Messages from Men to ‘Ladies Who Want to Make Guns into Jewelry’

Over a year ago, people in my community held a meeting called “No More Sandy Hooks.” Those opposed to any gun legislation outnumbered the others by almost three to one. More meetings throughout the year continued the same anti-legislation message. One of the people who attended the sixth meeting last night said it best:

 “I was hopeful that we could come to some common ground, but after tonight I can not envision that.  I too see that gun rights extremist will never move towards the center and accept that some additional gun legislation will make it safer for our children and our community.  And we will never agree that having more “guns will make it safer.’”

The anti-legislation responses were predictable and irrational. There are sufficient laws if they were just enforced, but no number of police could ever enforce the laws. Suicides “don’t matter,” in response to a question about how to reduce the 30,000+ people annually killed by guns in the United States. At least one of the anti-legislation people thinks that suicides “don’t matter.”

Making guns safer through new technology such as activation through finger prints, microchips, magnetic devices worn on the hands, a special watch, etc.? The people there had not heard of these guns but looked horrified; the NRA is fighting the sale of these guns as an infringement of the Second Amendment.

The anti-legislation people  couldn’t believe that the percentage of deaths from car accidents is almost identical to deaths from guns in the United States. Or that car accidents kill fewer people than guns in at least ten states.

The Second Amendment term “well-regulated” means “regulate the laws,” according to one person. I said, “But you don’t want any laws.” He said, “That’s right.” Another person said the term meant “a well-oiled machine.”

Asked about how to make life safer for people with so many guns, another person dismissed the problem by stating that each person is responsible for individual personal safety, according to one person’s conclusion. Anyone who doesn’t feel safe with the number of guns in the United States should buy one, according to an anti-legislation person.

The same person said that everyone would be safe in our community, but “ladies” who go to cities and want to walk in the “bad places” would want to have a gun. In reality, the number of deaths per capita from guns in rural areas is the same as in urban areas. He also referred to the ladies who want to make jewelry out of guns.

All the information shared by the anti-legislation people were personal anecdotes. My belief is that they are badly informed of the increasing gun problems in the country. At the same time, they refuse to believe any of the statistics because the NRA has told them that they are allies. They live in a bubble that avoids information and encourages the conviction that they are personally safe because they can shoot and kill anyone who brings danger into their lives. No education, no advancement.

The only education I received in the meeting is that they don’t want to learn or grow. It was my last meeting with this group; I will go where people want solutions instead of the childish right to have no limitations on a tool that is designed only to kill.

Culture of Guns: Facts

Children:

• In the U.S., children and teenagers are four times more likely to die by gunfire than in Canada, seven times more likely than young people in Israel, and 65 times more likely than children and teenagers in the United Kingdom.
• Children from 5 to 14 years old are more likely to die from unintentional firearm injuries, suicides, and homicides if they live in states or regions with more rather than fewer guns.
• 63 percent of 8- to 12-year old boys who found a gun touched it, and 33 percent pulled the trigger, even though 90 percent had received gun safety training.
• Guns kill twice as many children and young people in the U.S. as cancer, five times as many than heart disease, and 15 times as many as infection.
• Children living in urban and rural areas in the United States are equally likely to die from gunfire. Mass shootings occur more often in rural and suburban areas.

Women:

• Higher rates of gun availability are correlated with higher rates of female homicide; women in the United States account for 84 percent of all female firearm victims in the world.
• More than twice as many women are killed by husbands or partners than are murdered by strangers who use guns, knives, or other means of killing.
• In 2010, nearly 6 times more women were shot and killed by husbands, boyfriends, and ex-partners than murdered by male strangers.
• A woman’s chances of being killed by her abuser increase more than 7 times if he has access to a gun.
• Women in states with higher gun ownership rates are 4.9 times more likely to be murdered by a gun than women in states with lower gun ownership rates.
• Two-thirds of battered women are threatened with death by an intimate partner with a gun.
• Women who use guns to protect themselves are more likely to go to prison than men.

Poor gun legislation:

• 40% of all legal gun sales involve private sellers and don’t require background checks. 40% of prison inmates who used guns in their crimes got them this way.
• 62% of online gun sellers are willing to sell to buyers who said they couldn’t pass a background check.
• 20% of licensed California gun dealers agreed to sell handguns to researchers posing as illegal “straw” buyers.
• Firearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation.
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• The states with the highest gun ownership rates have a gun murder rate 114% higher than those with the lowest gun ownership rates. For every one percent increase in a state’s gun ownership rate, there is a nearly one percent increase in its firearm homicide rate.
• Firearm homicide rates are 19.5 times higher in the U.S. than in 23 other “high income” countries.
• Rates for other types of gun deaths are also higher in the U.S.: 5.8 times higher for firearm suicides and 5.2 times higher for unintentional firearm deaths.

Safety:

• In 2011, nearly 10 times more people were shot and killed in arguments than by civilians trying to stop a crime.
• Owning a gun is linked to higher risks of homicide, suicide, and accidental death by gun.
• Seven assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around the home occur for every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home.
• The odds of assault victims being shot are 4.5 times greater if they carry a gun. The odds of being killed are 4.2 times greater.
• Suicide is the leading cause of death for people in the United States who purchased a handgun within the previous year.
• People in the United States are 20 times more likely to die from gun violence than citizens of other developed countries.

Behavior:

• Drivers who carry guns are 44% more likely than unarmed drivers to make obscene gestures at other motorists and 77% more likely to follow them aggressively.
• Texans who have concealed-handgun licenses and are convicted of serious crimes were sentenced for threatening someone with a firearm 4.8 times more than those without.
• States with Stand Your Ground and other laws have a 7 to 10% increase in homicides.

Supporters of lax gun legislation cite More Guns, Less Crime (John Lott, Jr.) which the Stanford Law Review found to be lacking in statistical support. Lott is also under scrutiny for ethics violations regarding his research, and there is doubt about whether he conducted his study at all.

CDC’s last funding for research on gun violence was in 1996 – to study whether homicides are more likely to occur in households where guns are kept. With NRA encouragement, Congress stopped the funding for research. H.R. 2055—the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012—prevents the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from using taxpayer dollars to research gun use and ownership.

The United States is the only country in the world that treats gun ownership as a fundamental, human right. It’s a privilege – not a right – in every other country but the United States.  Every other right the people in the U.S. have has limitations; even Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledges that gun ownership has limitations.