighter than the libs. are proposing for us now). Why aren’t they discussing how well the tight gun laws are working over there? Mexico is our neighbor , not Japan, or any European country. Latin America in general has tighter gun control laws than us. Guess the violence is so low in Mexico that they don’t even merit discussion.
td
December 20th, 2012
9:56 pm
Dusty
December 20th, 2012
9:49 pm
My tomatoes did the same thing this summer. I thought it was because I planted them too late and it just got to hot to early this year.
Bazooka
December 20th, 2012
9:58 pm
td
Please tell me you are not as obtuse in real life as you are on this blog. Go back and read what I posted in regards to guns. If you didn’t read it; that is your problem that your narrative is not correct.