Yet another multiple-victim shooting, this time just a couple of hours east of Rochester, in Herkimer and Mohawk. More deaths. More critical injuries, lockdowns, community trauma.
And yet there seems little hope that Congress will enact a sensible gun control law. And New York State’s new law is under attack.
I admit that I don’t understand the appeal of guns. I’ve never hunted, and I’ve never lived in a rural area where wildlife could be a threat. But New York’s gun-control law doesn’t restrict hunters. Neither does the legislation under consideration in Washington. Those laws deal with high-capacity magazines, assault-style weapons, record-keeping, gun registration.
The gun culture in the United States is so strong that proposals for reasonable controls get bullied off the stage because people think that they need guns to protect themselves from government. That they might be in a movie theater or a shopping mall when a deranged gunman opens fire. That they’d be able pull out their gun and fire faster than a gun-wielding burglar.
The “protection” appeal is so strong that gun enthusiasts are now urging that every teacher in every school be armed.
This is a uniquely American cultural issue – fed, unfortunately, by the news and entertainment media, which have glorified violence and created the sense that crime is far more prevalent than it is. People are senselessly afraid, and conservative bloggers and gun extremists have ramped up that fear. And we seem to find a perverse satisfaction in being afraid.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, says the New York Times’ Gail Collins, worried recently about how, with gun controls, people could protect themselves “in an environment where the law and order has broken down, whether it’s a hurricane, national disaster, earthquake, terrorist attack, cyberattack, where the dam’s broken and chemicals have been released into the air and law enforcement is really not able to respond and people take advantage of that lawless environment.”
You wonder how anybody in this country sleeps at night.
Studies of whether media violence causes real violence haven’t proved that it does, directly – for most people. But more is involved than that.
The US has a gun culture, and, the Times’ film critic A.O. Scott wrote recently, “it is absurd to pretend that gun culture is unrelated to popular culture, or that make-believe violence has nothing to do with its real-world correlative. Guns have symbolic as well as actual power, and the practical business of hunting, law enforcement, and self-defense has less purchase in our civic life than fantasies of righteous vengeance or brave resistance.”
Violence-heavy media can begin to erode the barrier between fantasy and reality. If we are convinced – facts to the contrary, declining violence rates to the contrary – that our community is a dangerous place, we will act differently, individually and corporately. And we will fail to pass sensible laws that can protect us.
One ray of hope: Gun ownership has been dropping, according to a recent Times report – particularly among younger adults. It’s been dropping even in the South and western mountain states.
Maybe we’ll eventually age out of the gun culture. Unfortunately, a lot of people will be hurt before then.
Ten years in Iraq
We shouldn’t let March 20 go by without reflecting on the tragic path that this country embarked on 10 years ago. The deaths and injuries, the human displacement, the chaos, the financial cost: we unleashed unspeakable trauma and disruption with our invasion of Iraq, and we will continue to pay the price for decades.
“Misguided” is nowhere near a strong enough term for our decision to launch that war. And it comes nowhere near the truth. Dick Cheney, the war’s architect, did damage so severe to Iraq – and to this country – that it’s hard to think of actions that deserve a higher place on an Infamy Hall of Fame list.
“The news and entertainment media have glorified violence and created the sense that crime is more prevalent than it is.”
Gun control | mass shootings | gun violence | violence and the media | violence in the media | Herkimer shootings | Mohawk shootings | New York State gun control law
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2013.
This editorial references the gun deaths in Herkimer and Mohawk, but doesn’t cite any law (either existing or proposed) which would have prevented those crimes. Nor what laws would have prevented the Webster Christmas Eve crimes either.
Wow…rhetoric right from Soros and Bloomberg. There was already a 10 round mag limit and less per DEC hunting regulations, but you never heard that reported did you? Sensible? How? Why 7 rounds? Eight rounds and you are worse than a child molester, fact. You’re right….crime is down…as concealed carry and gun owernship is up! The younger generation is being brainwashed….just as Eric Holder stated in the 90’s, the plan to quote “brainwash” people into believing guns are the problem and bad. He has used executive privilege to block investigation from Congress (our checks and balances) of Fast and Furious. No, no citizen could fire back legally in gun-free zones, that is why the mass killers chose them. Isn’t it already illegal to kill yourself and commit even a single murder? How is more laws going to stop this person? Long guns of any type are used in less than 2% of any crime, but since the gun-grabbers couldn’t ban handguns they invented the term “assault rifle.” http://www.assaultweapon.info/ Citizens won’t be able to fire “faster” than criminals at all while they obey the law yet crimals don’t. Look to Mexico, which has zero personal firearm ownership. Only to militarized police and criminals have guns. It is not about living in fear, we choose to NOT live in fear! You could never understand that until you are waiting for someone with a gun to come save you when it is already too late. The number of crimes where a suspect is legally killed, ran off at sight of a weapon or detered by armed security is not reported in the news. It is death, death, death…and you buy into it hand and foot. A polite society is an armed society.
