Enabling Gun Violence

Enabling Gun Violence

Imagine living your whole life inside a movie that glorifies guns: all guns, any kind, openly and in heroic patriotic terms.  In the movie, firing big guns is always described as exceptionally manly, requiring great strength of character.  “Nobody gets away with anything while we still have our guns!”  Guns are necessary for personal defense even by schoolteachers.  Women must own and use guns, just in case a man with a gun is not nearby.   People need guns to ward off tyranny by other Americans. Unfortunately the past several years have seen this “script” become hard reality.  We are all in this movie, like it or no.

Enabling is a specialized use of psychological propaganda. Enabling works to perpetuate rather than solve a problem.   The NRA enabling voice whispers to an unstable kid that he is legally allowed to get a big gun and could use it to really hurt the people who teased him.  The NRA enabling voice proclaims rights, rights, rights, and that problems with gun violence are impossible to reduce or solve.  The enabling voice says rules and restrictions are “unconstitutional”. People who express concern about the availability of dangerous weapons are proclaimed crazy, irresponsible, and threatening to the American way of life.  The enabling voices tell believers that both God and the Constitution release them from having to obey rules.

Since the 1960's, the auto industry has been required to provide a myriad of safety systems, from seatbelts and airbags to anti-lock brakes and electronic stability systems. The fact that these systems work is obvious, as auto-related deaths have dropped steadily over the past 40 years, from a high of more than 54,000 in 1972 to just over 32,000 in 2011. 

 With the full throated support of the NRA during that same period, the gun industry has worked tirelessly to make its products more lethal, from larger capacity magazines, to larger calibers, more concealable weapons and faster firing rates. Gun deaths in this country have risen since 1999, from just under 28,000 to more than 32,000 in 2011, now matching death by vehicle.  The idea of requiring insurance from owners of massive guns with high capacity magazines is regarded as completely improbable, yet insurance against all other kinds of incidents in home or car is almost universal.

 Let us be clear.  The NRA has the money and the power to do enormous good by taking a public position for “reasonable weaponry”, community safety, and background checks.  More than forty states require a criminal background check for any person seeking a license to teach, or to work with children in any capacity.  Employers can request a background check in many occupations, at many levels.  Long distance truck drivers, pilots, maritime employees, again at several levels, all must have a background check.  You cannot teach, coach, work an assembly line, or pilot a plane without a background check.  But the NRA continues to claim that a background check in gun purchases is tantamount to treason.

 Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics found the statistics on children and guns so alarming that they issued a recommendation that households with young children should have no guns at all.  Parents are advised to check gun safety in every home where their children play, including relatives. Gun advocates claiming that having a gun in the home is protection should look at the numbers relating to suicide and accidents.  All homicides in 2011 were around 11,000, but the same year recorded 19,766 suicides by gun, and more than 1000 deaths that were unintentional or accidental.  The “invasion” that gun advocates fear is more likely to come from within the home. 

 With 270 million guns owned by Americans, the idea that guns could ever be taken is pure fantasy.  Where would we get the staff and the money? Hunters and hunting are not really mentioned in NRA propaganda either.  Of the 270 million American guns, less than 2% are in active use by hunters.  Hunters have a solid record for training, safety, and conservative weaponry.  No hunter uses large capacity magazines or assault weapons for hunting. (Statistics from gunpolicy.org, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service Annual Survey)

 There are growing numbers of Americans everywhere saying, "Enough."  We can do better and we should.  People of good sense can outshout and outvote the NRA.  Nobody's guns are at risk of being taken away just because a background check is required.  Liability insurance would encourage safety precautions. Limits on purchases can be enforced and limits on magazine size may save lives.  We are in no danger of being “taken over” by anybody. Intelligent observers of the American scene are beginning to recognize the self-serving NRA propaganda for the enabling stuff that it is.  Wayne LaPierre’s NRA salary is over a million dollars a year.  It is definitely in his best interest to exaggerate and enable.  Sensible Americans should “enable” him right out the door.

Ann Melby Shenkle

9 Belmont Square

Doylestown, PA 18901