USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Roots of Mass Murder

Reader Supported News
The Intersection of Guns, Guns and Guns

By Will Durst, Humor Times

24 December 12

[http://readersupportednews.org/images/stories/alphabet/rsn-I.jpg]t's only human nature to want to take action after such a harrowing traumatic event involving guns. To do something.

Anything, to protect our kids. And make sure that Newtown never ever happens again. Here. There. Anywhere.

But while the rest of the nation grieves, familiar opponents on The Gun Issue are focused more on making sure their groups'

messages don't get trampled in the anticipated tsunami of sorrow. So they preemptively are trying to drown out each other

with battalions of bellicose bullhorns, and it doesn't matter they can't hear each other because neither side is listening anyway.

That's the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Again. The intersection of Guns, Guns and Guns. Too many. Too few.

Too big. Too small. Too scary looking. Waiting periods. Background checks. Magazine sizes. Access. Transportation.

Construction. Registration. Who decides and who abides.

All the old buzz phrases are dusted off. "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." "Increased gun control

means aiming better." "Guns don't kill people, people do." Actually, it's those darn bullets that puncture the skin and bones,

creating holes for the blood to leak out of way too fast.

The NRA is busy pumping out press releases arguing that if the teachers had been armed, this tragedy could have been averted.

Yeah, there you go. That's what we need. MORE guns in schools. The major problem with school shootings, are schools.

There's your answer, boys. Want to cut down on school shootings, get rid of the schools. A solution many states are busy

implementing as we speak.

Besides, why just arm the teachers? Aren't we forgetting about our kids? Surely they have the right to defend themselves.

The only question is where do you draw the line? Middle school? Fourth grade? Does the Second Amendment guarantee

the rights of Toting Toddlers? Should kid-proof trigger guards be illegal? Maybe get Fisher Price to equip classrooms with

plastic Day-Glo under-desk holsters.

The left is also once again questioning whether military-type assault weapons have a place in today's society. To which

the right vehemently argues semantics. "Semi- automatic rifles aren't assault weapons and the left obviously has no experience

with guns or they wouldn't mislabel them and their ignorance on the subject disqualifies them to comment or have any opinion

whatsoever." Known in gun control circles as the "neener neener" argument.

An argument that totally misses the point. Doesn't matter what you call them. Semi-automatic rifles. Military-type horizontal

handheld ordnance. Futuristic flintlocks. Agitation resolvers. Magic wands. Disputatious caramelized pump-action fruit rolls.

Stick a feather in their muzzle and call them macaroni if you want.

The basic problem is, the only reason to own a macaroni that can fire hundreds of pieces of lead faster than the speed of

sound in mere seconds is to kill PEOPLE. Yes, of course they can be used as legitimate hunting rifles. You can also use

a flame thrower to light a cigarette. If you think about it, a hand grenade will signal the end of recess. Need to cut some

butter, just pull out the trusty old chainsaw. Of course, be prepared for it to get a little messy around Muffin Time.

And right now, we're smack in the middle of an especially messy Muffin Time.

Reader Supported News
5 Lies the Gun Lobby Tells You

By Zack Beauchamp, ThinkProgress

17 December 12

merica seems to be in for another debate over gun regulation after the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School left 27 (mostly children) dead.

So it's worth reviewing five made against regulating gun ownership in the United States:

MYTH #1: More guns don't lead to more murders. A survey by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health found strong

\ statistical support for the idea that, even if you control for poverty levels, more people die from gun homicides in areas with higher rates of gun ownership<http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/index.html>.

And despite what gun advocates say, countries like Israel and Switzerland don't disprove the point<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/mythbusting-israel-and-switzerland-are-not-gun-toting-utopias/>.



MYTH #2: The Second Amendment prohibits strict gun control. While the Supreme Court ruled in D.C. v. Heller that bans on handgun ownership

were unconstitutional, the ruling gives the state and federal governments a great deal of latitude to regulate that gun ownership as they choose.

As the U.S. Second Court of Appeals put it in a recent ruling<http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/28/1246471/federal-appeals-court-upholds-new-york-gun-licensing-law/> upholding a New York regulation, "The state's ability to regulate firearms and, for

that matter, conduct, is qualitatively different in public than in the home. Heller reinforces this view. In striking D.C.'s handgun ban, the Court

stressed that banning usable handguns in the home is a 'policy choice[]' that is 'off the table,' but that a variety of other regulatory options remain

available, including categorical bans on firearm possession in certain public locations."



MYTH #3: State-level gun controls haven't worked. Scholars Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander recently studied<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/> state-to-state variation in gun

homicide levels. They found that<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/the-geography-of-gun-deaths/69354/> "[f]irearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation." This is backed up by research

on local gun control efforts<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/the-geography-of-gun-deaths/69354/> and cross-border gun violence<https://files.nyu.edu/od9/public/papers/Cross_border_spillover.pdf>.



MYTH #4: We only need better enforcement of the laws we have, not new laws. In fact, Congress has passed several laws that cripple the ability for

current gun regulations to be enforced the way that they're supposed to. According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research,

a series of federal laws<http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/WhitePaper102512_CGPR.pdf> referred to as the Tiahrt amendments "limit public access to crime gun trace data, prohibit the use of gun trace data in hearings, pertaining

to licensure of gun dealers and litigation against gun dealers, and restrict ATF's authority to require gun dealers to conduct a physical inventory of their firearms."

Other federal laws "limited the ATF compliance inspections" and grant "broad protections from lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and retail sellers."



MYTH #5: Sensible gun regulation is prohibitively unpopular. Not necessarily. As the New Republic's Amy Sullivan reported after the series of mass shootings

this summer, a majority of Americans would prefer both to enforce existing law more strictly and pass new regulations on guns<http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106496/empire-state-building-shooting-gun-control#> when given the option to choose

both rather than either/or. Specific gun regulations are also often more popular than the abstract idea.<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/>




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