On Guns In America -- Tom Mooney

This is a guest post by a lifetime gun owner and hunter, Tom Mooney. Tom is very much in line with the majority of gun owners (and myself) in calling for reasonable gun regulation to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them and prohibit the sale of assault rifles.

Thank you, Tom, for sharing your post....

I have a confession to make. I am a gun owner. To most people who know me that probably doesn’t come as a surprise. After all, I’m the guy who brings venison stew to the potluck and shares my homemade wild game jerky. That meat comes from somewhere, and my guns are one of the tools that allow me to bring that lean, organic, healthy meat home to my friends and family. In light of our ongoing epidemic of gun violence in this country and the latest horrific example of it in Florida, I think it’s important for people like me to speak up. I believe my views represent the majority of gun owners and that fringe groups like the NRA do not represent us. Gun ownership is actually at the lowest level it has been since the late 70s, down from around 50% of households in 1977-1980 to around 30% of households now. Gun owners are definitely in the minority overall and a radical minority of those, combined with gun manufacturers represented by the likes of the NRA, have managed to completely dominate the conversation around guns in this country for decades. It’s time we change that, and my aim is to counter the narrative put forward by the NRA about gun owners and give my non-gun owning friends and fellow citizens a view into how I think and how I believe most gun owners think, about the issues of gun violence and gun control in this country.

I grew up in Montana, which has a robust gun culture, for lack of a better term. I received my first hunting rifle as a gift from my Grandfather when I was 13. It was a .300 Savage model 45 Super Sporter manufactured some time between 1928 and 1936 from what I’ve been able to find out. It lived a hard life behind the seat of his pickup for many years and was in pretty bad shape when I got it. I restored it to good shooting condition and took pride in the work and time it took to get it there. I still have that rifle, but it’s been retired from service now and stays safely locked away and out of the elements. it’s the only physical object I still have left from my Grandfather and the sentimental value of it is priceless. After I had put in the work to get the rifle in good shape, I took the Montana hunter’s safety course and went on my first hunt that Fall. This was a rite of passage that had a profound impact on the rest of my life. It was when I gained my love of the outdoors, an appreciation for time spent with family and friends in nature, and an understanding and respect for the circle of life. The thing about it is that it was never really about the guns per se. The gun had value because it was a gift from my Grandfather who I respected immensely and it was a tool that opened up opportunities to have adventures in the mountains with friends and family and bring home meat for the freezer. I won’t deny that there wasn’t some fascination in my teenage mind with the power I perceived that the gun gave me. However, the culture I grew up in, with a family that emphasized the utilitarian nature of the gun, and the formal safety training I recieved tempered that effectively. I was lucky to grow up in what I would term a “healthy” gun culture, that emphasized safety and looked at the gun as a tool not as an integral part of identity or as a means of exerting power.

Today I own a total of 3 hunting rifles including the one my Grandfather gave me 25 years ago, a .22 caliber rifle for cheap target practice, and a shotgun. No hand guns or assault rifles here. I admit I’ve struggled over the years with how to safely store them and to do my best to be a responsible gun owner. For a long time they just sat in my closet completely unlocked with ammo on the closet shelf right above. I figured it wasn’t a big deal since I didn’t have kids and I trusted the people I lived with. That was a bad choice in hindsight, however. All it would have taken is a single break-in, or a friend of a friend who I didn’t know and trust to get a hold of one of them for a tragedy to ensue. Today, I don’t have a proper gun safe since they are expensive, heavy, and hard to handle, but the guns do stay hidden and pad locked in hard plastic cases with trigger and bolt locks in place and bolts removed on the hunting rifles. Even if someone did manage to take one, cut the locks on the case and gain access, they would find an inoperable weapon. The ammunition and bolts stay locked in a small safe in a seperate location. I do not find the need to keep one easily accessible for “home defense”, and I certainly don’t have the need to carry one with me all the time. All the statistics show that a gun in a home is more likely to hurt the owner or a loved one than it ever is to be used against a hypothetical intruder. As much as the NRA would like people to be scared of things like home invasions so they keep buying guns, the truth is such crimes are exceedingly rare. The chances of being struck by lightning, eaten by a shark, or hit by a car walking down the sidewalk are probably greater than the chances of being a victim of a home invasion. As a result of this plain logic and risk assessment, I keep the guns as inaccessible as possible.

