More people are killed by automobiles yearly. I guess we need to stand up to them? You knew this stuff was coming, so, here’s Excitable Nicholas Kristoff, who is protected by armed security at the NY Times building
We Have 2 Dead Young Heroes. It’s Time to Stand Up to Guns.
Politicians fearful of the National Rifle Association have allowed the gun lobby to run amok so that America now has more guns than people, but there is still true heroism out there in the face of gun violence: students who rush shooters at the risk of their own lives.
Let’s celebrate, and mourn, a student named Kendrick Castillo, 18, just days away from graduating in Highlands Ranch, Colo., who on Tuesday helped save his classmates in English literature class from a gunman.
“Kendrick lunged at him, and he shot Kendrick, giving all of us enough time to get underneath our desks, to get ourselves safe, and to run across the room to escape,†Nui Giasolli, a student in the classroom, told the “Today†show. Kendrick was killed, and eight other students were injured.
The NRA is composed of citizens. We voluntarily join. Kristoff is the type of person who is more than willing to violate the 1st Amendment and ban the NRA
When New Zealand experienced a mass shooting in March, it took the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern just 26 days to tighten gun laws and ban assault rifles. In contrast, America has had 53 years of inaction since the University of Texas tower shooting in 1966 claimed 17 lives. Sandy Hook … Las Vegas … Parkland — so many dead; so little done.
Handguns were used in Colorado, and we do not have the information on whether they were purchased legally at this time, but, hey, let’s ban “assault rifles”, right?
Granted, this is complicated. America has so many guns out there that new restrictions may not be as effective as we would hope. The 10-year ban on assault rifles from 1994 to 2004 had trouble defining assault weapons and had an uncertain impact.
In other words, the assault weapons ban made no difference. This is like pulling the pork because someone got sick from the chicken.
Still, there are obvious steps worth taking. A starting point would be to require universal background checks before all firearms sales. Some 22 percent of guns are still acquired in the U.S. without a background check; a person wanting to adopt a rescue dog often undergoes a more thorough check than a person buying an assault rifle.
The study is cute, but includes receiving a firearm as a gift, through inheritance, and other purely legal transfers. Which is why Kristoff used the word “acquired”, instead of purchased. According to the study, just 13% who actually purchased (paid for it) one did not get a backgrounds check, inflated because they purchased from a friend or online. Also, the study only covers the 2 years prior to 2015, and wasn’t published till 2017, and there were only 1,613 respondents to an on-line survey.
Safe storage of guns — in gun safes or with trigger locks — prevents children and others from accessing firearms. Voluntary gun buybacks would reduce the pool of firearms out there. We should also invest in “smart gun†technologies that require a code or fingerprint to fire. We need more “red-flag laws†that make it more difficult for people to obtain guns when they present a threat to themselves or others.
Government never sold them, so, you can’t buy them back. Regardless, more often these are criminals selling their stolen firearms for cash. Oh, and law abiding citizens sell old ones for money to buy new ones. Smart guns would be great, if they could work. At a decent caliber. And if NJ got rid of their stupid law. I’m confused about the red flag thing being before the purchase. Isn’t that what the background checks are for? Which fail now and then because of the system not being able to keep up?
And tell me: Why do we bar people on the terrorism watch list from boarding planes while still allowing them to purchase guns?
Wow, this old, tired canard. Gun grabbers just won’t give up on talking points.
Other steps to lower gun deaths don’t even directly involve firearms. Programs like Cure Violence and Becoming a Man have been shown effective in reducing violence among at-risk young people. The military has conducted experiments showing that counseling can reduce suicides(a majority of gun deaths in America are suicides).
What happened to “my body my choice”?
That’s the best way to honor heroes like Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell, by making such heroics less necessary in classrooms around America.
We can stop schools from being gun free zones, ie, target rich environments with no one who can shoot back. No one really attacks a police station, right? Nor places with armed security, like the lobby of the NY Times building.
