Once again, 2nd Amendment and guns fail to protect us
We don't know enough about the obviously deranged gunman in Arizona to know whether the people who spew vitriol and add symbolic cross hairs to their 1st Amendment right to debate politics played any role in the shootings. Murderous gunmen have been inspired by everything from the movie “Taxi Driver” to the Bible, and we had more assassinations and attempts in the 1960s than we have in today's volatile political climate.
But we do know that, once again, the 2nd Amendment certainly did nothing to protect America's citizens.
Arizona is one of the most gun-friendly states in our nation, where citizens are free to carry weapons with them to the grocery, to church, to work, in their cars and in their bars. If a proposed law to let people carry guns to children's schools and college campuses had passed, Arizona would have scored 0 out of 100 points on the score card compiled by Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says Caroline Brewer, a spokeswoman for that organization founded by Jim and Sarah Brady. Jim Brady, President Reagan's press secretary, was critically wounded when he was shot in the head during an assassination attempt on Reagan and has been a leader in the push to make guns less deadly and less available.
Arizona's push for an armed citizenry didn't do a thing to stop the gunman who walked up to a grocery on a public street and shot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head, and then proceeded to shoot 19 others, killing six, with bullets from a semiautomatic handgun with an extended clip of ammunition that wouldn't have been legal if the Bush Administration hadn't let the Brady Bill expire in 2004.
So why didn't Arizona's gun-toting populace and the push for more and deadlier guns protect anyone during Saturday's rampage?
“Part of the problem is that police officers get extensive training,” begins Algonquin Police Chief Russell Laine. Before they are handed their guns, police officers undergo thorough background checks and psychological evaluations, unlike gun buyers in Arizona, Laine points out. Then cops get lots and lots of gun training.
“Not only marksmanship training, but when and how to use their firearms,” Laine says, adding, “It's not a one-time class.”
Even with all that mental preparation and weapons training, police officers still have been involved in sad cases where they are killed by unarmed people who take their weapons, accidentally shoot innocent people instead of the bad guys and often see their bullets miss the intended targets.
“It's not like on TV or the movies,” Laine says.
The National Rifle Association, which long ago stopped being about rifles and is now a shill for gun manufacturers' efforts to sell more and more guns to a nation that already has more than a couple hundred million firearms, always preaches that more guns and deadlier guns in the hands of more citizens makes us more safe. That's just not true. Sure, there are times when a law-abiding, highly trained gunman (such as a police officer) uses a gun to save lives, but Arizona certainly proves that giving just about everybody that ability doesn't mean the citizens are more protected.
“What we do know is the more guns you have, the more gun violence you have,” says Brewer of the Brady Campaign.
“I don't want to take people's guns away from them,” says Laine. But he acknowledges that you never hear police officers hoping that everybody at a potential crime scene is packing heat. Having law-abiding citizens whipping out guns to stop the bad guys doesn't make a police officer's job easier.
“You've got to work through who's the good guy and who's the bad guy,” Laine says.
In the assassinations from a generation ago, the gunmen rarely got off more than a handful of shots. Not so with today's guns.
“I can't think of a good reason why someone needs an assault weapon or high-capacity magazine,” Laine says.
Stricter gun control laws might prevent some mass shootings, but they can't stop every lone gunman from slaughtering people in a public setting. But Arizona proves that giving more people the opportunity to have more guns and more deadly guns certainly doesn't make us safer.