Now with that background on my personal history and relationship with guns out of the way, on to the nitty gritty of what we do about the gun violence epidemic in this country. As with so many of these big issues, there are multiple, intersecting issues at work. Among them is the culture of toxic masculinity that has given rise to the #MeToo movement and the growing awareness of the pervasiveness of rape culture and mysoginy in our society. Gun violence at it’s core is really a problem of male violence. It is the horrific end game of the endemic issues the #MeToo movement has brought to light around sexual assault and domestic violence that pervade every corner of our society. Sexual assault is not about sex, it is about power. Gun violence is much the same. We have an entire generation of men, white men in particular, who feel their power in society diminishing as the country becomes more mulicultural; Who have seen the middle class hollowed out, and good-paying, traditionally male jobs in manufacturing dissappear. This loss of societal and economic power among white men is one piece of the puzzle in explaining the rise of this toxic gun culture. Feeling powerless over their own lives, I believe many men turn to guns to give them a sense of that power back. As someone who has seen the devastating power of guns first hand, with the ability to bring down a 600 pound animal at 200 yards with a single well placed shot, I can understand the allure. It certainly does give one a sense of power, an almost god-like feeling of holding the key to life and death in your hands. The problem with this, and where it becomes toxic is that it gets wrapped up in people’s core identity. Instead of looking at guns as a tool, the gun and the power it brings, become a core part of who they are as a person. I believe this is part of the reason it has become so hard to talk about gun control in this country. Because for many people, it’s not just about guns, it’s about a core part of who they are and how they relate to the world. When you talk about limiting access to guns, they hear limiting access to one of the only things they feel they have left to give them a sense of power in the world. Obviously this is a huge issue, with many economic and cultural facets that won’t be solved any time soon. In the meantime, our children are dying and we absolutely must do something about it NOW!

What we can do now, while we continue to work on the cultural and economic issues that are at the root of the problem, is to join the rest of the industrialized world and pass common sense gun control legislation that keeps lethal weapons out of the hands of mass murderers and reduces the damage they can do in any single incident. The fact is that higher rates of gun ownership in a country are directly correlated to higher rates of gun violence. While it’s important to not conflate correlation with causality, it’s also just sort of common sense. The more guns there are and the more easily they are accessed, the more likely it is that they will be used to commit crimes. Again, the rest of the world has figured this out, it’s not rocket science. Now, the gun lobby would have us believe just the opposite. That they way to curb gun violence is for everyone to carry a gun. Arm teachers, arm doctors, arm Grandma in her wheelchair. Well, following that logic the United States should be one of the safest countries in the world since we have the most guns of just about any country in the world. As we are all painfully aware at this point, that is just not the case. No other comparable country has the level of mass shootings or gun violence in general that we do. Not to mention, I don’t think that is a society that most of us want to live in. A place where everyone is walking around armed to the teeth isn’t a civilized country, its a war zone, and that’s not where I want to live. Therefore, I believe our immediate goals need to be to limit access to the deadliest weapons and take steps to start to reduce the overall number of guns in this country. To be clear, I’m not advocating banning all guns, and I’m not advocating confiscation by force. As you know by now, I own guns, and I’d like to keep them and continue to hunt thank you very much. The fact is though that I don’t need assault rifles to do that and I don’t need an arsenal of 50 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition to do that and neither does anyone else. So, here are some the steps I belive we can take, and that as a gun owner I would fully support:

1.) Ban the sale, manufacture, and import of semi-automatic military style rifles, assault rifles, whatever you want to call them. Just as a side note, one of the favorite diversion tactics of the radical gun lobby apologists is to turn the argument to what is and what isn’t an assault rifle. I’m not going to play that game. We all know what they are. It’s like porn, you know it when you see it. I would define them as lightweight weapons that fire small caliber, high-velocity rounds at a high rate of fire that are designed to do maximum damage to as many human bodies as possible in as short a time as possible. The AR-15 is the most notorious example since it is the weapon of choice for mass shooters lately, but there are many others. Obviously part of this would be coming up with objective criteria that define what these are. We put a man on the moon, I don’t think coming up with criteria for this should be beyond our ability. These weapons are meant for one thing, to kill enemy combatants on a battlefield. No self-respecting hunter would use one and there’s no reason for any civilian to have them. If you think you’re going to fight the government with your AR-15, you’re delusional. If that’s your concern and your interpretation of the second amendment, then we better all have tanks, Apache helicopters and nuclear missiles because if the government did decide to turn against the people you’re AR-15 isn’t going to help a bit. In reality, they are used to mow down school children and concert goers. Be real and stop living in some kind of right-wing militia fantasy land where you and your AR-15 will be heros in some hypothetical revolution. Kids are dying now, and these weapons being so freely available are a huge part of the problem. if you want to play with battlefield weapons, go join the army, I’m sure they’d be happy to have you.

2.) Ban the sale, manufacture, and import of things like bump stocks and other parts that make it easy to convert a semi-automatic weapon to a fully automatic weapon.

3.) Ban the sale, manufacture, and import of high capacity magazines. If you can’t hit your target with 4 or 5 rounds, then you need a lot more practice and have no business with a weapon in the woods or anywhere else.

4.) Limit the amount of ammunition that can be purchased at one time. We do this with Sudafed for God’s sake, and it has been very effective in combating the methamphetamine epidemic. We should do the same with ammunition. You don’t need thousands of rounds of ammunition for hunting or even target practice.

3.) Raise the age limit for purchasing any kind of gun to 21.

