The recent Sandy Hook shooting has
deeply affected the American nation, and has reached the ears of most
of the western world at least. For those immediately affected, this
is a horrible tragedy and devastating event that will leave a long
lasting impact on the community. For almost everyone else it's a
great chance to talk about gun control and, misguidedly, mental
illness. The debate has been mired in all sorts of intentional half
truths, unintentional half truths, out of date statistics,
fallacious reasoning and outright lies. This of course, has happened
on both sides of the issue. I like to think of myself as a sceptic,
but rummaging through the multitude of information that could go
either way was tiresome at best. There are a few things I would like
to clear up.
The first thing to do here is to dispel
a few myths. The first is really important, but not super relevant.
It is assumed, by a large amount of people and news program hosts,
that any mass shooter is a crazed, mentally ill human being. This is
not a healthy attitude, for a variety of reasons, most of them
resting on the shoulders of “not necessarily”. Two blog posts
deal with this issue here and here.
A common question lodged by people who
are pro gun is “what about the Swiss?” - Supposedly Switzerland
has low gun control, a high number of people who own guns and little
gun violence. Well, firstly this source here shows that Switzerland actually has an extremely high number of gun
related deaths per 100,000 people, especially compared with other
countries with similar living conditions. Another country with a high
figure in this arena is Finland, which also has a high percentage of
the populace that own guns. It should also be pointed out that this
article here suggests that Switzerland is not the gun toting utopia once thought.
Some comments on that article, from people claiming to be Swiss, say
some of the information here is incorrect, with one commenter saying
since Switzerland introduced gun control crime had gone up 15% every
year. This is an hilarious claim. Crime statistics for Switzerland
show rising crime...in terms of traffic offences. Criminal offences
have increased in Switzerland since 1999, quite drastically too
(roughly 30% from 2000-2005 before stabilising), but so have traffic
offences. Narcotics offences have remained virtually the same. The
number of Homicides has more or less been unchanged between
2005-2009, and was at its lowest in 2009. The point here is that some of the things floating around about certain example countries might not always be right, in the online discourse on gun control it is recommend that statistics, especially if claimed without any kind of evidence, are checked.
This post here is about how we shouldn't renew the assault weapons ban the US issued
in 1994. It argues it did nothing to reduce crime, and that the ban
contained all sorts of unreasonable definitions of things like “high
capacity clip” and “assault weapon”. This blog here briefly points out that the Assault Weapons ban included more than 600 exceptions,
and was rather flimsy. This issue about gun control working or not based on how successful the 1994 ban is an issue that still seems to be open, with arguments pouring in from either side of the issue.
Many people fail to grasp the fundamental
trivialities of living in a society. This is super simple stuff: to
live in a society you surrender parts of your freedom. The government
imposes consequences for actions outside of acceptable bounds, we
tend to call these laws. Some are very useful, like don't murder
people, others less so, like don't jaywalk. Then again, the idea is
that the government exists for the people, by the people and offers
them identity, sovereignty and protection (in all forms). If the
laissez fair attitude towards gun control in the US is actually
endangering society, the government can and probably should step in. It is worth noting
that there is a substantial difference between your right to
something like free speech and your right to own a gun: in form,
value and necessity. Of course both can be viewed from the rising up
against the government view, in which free speech and the right to
bear arms both hold equal footing on grounds of fighting against
government oppression (in all its forms). The idea that the American
people would ever fight the American government is absurd, but if it
does happen it is unlikely owning an assault weapon/gun is going to
help. Points can be made about successful guerilla fighting against
even the US military, but I would hardly call the Taliban successful
and the Vietnam war was not just fought by guerilla warfare.
Nowadays, the upper hand seems to be determined by how the
international community reacts, not whether everyone has a gun in
their home. More importantly, when society breaks down and reaches a
civil war like state, it won't be hard to obtain a gun, with
interested parties racing in to the supply the insurgents. So the only
real footing for owning a gun being a right is either a belief in
minimal government that interrupts as few freedoms as possible or
belief that the constitution is an absolute and timeless document
that should never be violated.
Of course, we don't just need
arguments, but figures as well. In Australia, introducing strict and
rigorous gun control halved gun crimes, in a country that tends to be
very violent. The data here and here strongly suggests a link between reduced gun ownership and reduced
gun violence. And almost all evidence goes to show that gun control
reduces suicide, or rather than there is a link between gun ownership
and suicide . Honesty is important, and so is balance, and there are a couple of
things worth noting, one is that gun control in Washington D.C, or
rather the handgun ban, seems to have done little to stem gun
violence, even when it is considered that the ban was introduced not
too long before the crack epidemic of the 80s which saw the murder
rate in D.C peak at an all time high in 1991. The other is that apparently gun crime in Australia had already been
falling before the 1996 gun ban. However, I am unable to obtain any
data on if there was an increase in the rate gun crime fell after 1996.
The one thing that's apparent is that
there appears to be a multitude of information that can go either
way. It would be silly to ignore other factors, such as a culture of
violence, that might exist in the USA. The approach shouldn't be one
dimensional either and any solution should try to encompass an multi-pronged approach to
tackling the issue. I might write another post on violence, once I
research the topic of violence. Ultimately introducing gun control
laws may or may not actually reduce crime: some studies say it will,
while others suggest a negative correlation between gun control and
violence! The reason there are multiple well reasoned opinions on
both sides of the debate is because it seems that the statistics,
obtained in a variety of ways, can be used to show multiple and
opposing things. There are certain things that are total bullshit:
one is that mass shooters have to be mentally ill, the other is that
Switzerland is some gun slinging utopia, the third is the claim that
it is an undeniable right to own a gun that the government has no
business interfering in. The rest can be fought over tooth and claw. I would encourage one to go through all the sources, they offer a plethora of information, that one can use to become more informed on a issue that may prove to be extremely crucial.
Further Recommended Reading:
http://squid314.livejournal.com/347454.html
– Anti gun Control, worth reading comments section
http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp
– Interesting mix of data. I've noticed at one point it mentions
statistics between 1975-1984, the later portion of these years were
during a crack cocaine epidemic that affected many major cities and
centres of population in the USA. Crime in the USA was, in general, extremely
high during that period and any statistics from the era should be
viewed with a suspicious eye.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/
