1909 Political Reactions Are Using Shotgun Approaches to Gun Violence
Is it barely possible that people who do evil things are acting out of an evil nature? Are acts of gun violence simply about tools and mental health? It never fails, after every incident of mass shooting, literally within hours, grandstanders target every possible scapegoat while almost ignoring the most glaring culprits, the perpetrator(s) and the fact of evil itself.
The Dayton, Ohio shooter is a perfect example. At the time of the shooting, according to the coroner, the killer was jacked up on Cocaine and carrying a bag of it. A week after the horrific crime, the FBI revealed that a long-time friend of the perpetrator, Ethan Kollie, told agents of the pair’s past lifestyle of regular the powerful hallucinogenic LSD (“acid”) and marijuana. With that background, Kollie never-the-less helped conceal the weapon, its magazines, and body armor. Yet, within all the public rhetoric, there has been scant discussion of the dark world of drugs or the personal responsibility of this criminal for his own depraved life choices.
Rather than surgically treating the problem, political opportunists have developed slick shotgun approaches to gun violence. It is ironic, mass violence offenders thrive on fear and notoriety and those same principles seem to be the hallmark of those who shamelessly rush to the microphones and cameras before the scene has cooled.
This is not to say that contributing factors of health and hardware do not matter. They matter. But they matter less than the problem of evil itself nor can they be understood or changed if they are misrepresented or scapegoated.
Repeating information about gun violence in the United States can be wearisome but those who abuse the issue continue to wield broad inaccurate claims to great effect. A more accurate assessment of conditions come from combining sources like the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, the Pew Research Center, the Crime Prevention Center, Centers for Disease Control, the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, the Cato Institute, and the Heritage Foundation.
*Most gun-related crimes are carried out with illegal firearms
*Of the homicides (37%), up to one-third are related to gang and drug activities.
*Depending on the year, deaths from mass shootings range from .4 to .7 of 1% of gun homicides
*Almost all mass shooters have extensive major mental health issues
*In 2017, Americans used firearms defensively at least 500,000 times a year. By contrast, guns were
used in murders about 17,300 times, a ratio of nearly 30 defenses to 1 attack.
*All rifles of all types and calibers combined (including the much-maligned AR-15 platform) are used in only 3% of gun-related homicides.
*Comparisons of violent crime statistics whether between states or nations can be very deceptive.
Different political and law enforcement entities use widely differing methods, definitions and standards
for record-keeping and there are no standard requirements for reporting. (Gun-related crime rates – Strong laws: Illinois 7.8 & Rhode Island 1.9; Least restrictive: Vermont 2.2 and Louisiana 12.4),
The debates about hardware will always be with us because scary objects will always be the most effective way to stir visceral reactions from the public and especially from the liberal political base. But as statistics clearly indicate, the problem of any violence is not a “thing” problem but a problem of the human condition. The most important part of that condition is the mysteries of the mind and soul.
Obviously, there is more going on. No firearm pulls its own trigger and no law can control self-will by blasting the rights and reputations of whole populations. What effective interventions exist have to start with the human condition itself. One of the complexities of that condition is the mind. Even though mental illness does not hold all the answers to violent behaviors, serious untreated conditions play prominent roles in mass violence and self-harm.
Two-thirds of all annual gun deaths are suicides not homicides. By their nature, those deaths involve debilitating psychological problems. The same holds true for mass killers (committing less than 1% of all murders), two-thirds of whom, some studies find, likely suffered with delusions, paranoia, schizophrenia and other conditions. At the same time, and this is significant, studies indicate that only 3% to 5% of all violent crimes in the U.S. involve mental illness. Just as removing all scary hardware is not a magic bullet, so maligning all people struggling with mental health is not a panacea either.
In the aftermath of recent tragedies, it appears that even the mysteries of the mind and soul are fair game for political positioning and dangerously simplistic “solutions”. Chicago’s police superintendent and mayor have bragged about a new online “tool” instituted to allow the general public to access all the city’s gun-related arrest and bail records. Mind you, these are not offenders’ records, but any instance of any arrest even if the arrestee is cleared and released.
The House of Representative is processing H.R. 8, another attempt at universal background checks. Among its many flaws, it would have no exemptions for family transfers, temporary safe-keeping transfers, good-faith mistakes, or current concealed carry holders. Most importantly, it does not address the most dangerous dynamic – the mega-problem of ILLEGAL firearm possession and usage.
On the mental health front, so-called “Red Flag” laws (Gun Violence Restraining Order) are in vogue. In essence, they enable anyone who suspects a gun owner of suspicious behavior to request confiscation of the owners’ firearms until they can clear themselves. The idea is great in concept but sets a precedent for legal action against a person by assuming guilt.
The bottom line is that the only effective way to fight mass killings and other gun violence is at the person-by-person, case-by-case level. Recent instances in which friends, families, or neighbors saw something and said something is one sure positive solution. That, along with abandoning the insane war by liberals on individual citizens rights to defend themselves and others in any circumstance and in any locality.