4.) Institute mandatory universal background checks at the Federal level.

5.) Institute a mandatory waiting period of at least 10 days for any weapon.

6.) Require safety training and licensing for gun owners, just like we do for cars.

7.) Require that liability insurance be carried on all guns, just like we do for cars. I believe this would discourage the small percentage of gun owners who have massive arsenals because it would be prohibitively expensive to insure at some point. In my opinion this would be one of the best ways we could start to reduce the overall number of guns that are out there, without confiscation, just by letting the market do it’s thing.

8.) Require by law that guns be stored safely.

9.) Institute a nationwide voluntary buyback program. This worked very well in Australia. They had a school shooting in the 90s and part of their response to it was to start a nationwide buyback program that drastically reduced the number of guns at large in the country. Guess what, they haven’t had a school shooting since.

That’s my list of common sense gun control legislation that I would be fully behind and that most gun owners I have talked to would be fully behind as well. Would it make my life a bit more complicated? It sure would, but if a bit of inconvenience for me will save the life of even one child then it’s worth every bit. Purchasing a gun is a rare thing for most gun owners. Maybe a few times in a lifetime. Having to go through a few more steps, waiting periods, etc. would not be that big of a deal for most of us. It would have a bigger impact on collectors and the “prepper” set who feel the need to have a massive arsenal. But you know what, I don’t care. Their hobby or paranoia isn’t worth the lives of children.

One last point that I’d like to make about gun control is that as with everything in America we have to think about the racial aspect of it. The fact is, some of the first gun control laws were put into place in California with the full backing of the NRA, as a reaction to the Black Panther movement and black folks openly carrying guns. if we are not careful about how we institute and execute gun control legislation it will become just another tool like the “war on drugs” for targeting communities of color and perpetuating the national shame of mass incarceration of black and brown people.

Also, here are some organizations that I’ve contributed to that are doing good work around this and countering the likes of the NRA. I urge you to do the same.

• Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
• Everytown for Gun Safety
• Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (I included BHA not because they are promoting gun control obviously, but because I believe they promote a more “healthy” gun culture; one focused on the gun as a tool and as a means to enjoy the outdoors, kind of what the NRA used to be before they were infiltrated by gun manufacturers and zeaolts. Their conservation work is also tremendous.)

Addendum by Baldr: There is a growing movement of gun owners against the NRA, as well as a number of organizations (such as Gun Owners for Responsible Gun Ownership) and Facebook groups (such as Gun Owners Against the NRA) of responsible gun owners who support commonsense gun regulation.  See my prior blog post on this, HERE.

The Growing Movement Of Gun Owners Against The NRA

The NRA was once a respectable organization.  Founded just after the Civil War, it existed to advocate for hunter training, marksmanship, conservation of nature, and gun safety.  It was a sportsman's organization which existed almost solely on membership dues and did not dip much into politics.  But all of that changed in 1977, when extremist members of the organization hijacked the sportsman's organization and converted it into a political lobby group intent on fighting any and all gun regulation.  As the Washington Post put it:

The Old Guard was caught by surprise. The NRA officers sat up front, on a dais, observing their demise. The organization, about a century old already, was thoroughly mainstream and bipartisan, focusing on hunting, conservation and marksmanship. It taught Boy Scouts how to shoot safely. But the world had changed, and everything was more political now. The rebels saw the NRA leaders as elites who lacked the heart and conviction to fight against gun-control legislation.

And because their focus shifted away from the needs of their members, and more toward ideological and legislative goals, the NRA leadership has forgotten their own followers.  Oh, they still talk the good talk of safety and hunting, but the truth is far from it.  Their only concern is money.  As I blogged before, follow the money!  And they've created a "circus of fear" to raise the ideological paranoia of their membership.

Time and again in my work with the community, in forums and public events, I talk with gun owners, hunters, and veterans who disagree with the NRA's stances.  Even some NRA members have expressed to me that they simply disagree with the organization and are actually closer to me in their beliefs on gun regulation.  Sometimes all it takes to make this conversation work is to get around the NRA talking points and to ask them about specific regulations.

Background checks are a good example of this.  At every turn, the NRA has fought each and every attempt to create and then strengthen the background check system, pouring millions of dollars into the pockets of politicians to buy their votes.  And even though a background check takes on average less than five minutes, and there are far more licensed dealers to go to for the check than there are Starbucks stores (see an interactive map, HERE), they nonetheless argue that that minor inconvenience somehow infringes on the right to bear arms and is a prelude to an all-out total gun confiscation (expanding background checks, by the way, used to be something the NRA approved of, and now heavily oppose, just to illustrate how extreme they have become).  And yet, polls repeatedly show that around 72% of NRA members support universal background checks for all gun sales (or 85% of all gun owners).  So who does the NRA really represent?  Again, follow the money.  They represent the arms dealers who line the pockets of the NRA leadership.  The same split goes for many other proposed regulation.  Despite the NRA line against such changes, the majority of gun owners also support a ban on semi-auto assault rifles and high-capacity ammo magazines, support child access protection laws, mandatory training for gun owners, prohibitions for gun ownership by domestic violence offenders, and many other laws.

