On Gun Control

It's been one year since the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Conneticut. And here's what's been done to try to stop it from happening again. Anyone following this issue closely will not have to click that link to know that what's been done is nothing. Nothing has been done.

I will add my voice to the growing chorus shouting aloud to seemingly deaf ears: how many more people will have to die before action is taken? It is already far past being far too late. Each death only adds more weight to this contentious issue for those who are concerned and are trying to do something about it. But why isn't everyone in the fight?

It's too easy for a lot of Americans to just forget about it. School shootings and public massacres are sad and tragic, no one would likely say otherwise. But unfortunately they are not uncommon in the United States. It's tragic to me that these events are accepted by many as just a part of life in that country, or as "the price we pay for our freedom," as in the freedom to own a gun, which is not really a freedom, but is defended by so many Americans as a right. For someone to think "I have the right to shoot someone" is alarming to me. You are handing everyday people the right to decide to try to seriously injure or kill someone. That right should not be in the hands of the average citizen. It is not up to us to weigh the value of someone else's life.

Let's have a thought experiment. Imagine there was a country in which every citizen had the right to own syringes containing a potentially toxic poison. The best estimates of the number of guns in the United States are between 262 million and 310 million. So let's go with the conservative estimate and say there are 262 million Americans holding a syringe with a deadly toxin, and that there are multiple outlets to get more once they've used it up. Imagine the odds of dying from this poison were that for every 340 people injected, 1 person would certainly die. These are your odds of dying from a handgun assault. Now imagine everyone in the country (that's about 317 million people) asserting their right to be able to use this potentially lethal injection on anyone they think might hurt them. This is the mindset behind the castle doctrine, or the commonly known "Stand Your Ground" law. If you feel threatened on your own property, you don't have the duty to leave, and you are allowed to defend yourself by any means necessary. There is an almost unlimited supply of these syringes, enough for every single person in the United States of America, and each of these citizens has the ability to potentially kill anyone, at any time, and each asserts their right to do so. And what's more, even after their victim has died, they are entitled to claim absolutely no responsibility for that person's death. It's their word against someone who can no longer defend themselves because they are dead. The injector has the freedom now to state that he thought he was in danger and needed to use deadly force.

Does this sound scary? It should.

(This is probably a good time to add in a disclaimer. A few nights ago in a discussion with friends, we got onto the topic of gun control through remembrance of the Sandy Hook tragedy. I started to state my viewpoint about how it pretty much comes down to availability; the more comfortable a culture is with guns, the more accessible they will be and the more there will be around, which ultimately increases the number of people discharging firearms at each other and therefore more death by handguns. I noticed my friend looking slightly uncomfortable when I realized that in her family, hunting is a big thing. I quickly reassured her that I see hunting as different, because I do. When it's done respectfully, and within the laws and boundaries, it's fine and more often than not, a good thing for certain animal populations. She added that her brother keeps his hunting rifles in a safe that requires two different methods of entry, and keeps the ammunition locked up in a different location. This is absolutely how firearms should be treated, always, because they are motherfucking dangerous.)

To say that no one should ever own any gun, EVER, is unrealistic. I respect the need for access to firearms for law enforcement and the military. But there are things we can do to gradually make this world a safer place for the average citizen.

Don't keep a gun in a shoebox in your closet, or in the bedside table drawer, or in any accessible place. This overly comfortable attitude towards such a potentially deadly object contributes to accidental shootings. Estimates state that in 2013 there were 259 accidental deaths from discharged firearms. What's more is that it's widely accepted that these estimates are far below actual numbers. (Warning: that link goes to a NYT article that describes some deaths in detail. Not safe for sensitive souls.) That is a lot. Imagine 259 coffins lined up in a row. Imagine 259 households shocked by a sudden, unexpected death that took away someone they loved. That is the official estimate for a single year. And these are just the accidents.

Intentional public massacres should never happen, and yet in America they're frighteningly common. Of the top ten most deadly public shootings in history throughout the Americas, six occurred in the U.S. That doesn't include school shootings. Do you want the whole list of school shootings in the U.S? I'll warn you now, it's a long one. How about just this year? There have been 22 school shootings in America since January 1st, 2013. From those, 18 people died. 18 families had a child or adolescent or teenager taken away from them before their time at the hands of someone else with a gun and some anger. Sandy Hook is not included in that number since it happened December 14, 2012. A total of 28 people died in that one school shooting. A person got four guns and used them to kill his mother, 20 children, six staff members and himself.

How do we not get that this needs to stop?

Americans against any form of gun control love to cite the U.S. constitution's right to bear arms as justification for owning a handgun. At the time that right was enacted, guns were a very different thing. They were extremely slow to reload. They were pretty inaccurate. At the time you were more likely to die from the infection you got from the wound rather than the shot itself, because they didn't really have the full grasp of what bacteria was back then. Now we have guns that hold far more rounds. Scary numbers of bullets should not be in the hands of everyday citizens. Automatic weapons make it far too easy to shoot multiple people at a time. And increased numbers of guns make it far too easy to just grab another once your clip is empty and keep going.

People against gun control love to complain that "responsible gun owners should not have to suffer for the actions of a few crazed idiots!" Firstly, it is not just a few as specified above. Secondly, how could you even possibly compare your "suffering" to that experienced by those who have had a loved one taken from them because of a gun? How exactly are you going to "suffer?" By not being able to have the potential to shoot at anything you want, at any time? OH NO LET ME GET A BOX OF KLEENEX FOR YOU. Imagine the person you love being shot by that gun you so desperately want to cling to. Now weigh what you would rather have: a loved one, or a gun. And if you need any more time than a split second to consider those options, you have some serious thinking to do.

One last argument that I can't stand is the notion that guns are only dangerous "in the wrong hands." Oh okay, so when the right person picks up a gun it turns to rubber and is no longer a danger except as a slightly blunt object? No. Think of the accidental shootings. These weapons are dangerous in any hands.

Let's just stop the insanity please. Yes, even when handguns are illegal, such as they are in Canada, anyone who really seriously wants one can probably obtain it. But consider the fact that in Canada, there have been 14 school shootings since 1902. Just fourteen in 111 years. Compare that to 18 school shootings in the past year alone in America. We cannot ever absolutely eliminate such massacres, but Americans should at the very least be putting pressure on their government to enact measures that will make these tragedies less common, and to make it so that less people will end up dying because someone who got angry or upset was able to find some guns. Let's make them harder to find.

(Come on America, you can do it. Send letters to your members of Congress and tell them to get their fucking heads out of their asses already. Everyone should be concerned about everyone's safety and not just their own, end of story.)