THE HORRIFIC, PREDICTABLE RESULT OF A WIDELY ARMED CITIZENRY

[applegrove]

THE HORRIFIC, PREDICTABLE RESULT OF A WIDELY ARMED CITIZENRY

By Adam Gopnik at the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-horrific-predictable-result-of-a-widely-armed-citizenry?mbid=social_facebook

"SNIP.............


Once again, it needs stating because it can’t be stated too often: despite the desperate efforts of the National Rifle Association to prevent research on gun violence, the research has gone on, and shows conclusively what common sense already suggests. Guns are not merely the instrument; guns are the issue. The more guns there are, the more gun violence happens. In light of last night’s assassinations, it is also essential to remember that the more guns there are, the greater the danger to police officers themselves. It requires no apology for unjustified police violence to point out that, in a heavily armed country, the police officer who thinks that a suspect is armed is likelier to panic than when he can be fairly confident that the suspect is not. We have come to accept it as natural that ordinary police officers should be armed and ready to use lethal force at all times. They should not be. A black man with a concealed weapon should be no more liable to be killed than a white man with one. But having a nation of men carrying concealed lethal weapons pretty much guarantees that there will be lethal results, an outcome only made worse by our toxic racial history. Last night’s tragedy was also the grotesque reductio ad absurdum of the claim that it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun. There were nothing but good guys and they had nothing but guns, and five died anyway, as helpless as the rest of us.

Once again, the difference in policy views is clear, and can be coolly stated: those who insist on the right to concealed weapons, to the open carrying of firearms, to the availability of military weapons—to the essentially unlimited dissemination of guns—guarantee that the murders will continue. They have no plan to end them, except to return fire, with results we know. The people who don’t want the regulations that we know will help curb (not end) violent acts and help make them rare (not non-existent) have reconciled themselves to the mass murder of police officers, as well as of innocent men and women during traffic stops and of long, ghostly rows of harmless civilians and helpless children. The country is now clearly divided among those who want the killings and violence to stop and those who don’t. In the words of the old activist song, which side are you on?

..............SNIP"

[Hoyt]

1. Seriously good, short and sweet article. "The country is clearly divided among those

"The country is now clearly divided among those who want the killings and violence to stop and those who don’t."

[billh58]

2. This absolutely cannot be stated too often.

Both the problem and the solution are painfully obvious to all but the Conservative good-ole-boy gun culture. NRA apologists and Second Amendment absolutists insist that the answer is more guns and an escalation of the arms race between fictional "good guys," and "bad guys." The reality is that under the current lax background check procedures, most gun owners are "good" until they go "bad."

It plain to see that the common denominator in all gun violence incidents is guns, and the answer is less guns on our streets, and eventually fewer guns in society. We have attacked other public health issues successfully before, and gun violence can be overcome through enacting common sense laws pertaining to purchase, storage, and tracking of guns. Also, we can increase public awareness of the carnage caused by gun violence, to include requiring warning labels on products, and health notices in advertising of gun sales.

Yes, I know -- because the Second Amendment, Freedom, and Liberty. ALL of the other Amendments are reasonably restricted, and the Second is the most in need of regulation, restrictions, and reinterpretation.

The answer in part, is to elect real Democrats to political offices at all levels of government. Democrats who are beyond the reach of the right-wing gun lobby, and the death-dealing gun merchants they represent.