With this in mind, it is little wonder that more and more gun owners are renouncing the NRA.

An early and well-publicized example of this was the senior George Bush, a lifelong gun owner and hunter.  In 1995, he sent in a "letter of resignation" from his lifetime NRA membership after the NRA's Wayne LaPierre called the government "jackbooted thugs" shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing.

And remember, back in 2013, when longtime Guns & Ammo writer and TV host Dick Metcalf dared to write that regulation should be considered and that it didn't infringe on the Second Amendment?  He was immediately fired, but not because gun owners disagreed with him.

In recent years, particularly after the Sandy Hook shooting and the NRA's extremist solution to arm all schools, gun owners have woken up to the fact that this isn't their father's NRA anymore.  

That was the event which turned one gun owner's opinion around.  She's a hunter and grew up in a gun family.

Ultimately, the people that are advocating for looser gun laws or less restriction end up making responsible owners look like idiots. Personally, I don't want to be associated with them, and I don't want to be lumped together. Some of us understand that keeping our children safe is the priority. We have too much gun violence in this country to ignore it anymore.

She was so fed up with the NRA and the pro-gun activist movement that she left the NRA and even joined Moms Demand Action Against Gun Violence in America.

One avid hunter recently turned his back on the NRA, tired of their ceaseless fearmongering:

The biggest problem in this entire issue is the NRA. People who buy guns and are interested in hunting or target shooting are not the problem. The problem is an organization that convinces them to join based on fears of the government, fears of other races, fears of invasion, fears of the police; FEARS. That’s their agenda. 

Once you’ve paid your dues to join this despicable organization, they are free to use that money however they see fit. And overwhelmingly the way that they see fit to spend it is through propaganda, advertising, and lobbying.

Another hunter, from Oregon, explained why the NRA doesn't talk for him:

I don’t belong to the NRA. The kind of hunting that I do faces its greatest threats from habitat loss, not gun control. During an election, I’m more likely to consult the League of Conservation Voters’ candidate ratings than the NRA’s. .... 

None of these restrictions prevent me or other hunters from enjoying the tradition. On the contrary, the rules keep us safe and protect the wildlife populations that must thrive if we are to continue to responsibly cull them.

After the Charleston massacre, another gun owner and hunter came out against the NRA after hearing a robo-call insinuating that President Obama was plotting to turn over the USA to the United Nations:

[The NRA] has successfully positioned itself as the singular representation of gun owners. For decades they’ve worked to defend and expand access to firearms in spite of polls showing that most Americans, including gun owners, favor laws that would limit access in various reasonable ways (even three-quarters of NRA households favor background checks prior to private gun sales). But when a U.S. congresswoman was shot in the face, the NRA made certain that no law was passed that would have made her safer. There’s no doubt that the NRA does have some grass-roots support, but it’s smaller than we think. The NRA does not represent all gun owners, and it certainly doesn’t represent me.

One Nevada legislator and lifelong hunter has turned his back on the NRA, as well, fed up with their inflexibility and tired of seeing so many people killed by gunfire in his years as an emergency responder, along with his own personal family history of gun suicide and domestic violence:  

“That, coupled with seeing Congress’ inaction [on gun control] made me say, ‘I can’t do this anymore,'” Oceguera told ThinkProgress. “I still own guns for self-protection in my home, and I’m going to teach my kids gun safety and have already started doing that. But I now think there are some people — who are criminals, who have mental illness, who are on the watch list — who shouldn’t have guns. It’s as simple as that. And I think that if law-abiding NRA members and gun owners like myself don’t stand up and say, ‘Geez, enough is enough. Let’s do something,’ then nothing is going to happen.”

A large group of gun owners recently took a trip to Washington to convince legislators to finally take action to enact universal background checks.

There's even a lifelong gun owner, trainer, and gun store owner who has turned his back to the NRA and the pro-gun extremists out there.  Michael Weisser, or "Mike the Gun Guy," has written books on the subject, and regularly writes on his blog site.

And gun owners have even joined together to form organizations to represent their interest in both gun ownership and reasonable gun regulation.

For instance, here in Oregon, some of the gun owning families who lost loved ones at the Clackamas Town Center shooting formed the organization Gun Owners For Responsible Ownership.  That organization then joined the Oregon Alliance For Gun Safety and helped to pass Senate Bill 941 for universal background checks in Oregon.   GOFRO's mission statement:  

We envision an America where all are safe from gun violence, and where responsible gun owners take the lead to promote safe gun ownership and sensible laws and regulations.

