So I own a gun and am educating myself on what gun ownership means to others. The outcome of the Rittenhouse trial and the Oxford High School shooting has brought gun control into my crosshairs. My first experience with guns was in the Navy. I went through extensive training and qualified for high-level security detail protecting nuclear weapons aboard both US Navy ships I was stationed on and during the transfer of those nukes to the many submarines we were attached to. I still own one handgun, occasionally enjoying some target practice and storing it, responsibly, at my home for protection. I believe Americans should have the right to own a firearm. Unfortunately, gun ownership has become a dangerous ‘one issue’ voter mantra and logical gun control has been thrown out the window.
According to the Small Arms Survey conducted by the Graduate Institute of International and Developmental Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, "Americans made up 4 percent of the world's population but owned about 46 percent of the entire global stock of 857 million civilian firearms.” This study was done in 2018 and reported that "American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly 400 times as many as law enforcement." After reading this, my question is why?
We have recently had two cases involving minors, guns, and horrific consequences. They might give us some clues as to why Americans think they need to arm themselves against a threat that they most likely have caused themselves by believing NRA’s propaganda. The fact that Rittenhouse got his hands on an AR15 and thought he needed it to defend a car lot from people protesting the police shooting of a Black man, or James and Jennifer Crumbley buying their 15-year-old a semi-automatic 9-millimeter Sig Sauer handgun for an early Christmas gift are perfect examples of the insane gun propaganda gripping our country.
The National Rifle Association began in 1871 to raise awareness of gun safety and to train people how to hunt. In the 1960s, responding to some of the first gun laws to pass, the organization became a political weapon that, “ has masterfully constructed a narrative based on gun rights propaganda, evoking images of a society devoid of rule of law and under constant threat of attack from an unidentified but ever-present enemy.” The victims in these two cases, and so many more in the last thirty years, are America’s youth.
I was doing some research on how lawmakers could stop this madness. Science.com had an article about research that pointed out three laws that could reduce gun deaths. The study looked at individual gun laws and came to the conclusion that “states can reduce gun deaths significantly by doing three things: limiting children's access to guns, restricting concealed-carry permits, and restricting ‘stand your ground’ policies.” Basically, too many children die from suicide and gun accidents and stand your ground laws turn people into vigilantes as does concealed carry.
I am a progressive Democrat, own a gun, want to preserve sensible gun ownership and use, but also want the gun madness in our country to end. According to the Pew Research Center, 25% of solid Democrats and 30% of voters that lean Dem own guns or live in households with guns. I was surprised that only 57% of Republicans own guns. Republican lawmakers receive the lion-share of payouts, 5.9 million compared to $106,000 to Dems, from the gun lobby in 2016. I guess the 43% of gun-less Republicans are just going along with the shtick because they are afraid of their comrades with guns.
We need the National Rifle Association to stop politically pitting Americans against Americans. They are bankrupt figuratively and literally and need a do-over. I have a suggestion. Get back to your original purpose of educating people on safely using and enjoying guns. You can start by convincing those Republicans you own to drop those “thoughts and prayers” and to pass those three laws mentioned earlier in this piece. It might just save a bunch of kids’ lives.
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