Today’s date is special; 12/12/12. It is in the midst of the Season of Good Tidings of Great Joy. I really wish I were commemorating both the date, and the coming events with a not so dire and gruesome message. Sadly, I am not!
Less than two weeks removed
from the murder-suicide of NFL Kansas
City Chiefs’ player, Jovan Belcher
and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins,
which incidentally, left their two month-old infant daughter, Zoey, parentless. Yet again, a senseless act of gun violence
has claimed center stage…at least on the domestic front. The details of the Belcher case have been well-chronicled,
so I will not deign to repeat the particulars in this space. Suffice it to say, before Americans could collectively execute a
proper grieving period for those ghastly events, the Kansas City shootings were displaced from the headlines; not by any
inordinate time and distance, but
sadly, by another grisly murderous
sequence.
At about 3:30 p.m. PST yesterday, a gunman used a
high-powered rifle to kill two people in Oregon’s
Clackamas Town Center Mall. According
to authorities, he then turned the gun on himself. He was among the three people killed during
the incident. The mall is located in Clackamas County, near Portland
In the event you have
relatives whom you think may have been at this mall at that time, a special
number has been set up to call and check on them: (503) 655-8211.
This post is not about the Belcher incident; it’s not even about
yesterday’s tragedy at the Clackamas Town
Center, per se. It is about the national debate, sporadic in
frequency, but dynamic in intensity. The
gun lobby, represented most notably by the National Rifle Association (NRA), argues fiercely, among other things, that:
- The Second Amendment protects the right of Americans to own guns
- Occurrences such at this are random anomalies
- People who exact violence against others have
options besides fire arms
- The threat of such violence would be lessened if
the victims were armed
- Immediately after such events is too soon to
discuss remedies
- Curtailing access to fire arms is un-American
- Guns don’t kill people; people do
- Guns are a necessary implement for hunting
- Americans need to protect themselves from a rogue government
- Gun Protectionism proves
- 12,129 homicides with a firearm
- 17,348 suicides with a firearm
- 721 deaths by accidental discharge of a firearm
- +/-
5,000 deaths from legal
interventions (i.e., police shooting
criminals)
·
A well regulated militia being necessary to the
security of a free state
Who could imagine a mere 27 words, adopted 221 years ago this Saturday (December
15, 1791), could be the source of such disparate opinion, and perhaps more
notably, or at least arguably, such horrific carnage? For those who argue
the sanctity of this venerable
statute, I caution with the subtle reminder; remember it is after all an Amendment. Moreover, if Constitutional content were altered when the Bill of Rights (the first 10
Amendments) was added, for the betterment of the document and the country,
perhaps it is time to make another alteration!
In fact, I would assert, “It is
definitely time to do just that.”
Naturally, my suggesting it
won’t make it so. There is an
unbelievable infrastructure supported by gun making and selling in America United
States
To bring some element of
context to this matter, consider that by comparison, a few of the numbers for
other American institutions are:
·
Gas Stations (2011) 143,839 – (TD LINX/Nielsen via National Association of Convenience Stores, Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing)
On their face alone, these
numbers are staggering, and if you don’t find the relative comparison between
the proliferation of guns and the
number of source points for these other goods alarming, I certainly think you
should. Regardless, there is a key differentiator between guns and these
other items. Gasoline, burgers, and
other food stuffs are perishables
and/or consumables; guns by contrast
do not go away. As a case in point, a
rifle used in the 2009 Holocaust Museum shooting was nearly 100 years old,
but no less effective as an instrument of murder and mayhem.
The ATF reported that in 2010,
there were 5,459,240 new firearms manufactured in
the United States , nearly
all (95%) for the U.S. United
States
Under current laws and
statutes, if you do not have a criminal record and you have not been
adjudicated as mentally incompetent, you can buy guns. In 2010
the National Instant Criminal Background
Check System (NICS) ran 16,454,951 background checks for firearms
purchases. Only a miniscule number of these purchases (78,211 or 0.48 percent) were
denied. “Houston,we have a problem!”
I think the foregoing
barrage of facts and figures more than adequately outlines the current
environment in this country vis-à-vis
gun ownership, and the prevalence of the death and destruction of families that
this culture is at least somewhat responsible for creating and sustaining. We characterize ourselves as a nation with
many glowing virtues. Freedom is often
listed first; family values usually follow, not far behind. I submit that that if we are serious about our
national association with these traits of honor, we are obligated to take some
kind of action to ameliorate the
ridiculous level of violence that stems from firearms…and/or their owners. To do nothing hardly leaves us worthy of
owning the term “civilized society.”
Today, we cope with the
reality, “Clackamas County, Oregon: Ground Zero for Yesterday’s Episode of American Gun Violence!” We mourn the loss of life, pray for the
survivors and the families of the deceased, and challenge Americans of all
stripes to stand up to the culture of widespread gun violence, and demand
change. I’m done; holla back!
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For more detailed
information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult
the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
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