Take active responsibility for gun violence
S. Smith
http://www.mndaily.com/daily/2000/10/04/editorial_opinions/oo1004/index.html
Wednesday, October 4, 2000
Take active responsibility for gun violence
WACO, Texas (U-WIRE) -- Maryland has a new law on its
books in the most recent attempt at gun control. The law, which went into
effect Sunday, asks gun manufacturers to provide state police with the
"fingerprints" (ballistic information) of all guns sold in Maryland. The
measure would make it much easier for police to identify the owner of a
gun whose empty shell casings are left at a crime scene because the
ballistic information of every gun sold in Maryland would be
entered into a database that would trace each gun to a certain owner.
Theoretically.
In reality, the law is far from adequate. In the first place, the law doesn't
actually require gun manufacturers to pack these shell casings with the
guns they ship to dealers. Saturday's edition of the Daily Oklahoman reported
a police spokesman saying gun manufacturers have a "responsibility" for
selling guns that have casings in them. But there are no consequences for
noncompliance. And dealers can still sell guns that don't have casings.
Secondly, the law only addresses gun-related crimes, which in 1996 only
occurred in one in 160 times a gun was fired, the Violence Policy Center
reports. So in effect, the law means little.
It's easy to be detached from the gun control issue. After all, guns would
never touch someone in the Baylor Bubble! (That's what the Littleton,
Colo., community said, isn't it?) If you can accept that, in 1996 alone,
nearly 35,000 people died because of guns, according to the VPC, and that
abcnews.com reports that since 1996, 40 people have been killed and
another 60 injured in school shootings alone, one of those shooters
being a 6-year-old -- consider this: You, as taxpayers, had to pay
$4 billion in medical costs for gun-related injuries. That works out to be a
cost of $23 for every bullet sold in the United States, the VPC reports.
People who oppose gun control claim that regulating guns violates the
Second Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment states that
Congress shall not infringe upon the right of the states to
form militias and "the right of the people to keep and bear arms."
Don't get me wrong -- I'm a big fan of the Constitution. I am not a big
fan of 35,000 people dying each year because people are so busy
arguing over the Second Amendment that they just sit back and
watch the shootings, day after day. What these anti-gun control
citizens don't realize is that states passing gun control legislation does
not infringe on the Second Amendment.
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Second Amendment in a
string of cases beginning in 1886. The Court has said the amendment
exists as a check on the federal government's power.
The founding fathers, very distrustful of a standing federal army, wanted
to ensure that states had the authority to assemble militias. The amendment
does not, the Court has said, bar states from regulating firearms. In fact,
no gun control measure that states have passed has been ruled
unconstitutional, according to the VPC.
I'm glad Maryland legislators are addressing the issue of gun-related deaths
because it is a seriousproblem. But it's just not enough. We must urge our
legislators to pass more gun control laws so that senseless killings in this
country will be rare, not common. And we must elect officials who
hold as a priority the eradication of gun-related violence. Background
checks, waiting periods, trigger locks, firearms registration and assault-
weapons bans are a good start. But until a majority of citizens in every
state decide they are disgusted, as I am, with the gun violence in this country
and want to do something serious about it, we will likely continue to live in
a country that leads all industrialized nations by far in gun-related
children's deaths.
Get involved. Write your congressional representatives, join the American
Civil Liberties Union or the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, elect leaders
who care about stopping gun-related violence, and above all, don't become
immune to the tragedies that an unregulated gun industry can cause.
Helen Humphrey's column originally appeared in Baylor University's The
Lariat on Oct. 3. Send comments to let...@daily.umn.edu
Jeffrey C. Dege
>
>http://www.mndaily.com/daily/2000/10/04/editorial_opinions/oo1004/index.html
>
>Wednesday, October 4, 2000
>Take active responsibility for gun violence
>
>WACO, Texas (U-WIRE) -- Maryland has a new law on its
>books in the most recent attempt at gun control. The law, which went into
>effect Sunday, asks gun manufacturers to provide state police with the
>"fingerprints" (ballistic information) of all guns sold in Maryland. The
>measure would make it much easier for police to identify the owner of a
>gun whose empty shell casings are left at a crime scene because the
>ballistic information of every gun sold in Maryland would be
>entered into a database that would trace each gun to a certain owner.
> Theoretically.
>
>In reality, the law is far from adequate. In the first place, the law doesn't
>actually require gun manufacturers to pack these shell casings with the
>guns they ship to dealers. Saturday's edition of the Daily Oklahoman reported
>a police spokesman saying gun manufacturers have a "responsibility" for
>selling guns that have casings in them. But there are no consequences for
>noncompliance. And dealers can still sell guns that don't have casings.
The biggest problem with the law is that the cases can only be used
to identify the gun until it's been fired a couple of hundred rounds,
or been cleaned half-a-dozen times.
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