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What the gun lobby is really saying
We know that guns continue to be a major factor in tragedies that result in death and injuries to people around the country. The gun lobby however, continues to share a message that protects the gun industry not individuals.
The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University is yet another example of the terrifying power of guns to hurt and kill people. It should also remind us that that there is something we can do to stem the epidemic of gun violence.
That, however, is not the message we usually hear from the gun lobby after a tragic gun-related incident. The gun lobby claims to promote individual freedoms, yet is typically silent on issues that may protect individual lives from shootings. The gun lobby claims it is looking out for the basic rights of Americans to bear arms yet its policies are geared to protect the gun industry, not individuals.
Pressure on legislators
The gun lobby also sends strong and clear messages that any opposition to its agenda from lawmakers and other elected officials can lead to serious consequences to their political careers. These messages, though, can add up to nothing more than empty threats. For example, in last year's election in Illinois, the gun lobby's top two targets were Governor Rod Blagojevich and State Senator Dan Kotowski. Both were threatened with defeat by gun owners, yet both won by comfortable margins.
Criminal background checks
We need to be out in the open about what the gun lobby is really telling us. Why, for example, does the gun lobby routinely oppose mandatory criminal background checks? We know the answer, the gun lobby advocates for the interest of gunmakers and sellers. The gun lobby has a big problem with background checks because when gun sales are subject to background checks, fewer guns are sold.
Let's go even further to consider how the gun lobby tries to frame this debate. If we are to believe the gun lobby, the debate pits two sides against each other - gun owners and non gun-owners. Or, they say it's about the right to bear arms. What the gun lobby never brings up is their close relationship with the gun industry.
When we talk about the 'gun lobby', we are certainly not talking about all gun owners. Polls show gun owners - in large numbers - support an assault weapons ban. What happens if you completely ban the sale of assault weapons? Fewer guns are sold. The gun industry doesn't like that, of course, because that cuts into its profits.
The issue here is painfully obvious. You can't say that you are trying to minimize the risk of violent criminals obtaining guns - and then fail to support consistent criminal background checks on all gun sales. Yet this is what the gun lobby has done time and time again.
Effective and sensible background checks work. Since 1994, an average of more than 135,000 sales of guns to criminals and other prohibited purchasers have been denied annually because of background checks mandated by the Brady Law. Would members of the gun lobby like to tell us how our nation would be a safer place without background checks of those people?
Limiting release of information about guns and violent deaths:
Meanwhile, one fact that often goes unnoticed is how the gun lobby tries to limit the amount of information the public has about guns and violent deaths. For example, the gun lobby has opposed funding for the National Violent Death Reporting System, simply because it knows this system will provide more information about deaths and injuries caused by firearms. That information, of course, would undermine their position.
The gun lobby's real message here is that information about deaths and injuries caused by firearms is information the public does not need to know. Another important example of what the gun lobby does not want the public to know is gun trace data that can play a key role in solving firearms-related crimes. Through its support for the Tiahrt Amendment, the gun lobby has conducted a systematic strategy to deny firearm trace data to law enforcement agencies across the country.
In Ohio, the gun lobby's legislation is being considered in Columbus to allow people to use a claim of self defense anytime and anywhere they shoot someone and also protect them from civil liability.
Same old argument...
The gun lobby still wants to make people think its bad people, not guns that are the culprit. But you would be much less likely to have had 32 people dead at Virginia Tech if another weapon had been used. Guns may be just tools - but they are tools that cause far too many people to die more easily.
Recent shootings in Ohio by law abiding people that made fatal decisions:
Cleveland- Firefighter shoots 3 dead in apparent fireworks noise dispute
Akron- woman tired of marriage to a wealthy doctor got her young lover to kill him
Worthington- man firing a rifle at a group of teens last year wounded a Worthington High School senior in the head after she and four other girls who had walked up the path toward his house
Cleveland - policeman shoots wife, kills self
Toledo - Man shoots wife, self; couple's 5 kids all safe
Sandusky - Man kills his girlfriend, then self in Sandusky
South Carolina - Gunman had permit to carry the .40-caliber Glock automatic he pulled from his lunch cooler and used to kill two people and himself after a dispute this month at the Best Buy construction site
Buxton, Oregon- Teen Shot, Killed While Target Shooting with his brothers and a friend
Las Vegas - A man on a walkway over the New York-New York casino floor opened fire on the gamblers below early Friday, wounding four people before he was tackled by officers and patrons, police said.
Cheyenne, Wyoming- National Guardsman with sniper training is suspected of shooting his estranged wife to death as she sang with a band in a restaurant and bar
Atlanta - 4 Dead, 2 Wounded in Atlanta Shootings -retired factory worker shot three relatives to death and wounded two others before killing himself
Wanted: legislators who will speak out
In the face of the gun lobby, we need courageous legislators who are willing to speak directly about gun violence. That may sound easy, but consider what happened last spring. When we talk about Virginia Tech, let's realize that nobody in Congress was willing to call this an act of gun violence - even though the assailant used guns with high capacity magazines to kill 32 people. Does anybody think another instrument - a knife or a baseball bat, for instance - could have inflicted the same amount of damage in such a short amount of time?
We need information to be shared with the public so that people can make the best decisions about firearms - and whether to bring a firearm into their home.
The gun lobby's message is how groups like ours want to take away everyone's guns. This, of course, is ludicrous. It is our job to say, "Here is a risk." As we have been reminded many, many times - and will be reminded of again - that risk is real and contributes to tragic consequences.