And they aren't alone.  Here are some other like-minded organizations and Facebook groups of gun owners:

American Coalition for Responsible Gun Ownership
Citizens for Smart Gun Ownership
Gun Owners Against The NRA
Gun Owners For Commonsense Laws
Gun Owners For Reform
Veterans for Responsible Gun Ownership

It is moderate gun owners who will make the biggest difference.  Don't let the NRA and other extremist pro-gun organizations speak for you!  Call them out for their extremism, and renounce your membership.  Help enact the sensible gun regulations that you support, and let's make a new trajectory for our communities away from gun violence.

ADDENDUM (1/19/16):  The recent executive actions by President Obama to strengthen the background check system are also very popular with gun owners, at 63% approval, despite the NRA opposition to them.  From the article:

Also, though it is from 2012, here is a very good opinion piece written by an NRA member who was outraged by the NRA stance after Sandy Hook and demanded to immediately cancel his membership.

ADDENDUM (4/29/18): A great article about gun owners wanting increased gun regulation.  

“I honestly believe that God-fearing, gun-owning Americans should be leading the debate on gun laws,” Dr. Haring said in an interview on Monday, after learning of another shooting, which killed four people at a Waffle House a few miles from his house. “It just makes sense to me that if I own weapons, I should be the first one to be advocating for safety with those weapons.”

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Guns And Other Weapons In The Airport

Every now and then I hear a report of another stupid gun owner who is caught trying to bring a loaded gun through security at the airport.  Either they are too ignorant and irresponsible to realize they had a gun on them, or they are purposely breaking federal law.  Either way, they should have their gun rights permanently removed.

Consider this recent case of a man who was turned away from the TSA checkpoint because he had a loaded .22-caliber handgun on him, at Portand International Airport.  He was told to go check it into his bag.  Rather than do that, though, he instead decided to hide it in a potted plant in the main lobby, thinking he could retrieve it when he returned from his trip!  Never mind that thousands of people pass through there every day, including families with small children.

Here's an article about two incidents of loaded handguns caught on passengers at Utah airports.

Here's a report from just a couple days ago of an 81-year old man who had a loaded 9mm gun with extra ammo in his luggage, without notifying anyone.

But despite all the reports I've seen, it still shocked me to read the following statistic from a gallery of weapons found so far this year in airport screenings (bolding added):

The TSA reports that it's confiscated 821 firearms in 2012 to date (691 of which were loaded). Some were stowed away in creative places, like in a potted plant or inside stuffed animals.

Some recent guns and ammo confiscated by TSA

OMG!  821 firearms so far this year?  Most of them loaded?  What are people thinking?

They've also confiscated knives, machetes, live and inert grenades, a bazooka round, blasting caps and detonators, and even swords!

I then visited the TSA blog and saw report after report, and image after image, of many of these weapons.

Unfortunately, not all are captured initially, like this woman who took a gun through in her purse, or this businessman who unintentionally took a gun through in his laptop bag (and reported it afterward).  I wonder how many more are never caught.  According to that last link, "up to 70% of tests done at certain airports failed to identify such items."  Yikes!

I'm as annoyed as anyone else at the searches at the security checkpoints.  I used to get quite angry about it.  But now that I know so many dangerous and irresponsible people are trying to get weapons through there, I don't feel quite so bad about it.  I'm glad they were caught!

UPDATE (9/29/12):  The TSA has updated their numbers.  From a New York Times article:

Through Friday, 1,105 guns have been found this year, a pace that is higher than last year’s. In 2011, the total was 1,320, up from 1,123 in 2010, the agency says. 

Security experts attribute the increase to two factors: a rise in gun sales and the sharp growth of so-called right-to-carry laws across the country that significantly relax regulations on carrying guns in many areas of public life, from colleges to hospitals. 

Invariably, according to the T.S.A., travelers at airports with guns in their carry-on bags say they simply forgot they had them. “It’s almost always inadvertent rather than intentional,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the agency
Like other professionals in security, law enforcement and firearms safety, Mr. Castelveter was baffled by how anyone could forget that they were carrying a gun. 

“I’m a Vietnam vet, and when I went through training I was taught that my gun was my best friend — and God forbid you should ever lose sight of that fact. I would never, ever not know that I have a gun in my bag.”

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National ASK Day 2012 - Does Your Perception of the Danger of Guns Match Reality?

Today is National ASK Day, when parents are urged to ask about guns and other dangers where their children play.  Is there a gun where your children play, in their friends' homes, in the purse of your babysitter, in your relative's home?  Are you certain?  Have you asked? 

And if there is a gun there, is it properly stored, locked and unloaded?

Have you talked to your children about avoiding guns without proper supervision, or what to do when they find a gun?  Have you urged them to Speak Up about guns they encounter?

All too often, gun owners underestimate the danger of their weapons around children.  They erroneously believe that their children have been trained sufficiently to avoid their guns, or that their children could never get into their guns.  Unfortunately, these assumptions are often wrong, with tragic consequences.  Over at the Kid Shootings blog, I see numerous examples every week of children who get hold of guns where they live or visit and shoot themselves or others.  For instance, HERE is a recent example where a 9-year old boy in Oklahoma got into his family’s gun safe, got a loaded gun, and unintentionally shot his 3-year old brother.  HERE is another recent example, where a 7-year old boy in Mississippi got hold of his family’s loaded, unsecured shotgun and shot his 4-year old sister in the face.

