Gun control is a touchy subject to say the least; you could almost say people have a hair trigger when it comes to talking about guns. Unfortunately there have been a few high profile incidents involving firearms lately which have served as a primer for a number of diaries regarding guns and gun control. I always try to read these diaries because I believe they offer a unique glimpse into who we are. Well the time has come to throw my hat into the mix. I don’t know if my perspectives will be unique or enlightening but I thought I would share them nonetheless.
First off a bit about myself. I currently work as an HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) adviser, I do things like root cause analysis, risk assessment, hazard identification and the development of controls that prevent accidents from happening or reduce the impact the accident has. I also deliver various types of safety training and I audit HSE management systems.
I am not a registered member of any political party and am rather libertine in my thinking. You want to get married, go for it. Want an abortion, fine. Want to get high after a long day at work, be my guest. For me these types of things are non-issues. I was raised a Democrat and I grew up with guns. I was taught how to use them, care for them and respect them. I also grew up knowing that if my dad or mom caught me playing with them there would be hell to pay, subsequently I didn’t play.
I spent 12 years in the Armed Forces and am quite comfortable with all types of weapons. I have two sons, one is 8 and the other is 3 and one day they too will learn the joys of hunting and fishing and responsible gun use. One thing that I do differently with my boys than was done with me, I do not buy toy guns for my sons. While I was no worse for wear having played cowboys and indians or soldier shouting "you're dead I shot you" I just don't feel comfortable allowing my sons to do the same. Guns are not toys and toys are not guns and my 8 year old knows this mantra well. There are firearms in my house, they are safely secured but the shotgun is not unloaded. The eldest is knows that dad has guns, he also knows of the severity of the consequences that await him if he is caught fiddling around with them. Life as he knows it will change instantly, dramatically and forever. I am aware that I am taking some risk but I feel the controls I have in place bring my exposure to these risks down to an acceptable level.
Before we get too far into this I want to take a moment and define some terms; Risk can be defined as the uncertainty of the outcome of actions and events; a hazard can be defined as anything that has the potential to cause harm, ill health, injury or damage and controls are systems designed to either prevent a hazard from causing any damage or mitigate the damage caused. A good example for explaining risks and hazards is driving. Driving is a risky activity because we can’t know exactly what is going to happen as we come to the crest of a hill or round a bend. It is also quite hazardous in part due to the amount of potential energy that is stored in the vehicles body when at speed (in my line of work road transport is the most hazardous activity we undertake). So in order to prevent accidents from happening or lessen their impact, we put in systems of control like traffic lights, drivers education and anti-lock brakes (preventative controls), we also have seat belts, airbags and emergency response (mitigating controls). These systems of control work together to reduce the amount of risk we are exposed to until it is down to an acceptable level.
Now we cannot entirely eliminate our exposure to risks and hazards. What we can do is develop and implement a variety of controls that work towards preventing accidents or mitigating the impact of the accidents. Something that you should keep in mind is that there comes a point in time that even though the risk we are exposed to could be reduced further, the reduction is nominal and what is gained cannot be justified because the cost (typically time and money in my business) is too high. You see, I can reduce your risk of dying in an automobile accident to practically zero, simply don’t drive or ride in a car. But that's not practical. The risk of driving is offset by what we gain from doing so.
So how does this relate to my take on firearms? It is evident that guns are a risk and certainly pose a hazard. So as a free society what level of risk is tolerable? We can’t reduce our exposure to zero because 1) there are a lot of guns out there and 2)no amount of controls can be put in place to prevent criminals from obtaining guns illegally or stop insane/disturbed people from committing acts of violence. But we should be able to reduce our exposure to a tolerable/acceptable level. What is considered a tolerable level? Let’s look at some statistics to give us an idea of where we currently are.