You also mention gun registration. What is the purpose? Our founding fathers created a government which would not make the mistakes and tyranny of the past. Looking to history there is only one reason for registration: confiscation. How do you do that? Seizure of personal property. How are you going to do that? What reasons will they give? You fail to see how guns were seized (and never returned for years if ever) in areas of New Orleans that were high and dry and well-to-do. The Nat’l Guard was watching the New Orleans Police as they were reportedly raping women and corrupt. It has happened, it is not fear mongering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4…
David Shaw, you mention that “there is only one reason for registration: confiscation.” Has the government come to take away everyone’s cars? Those are registered. What about dogs? Those are registered, too, and I don’t remember any jackbooted thugs coming to take my puppy away.
Firearms are different than cars or dogs. For one driving is a privilege, not a right. Dogs are registered with the local gov’t. You are discussing personal property however. Your car is not impounded when there is a gas tank limit. Your dog is not taken when it grows to be 300lbs.
You only have to see time and time again when it happens. Janet Reno said decades ago said “Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal.” Many other gun grabbers are now stating the same goals. Feinstein, Soros, Bloomberg, the female democrat in IL etc etc.
Here are some recent examples from all around the world (Yahoo answers…blah I know, look at the best answer, it checks out): http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi…
This is good as well:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/11…
You don’t hear about how NY nixed the COBIS 4million/yr program that did not solve one single crime…yet was another burden not only on law-abiding gun owners but NY taxpayers. Canada spend billions on registry:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2…
I have to agree with gun owners on one point. That is the definition of a particular style of gun as an assault rifle is not necessarily a deterrent to a killer. However, there would be one very effective bit of legislation that could have a real effect on limiting the potential for mass type killing. That would be to eliminate all firearms with the exception of single shot weapons. Specifically,legal arms could only hold a single cartridge which must be manually reloaded after each shot. This would not only eliminate the potential for mass shootings, but it would also increase gun safety for legal sporting use. As someone who has a lifelong involvement in wildlife conservation, I am at the receiving end of a load of sporting and gun catalogs. The recent trend in ads for thousands of rounds of ammunition, high capacity magazines, and burial containers for hiding guns and ammo, make me think our so called civilized sportsmen are less civilized than I had hoped.
Cosmetics do nothing to the effectiveness of a firearm. That’s the problem…misinformation with no unbiased sources and much of a general populace who is then misinformed. The D&C, owned by Gannett, has spread flat-out lies and biased stats. A sling swivel is not to attach a grenade launcher to, which are already banned, but placed in Feinstein’s bill just for an emotional response. Hollywood doesn’t help making it look like guns have unlimited bullets and silencers make guns silent.
Just like religions, you can’t lump gun owners all together. That is one trick used to demonize all gun owners, 99.999% of which have not committed a crime nor will. A single mother protecting her kids does not have the same objectives as a sportsman or a competition/recreational shooter. A “prepper” also has different goals. The idea big gov’t will always be there in an emergency if a fallacy even with FEMA, which has now become highly militarized versus humanitarian. Natural distasters of late have people shouting for the gov’t to do something…rather than having been prepared! Of course there are all sorts of products out there…many for a zombie apocalypse…it is all marketing and sells because that is what is popular.
Single shot idea’s main problem is this: when you disarm law-abiding citizens will the criminals simple turn in their multishot firearms? Will the military/police as well? How effective is one shot in a self-defense scenario, especially more than one attacker obviously. The police hit rate is less than 20%, would have to look it up. For sportsman, myself included, I know I have needed more than one shot. Wounded game disappearing into the brush is not ideal for an ethical take. I am sure you heard of the woman attacked in her attic. 5/6 shots hit the guy in the face and body yet he survived. The lowest recoil firearms for those of low stature to use and popular for concealed carry are small caliber where one more shot is needed and can be life or death. Also, most firearms are used for sporting/recreation…it is simply too much of a burden to reload after each shot. It would even change olympic sports where shooters get on target and need to stay on target. In the case of Virginia Tech the shooter used 17 five and ten round magazines. When the victims are disarmed or there are magazine limits, criminals take reign. In the milliseconds needed to change out a magazine they would have you believe you could rush the gunman. This has been proven false, it would be suicide. The ideas that our Founding Fathers would only use a one shot musket versus a modern musket (black rifle) is absurd. They did know the value and inevitability of technology and mult-shot firearms did exist even then.
A must read no matter what your position. History is very telling of what disarming citizens will do. Number one killer of all time…democide…death by your own or another government (war, genocide, etc).
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. -James Madison
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/…