Below is a very enlightening graphic, put out by the Center to Prevent YouthViolence.  As you can see, the danger of guns to children is higher than the perception of danger by gun owners.  Please read this carefully and discuss it with other parents (click on the picture to read it more clearly). 

While we at Ceasefire Oregon do not recommend having guns in homes with children at all, if you feel strongly that a gun is needed, please store it locked and unloaded, with the key or combination closely guarded. 

The safety of our children is our most important duty as parents.

Here is a previous post on the ASK campaign:  http://newtrajectory.blogspot.com/2011/02/asking-saves-kids.html

And here is an article I recently published on the topic, in Metro-Parent Magazine (see page 28):  http://www.metro-parent.com/issues/june11/june11.pdf


Let's make a new trajectory for our community, away from gun violence.


UPDATE:  The "Art on Issues" blog had a great posting which, at the end, comments on the misperceptions of children and guns.  I recommend you read it.  Here is a good excerpt:

First, a study showed the vast majority of adults (around 87%), regardless of gun ownership, geography, race, gender, education level, income, or child age, believed that their children would not touch guns they found, 52% reasoning that their children were “too smart” or “knew better” (ref).  This unrealistic expectation for children was demonstrated in another study (ref).  Twenty-nine (29) groups of boys aged 8-12 years were observed in a room where a gun was hidden.  Many of the children found and handled the gun, and half of the children actually pulled the trigger (more than 90% of these boys reported having had some sort of gun safety training).  Although the NRA offers its Eddie Eagle training program, a study in 6 and 7 year olds compared the effectiveness of that program to a behavioral skills training program (ref): “…children who received behavioral skills training were significantly more likely to demonstrate the desired safety skills in role-playing assessments and in situ assessments than were children who received Eddie Eagle program training”.

....

A reasonable question would be how many of the NRA’s own membership have lost children, who otherwise may have done things differently, had the organization they financially supported been proactive rather than obstructive regarding the public health risks of firearms? 

ADDENDUM (6/21/12):  A related article with more statistics, by "M.D. Mama", pediatrician Dr. Clair McCarty:  http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/mdmama/2012/06/is_there_a_gun_where_your_child_plays.html?comments=all
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Not A Happy Mother's Day for 30K Mothers Each Year

Today is Mother's Day in America.  But while most Mother's will be getting cards, gifts, and phone calls from their loving children, 30,000 every year will instead have only memories, thanks to the violence wrought by guns in this country, not counting adult children, through murders, suicides, and accidents.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Please watch this appeal from one mother who lost her child this year to a senseless shooter:  Sybrina Fulton, mother to Trayvon Martin, gunned down by a vigilante in Florida:

A quote from the video, by Mrs. Fulton: 

Just like me, this year 30,000 mothers lost their children this year to senseless gun violence.  Nobody can bring our children back, but it would bring us comfort if we can help spare other mothers the pain that we would feel on Mother's Day, and every day of our lives.

We may not be able to bring their children back, but we can support them. That’s why I’m helping gather signatures for a special Mothers’ Day card for Trayvon’s mom, and every mother mourning a child killed by gun violence this year."

Please sign a special Mothers’ Day card for Trayvon Martin’s mom -- and we’ll deliver it to her on Sunday with your name.

Help reduce the numbers of grieving mothers by supporting mandatory safe gun storage (Child Access Protection laws), gun safety education, supporting the ASK campaign, and mandatory background checks for ALL gun sales, to name just a few ways.

As for me, I'm spending part of today leading an annual march and rally against gun violence, in Eugene, Oregon, sponsored by Million Mom March and Ceasefire Oregon.

And what are the gun guys doing instead?  Making shooting targets resembling Trayvon Martin. Sick.

It's time to make a new trajectory for this nation to follow.

Happy Mother's Day.

The Dangers of Vigilante Justice

Not quite an hour south of me here in Oregon, down in the little town of Dorena, people are up in arms – literally – about lack of adequate sheriff’s patrols and the potential that more deputies will be laid off.  Last summer there was a crime spree in the area.  So now Dorena citizens are calling for their own sort of solution:

Minnick and his neighbors are not taking the news sitting down. 

"Talk to your neighbors, get to know your neighbors," he told KVAL News this week. "That's your best defense." 

Minnick said last summer's troubles united residents. They meet once a month to talk over home safety steps, like alarm systems. 

"Since it's been in, I sleep really good now," he said.

So far so good, I thought.  I’m a strong advocate of neighborhood watch programs and good relations with neighbors, for the sake of watching out for each other.

But then the article took a dark turn:

And when the alarm goes off, neighbors get the call - not the Sheriff's Office. 

Dorena residents have all received basic gun safety training.  

