Some thoughts about guns

Art Bell’s second banana on Coast-to-Coast, George Noory, and some right-wing NRA-type were belly-aching about Chicago’s latest effort to limit the sale of handguns within city limits, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a city statute banning guns within city limits. The rationale for having guns, of course, is self-defense or to dissuade would-be burglars. There is nothing particularly troubling about this, although the Second Amendment does not in fact suggest that the people can own guns for vigilante purposes. The reality is that few people actually shoot guns defending themselves. They are more likely to shoot either themselves or innocent people. Threatening to use guns around is also a good way to agitate another person into using their own gun. Why emulate police who fire off their guns at “furtive” movements? Whites often cite fear of gang violence, but gangs don’t target white folks hiding in their houses, they kill each other over turf.

While a few studies used by pro-gun activists, such as that by criminologist Gary Kleck, have been cited as to hype the rate that crimes have been deterred by guns, such studies have been criticized for suggesting gross overestimations of “potential” crimes than actually occurred, or those imagined by owners of guns; most robberies occur in the wee hours of the night or when the owners are not home, so guns in fact have a greatly exaggerated deterrent effect. Other studies show that guns used for defensive purposes in violent crimes were more likely to lead to the owner’s demise than the criminals, because of the heightened degree of agitation; gun owners are more likely to kill unarmed or innocent “robbers.”

Meanwhile, CDC statistics dispel most of the myths in regard to gun violence: nearly 40 percent of deaths by firearms are homicides—but nearly 60 percent are suicides; about 2 percent of gun deaths are labeled “accidental.” Men are six times more likely to die from firearms than women, and African-Americans have the highest rate per their percentage of the population, followed by whites, and perhaps surprisingly to some people, Latinos come in third. In raw numbers, whites are more likely to die from guns.

The American addiction to guns is in stark contrast with other “civilized” countries, including the UK. Although the English constitution does insinuate the right to bear arms, in fact guns are heavily restricted, and there is little complaint. The British are far more sensitive to gun violence than Americans, do not have a fascination with owning guns, do not have a hunting culture (except among the “elite”), and do not have an organized gun lobby. And they seem quite content with that. Perhaps Americans could learn a lesson or two from the British.