According to bradycampaign.org there were 30,694 gun related deaths in 2005. The U.S. has a population of what, 300,000,000, give or take a hundred thousand or so, right? That means around .0001% of our population die from gun violence, or 10 for every 100,000. Is .0001% of our population dying from guns an acceptable level of risk? Let’s look at some more stats. Now of those 30,694 gun deaths 12,352 were murders, 17,002 were suicides (annually there are more than 32,000 suicidesin the U.S.), 789 were accidents, 330 were due to police intervention, and 221 were of unknown intent. We've got murders and suicides, accidents, police interventions and unknowns. What can we do to prevent these things from happening? A better question would be, Is there anything we can or should do to prevent these things from happening?
Let’s start with suicide, which is the 11th leading cause of death in our country and represents the largest number of gun related deaths. What should we consider when looking to develop controls that prevent suicide? Should we look at what people are committing suicide with or why people are committing suicide? The primary focus has to be why. Because if you can’t determine why people are killing themselves then you can’t determine what the root cause for suicide is, which is necessary to the development of effective controls that will help prevent suicide. What is the root cause of suicide? Is it guns or is it a mental health issue? Considering approximately 15,000 people still manage to kill themselves without the use of a gun so I would say that mental health is a larger issue than the method used. How do we control for mental health? How about better access to health care in general.
As for the 789 accidents, we could use some more information. What kind of accidents were these? Were they hunting accidents? Was someone being a Clem Kadiddle Hopper with a gun and ended up dead? You can’t control for that. We can’t mandate responsibility, we can’t force people to think a certain way or always act appropriately. How many of those accidents were caused by ignorance which can be corrected with proper training? Accidents are just that, accidents and without a total ban, are impossible to control for. The 330 police interventions are tough, sure the police make mistakes but some people earn getting shot. In general I would say that we already have the proper controls in place for these situations. As for the 221 unknown intent deaths, without more information they cannot be controlled for.
There are a few things that I would like to know about the murders but lets take a look at what the fbi.gov website says regarding 2004 murder stats;
"Of those incidents in which the murder weapon was specified, 70.3 percent of the homicides that occurred in 2004 were committed with firearms. Of those, 77.9 percent involved handguns, 5.4 percent involved shotguns, and 4.2 percent involved rifles. Approximately 12.4 of the murders were committed with other types or unspecified types of firearms. Knives or cutting instruments were used in 14.1 percent of the murders; personal weapons, such as hands, fists, and feet, were used in 7.0 percent of murders, and blunt objects (i.e., clubs, hammers, etc.) were used in 5.0 percent of the homicides. Other weapons, such as poison, explosives, narcotics, etc., were used in 3.6 percent of the murders."
It certainly seems that there is an awful lot of killing being done with handguns doesn’t it. Something I find interesting is the lack of murders by assault weapons, a.k.a. machine guns, unless they fall into the categories of other types or unspecified types of firearms and if that is the case, then there were approximately 1,531 gun murders committed with assault weapons in 2004. But what is even more surprising is that knives or cutting instruments accounted for more murders than the other types or unspecified types of firearms. What I would really like to know but I don’t know where I could find the information is how many murders were committed by people who already had a history of violence and how many were committed by people who had been law abiding citizens until that day, because that helps me determine the root cause of the problem which allows for the development of better systems of control. Do we control for gun violence? Is that the root cause? Or is the root cause deeper and gun violence a symptom of a more serious problem?
It is evident that I support the 2nd Amendment and I believe that government shouldn’t restrict the rights of citizens based on the actions of criminals or the insane. As long as you are not a felon or crazy you have the right to own a gun and it doesn’t matter if it is a handgun, rifle, shotgun, semi-auto or single shot. I don’t like gun licenses, because licenses can be revoked and if something can be revoked then it is not a right it is a privilege. I don't care for mandatory firearms training, while I think training is an important aspect of firearm safety it shouldn't be required for gun ownership, what if you fail the training? Do you lose your rights? I really do believe that there are plenty of controls currently in place that address gun safety. The controls we need to develop on are the ones that address the root causes of all types of violence, not just gun violence. We need to focus on the why of violence and not the implements used to inflict violence.
Update. Thanks to those who read or tipped or rec'd I appreciate it. It is getting late here and it's time for me to crash. Thanks again and cheers.