"They are the ones that get the call from the alarm system, if it goes off and we're not home," he said, "and they come armed." 

Minnick's message to would be thieves and burglars?  

"We know who you are," he said, "and if you start again, there will be some opposition." 

Excuse me?  Yes, I read it again.  They’re talking about forming posses.  In short, they are preparing for “vigilante justice.”

This is certainly nothing new in the world of conceal carry gun guys.  A common dream of theirs, which they repeat again and again as justification for carrying guns everywhere in public, from Starbucks to grade schools, is that, if they witness a crime (even just a theft), they’ll swoop in and save the day with guns drawn and blazing.  They imagine themselves playing “Wyatt Earp.”

Some gun guys will deny it.  I have no doubt that the majority of those who carry concealed handguns do it for self-protection out of a paranoid fear of their fellow man.  But a disturbing number of them also carry a gun with the notion that they can play the role of a freelance policeman, like those people in Dorena.

I’ve commented on this before, when a group of gun extremists in California hoped to incite a riot by the Occupy movement there and then use their weapons to “protect” their community.

HERE is a case from Minnesota where a man with a concealed gun witnessed a thief pistol-whip an old woman then steal her purse.  Instead of calling 911, he decided to play policeman by pulling his gun and chasing the pursesnatcher.  He confronted the thief in an alleyway and shot him dead, claiming that the thief had turned to shoot him.  At that point, it was his word against a dead man’s as to what had happened.  The old woman was only slightly injured.  Were the contents of the purse worth the thief’s life?  Was the crime worth it for the vigilante to risk his own life confronting the thief? 

HERE is a more recent case from just a few days ago, in Texas, where a customer with a concealed handgun witnessed the theft of a necklace at a pawn shop.  Instead of calling 911, the customer decided to pull his gun and chase down the suspect.  The suspect wasn’t armed, but at one point tried to get into a  car, making the vigilante think he was going for his gun.  The suspect eventually got away, after dropping the necklace.  Was the theft of a necklace from a pawn shop worth the vigilante risking his life for?  Was the thief’s life worth taking for it?

HERE is another recent case, where a man was in bed and heard a commotion from his neighbor, who had just been robbed at gunpoint.  He jumped out of bed, armed with a loaded handgun, and chased down the suspect.  He was thinking, according to the article, “OK, that’s not going to happen. Not on my watch.”  his watch?  Who appointed him as watchman?  The article makes him out as a hero, but he’s lucky he wasn’t shot by the suspect.  The robbery victim was apparently unharmed.  Was what was robbed worth the life of either the “hero” or the suspect?

There are many, many such cases as these.  They’re easy to find.

By now, if you’re even slightly in tune with issues of guns and gun violence, you also have heard a lot about the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old boy who was innocently walking through his gated neighborhood when a self-appointed neighborhood watch man, George Zimmerman, armed with a concealed weapon and feeling empowered by Florida’s “shoot first” law, took it upon himself to trail and then accost Trayvon, against the advice of 911.  When the boy put up a fight, armed with nothing more than a can of tea and a bag of Skittles, Zimmerman shot Trayvon dead.

There are so many red flags with this case that it boggles the mind, such as the fact that Zimmerman had a violent past but was allowed to carry a concealed weapon anyway, the way Zimmerman ignored the 911 operator and felt obliged to get into an armed confrontation with the boy despite the fact that police were on their way, the assumption by the police of Zimmerman’s innocence, the assumption by the police of Trayvon’s guilt, the apparent stereotypes that Zimmerman had of Trayvon based on the boy’s clothing and skin color, and the lack of an arrest of the shooter.

But at least as disturbing to me as any of those things is the root of the issue, the one thing that led to the confrontation in the first place:  the desire by a man with a concealed weapon to play “Wyatt Earp” and be a freelance policeman.  People carry concealed handguns for two main reasons:  fear of others, and a sense of self-empowerment.  Fear of others can quickly become paranoia, and a feeling of self-empowerment can sometimes push people over the edge into irrational behavior in a crisis situation.  Both of these things likely happened in Trayvon’s situation.  Add to this the recent study that people who hold guns are more likely to imagine others being armed with guns.  This, too, apparently happened in Trayvon’s shooting, where Zimmerman is heard on the 911 call saying that he thought Trayvon was holding something suspicious, like a gun.

There is an irrefutable fact:  the average citizen with a conceal carry license is not even remotely trained like a policeman.  They aren’t as versed in the laws, they haven’t been trained in crisis intervention, negotiation tactics, or how to remain rational or steady in a shootout, and they likely haven’t had as much practice with their weapon.  Training requirements are little to none nearly anywhere in America for them, and they are less accountable to anyone for their potentially lethal decisions than law enforcement professionals.  So the pro-gun daydream of saving the day with their guns is a potentially lethal one, not just for the criminal or the gun owner, but also for anyone who happens to be around them when the shootout happens.

I can understand the frustration felt by the citizens of Dorena.  They just want to feel safe.  Sadly, bond measures intended to fund law enforcement in this area almost always fail, and they are particularly voted against by rural voters like those in Dorena.  If they want to improve their safety, arming everyone around and forming posses to come to the rescue of a victim isn’t the answer, as Trayvon’s family can now attest.  The answer is better funding to improve the number of deputy patrols, as well as the many non-armed options to hardening their homes against invaders. 

There are very good reasons why we have police forces instead of relying on vigilantes to protect our communities.  Let’s hope the citizens of Dorena don’t re-discover them.


Addendum (4/26/12):  Another recent case, where a man and his son "exercised their rights" by grabbing their AR-15 assault rifles and holding an interracial couple hostage, thinking they were breaking in next door.  Turns out they were the new neighbors.  So much for their vigilante "justice."  http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/04/24/second-amendment-is-not-an-excuse-for-vigilantes/?cp=14#comment-936862

Firearms Responsibility in the Home

A topic that has come up recently in comments here and at other sites is the "Four Rules" of gun safety, as well as general firearms responsibility, such as safe storage of firearms.

Here is a link to a pamphlet that is released by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which I think is very well put-together for this topic:

http://www.nssf.org/lit/FRITH.pdf

though they put more faith in the presence of children than I do (see below).

Also, from the Ceasefire Oregon website  (http://www.ceasefireoregon.org/coef/C3facts.html):

Protecting Your Family:

Other factors change, but there's one common denominator in every unintentional firearm injury: access to a loaded firearm. The most important thing parents, caregivers and gun owners can do to protect children is reduce their access to firearms and safely store all guns.

Here's what gun owners can do:

• If you have children in the home, any gun is a potential danger to them. Seriously consider the risks.  

• Store firearms unloaded, locked up and out of children's reach.

• Store ammunition in a separate, locked location.  

• Use quality gun locks, lock boxes or gun safes on every firearm. Gun locks, when correctly installed, prevent firearms from being discharged without the lock being removed.  

• Keep gun storage keys and lock combinations hidden in a separate location.  

• Take a course in using, maintaining and storing guns safely.  

Here's what all caregivers can do:

•  Talk to your children about the potential dangers of guns.  

•  Teach children never to touch or play with a gun.  

•  Teach children to tell an adult if they find a gun, or call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number if no adult is present.  

•  Check with neighbors, friends or relatives--or adults in any other homes where children visit--to ensure they follow safe storage practices if firearms are in the home.  See our ASK Program.

I might add, I grew up in a home with guns, and none of these rules were followed.

I don't recommend you have a firearm of any kind in your home if:

• you have children or teens in the home at any time
• you have anyone in the home, including yourself, who is depressed, undergoing traumatic events such as divorce, or has expressed suicidal feelings or actions in the recent past
• you are uncomfortable with or untrained in usage of your firearms (such as when a firearms-trained spouse dies or if you have become unable to wield them safely, such as by health problems like blindness, advanced Alzheimer's, or palsy).
• you have anyone in the home or visiting who is mentally ill in a way which causes erratic or violent behavior.
• you or anyone in the home has a history of violent behavior or arrests for violent behavior, including domestic violence

Now, I can predict some responses to these suggestions, particularly with my feelings about children and teens.  Some of you might be inclined to use the "Not my child!" excuse to counter my firm belief that even the most mature and responsible children and teens have moments of curiosity and impulsiveness, and that you can't control for their friends at all times, and that this puts those children at risk if there are guns in the home, even if they have been trained in safety and appropriate usage.  I know it from my own childhood, including a suicide of a teenage friend and a fatal shooting that I was involved in (as a witness from just a few feet away from the shooter and victim, both teens). 

Consider the following statistics:

• Among gun-owning parents who reported that their children had never handled their firearms at home, 22% of the children, questioned separately, said that they had (Baxley and Miller, p. 542).
• Of youths who committed suicide with firearms, 82% obtained the firearm from their home, usually a parent’s firearm (The National Violent Injury Statistics System, p. 2).
• When storage status was noted, about two-thirds of the firearms had been stored unlocked (The National Violent Injury Statistics System, p. 2).
• Among the remaining cases in which the firearms had been locked, the youth knew the combination or where the key was kept or broke into the cabinet (The National Violent Injury Statistics System, p. 2).

Sources: 

Baxley, Fances, MD, and Matthew Miller, MD, ScD. “Parental Misperceptions About Children and Firearms.” Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine. 160 (2006): 542-47.

The National Violent Injury Statistics System. Youth Suicide: Findings from a pilot for the National Violent Death Reporting System. Boston: Harvard Injury Control Research Center: Harvard School of Public Health, 2009. http://www.sprc.org/library/YouthSuicideFactSheet.pdf. Originally accessed through Harvard School of Public Health: Means Matters. Source of Firearms in Youth Suicides. Boston: Harvard School of Public Health, 2009. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/youth-access/index.html.