How The Gun Control Issue Should Be Addressed

 

                                                                What are the facts?

There are over 300 million guns in the United States. (114m handguns, 100m rifles, 86m shotguns)   There are over 30,000 gun related deaths in the US each year. Almost 2/3 of these deaths are self-inflicted-suicides. The remaining gun deaths are homicide related or accidental.

Over the last 15 years, gun sales have gone up at least 50%, but homicides have decreased almost 50% nationally. Therefore, owning guns is not the problem but rather the solution to preventing gun violence.  A free society with the right to bear arms will always have some violence; but how do we as a society make it safer? That is, how do we decrease the number of intentional deaths caused by guns? Before we answer that question, let’s review a few more facts.                                         

Liberal democrats will not pass up a tragedy to use emotions to get consensus on their agenda and their ideology. The tragedy in Connecticut where 20 unfortunate children were killed is the latest example. These liberals will use this tragedy to usurp the second amendment and try to decrease the number of guns and type of guns a law abiding citizen may own or obtain. As stated above, guns are not the problem. Also, it should be noted that a ban on assault weapons would not prevent these tragedies from occurring in the future. There was a ban on assault weapons in the state of Connecticut at the time of these shootings last month.

Making it harder to obtain guns is not going to stop these mentally unstable individuals from killing. Another little known fact is that only one third of guns obtained by people who use guns during a crime are actually licensed – bought from retail stores, gun stores, pawn shops or gun shows. That is, these criminals will obtain these guns illegally about 2/3 of the time (from family, friends, drug dealers, theft or black market). So any laws preventing law abiding citizens from obtaining or owning guns will not hurt the criminal but will hurt the law abiding citizen. There are several reports which conclude that guns are used for self-defense over several hundred thousand times a year in the US. That means that having a gun many have prevented tens of thousands of lives a year.  The idea that less guns and therefore less protection is safer in our society is not only illogical but bordering on the insane. When there was the problem with deaths from drunk driving; the solution wasn’t to remove all the cars, but rather to punish severely those that drink and drive. This led to decreasing alcohol related car fatalities over the years. Remember, that there are still more car related deaths each year and more young people die from this than from guns, but no liberal democrat is calling for a decrease in the number of cars in the US for this reason.  

Also, with respect to the issue of mental illness, there is now a proposal that doctors or healthcare providers will ask patients who they believe may have mental instability, if they have any guns in the house. The doctors would then be obligated to report this to authorities who supposedly will act on this-by removing the guns until the patient is deemed medically stable. Somehow, these politicians who are proposing these ideas believe naively that the mentally unstable patient is going to tell them the truth about whether there are any guns in the house. It has been my experience as a physician that it is highly unlikely that those who have criminal intent or who abuse alcohol or drugs are honest about personal matters at the doctor's office.                                                                                                                                                                                                          

What are the common sense solutions to decrease the number of US gun related homicides?                                                                                                                                        

1.       Let us protect the children in our schools by changing them from gun free zones to children protected zones. If there are licensed guards or police with the ability to kill an intruder, there would be less of these massive killings. For example, when Rudy Giuliani became the mayor of New York in the 1990s, he simply put more police officers on the streets and in full view of the public and the crime rate for not just gun related deaths but all crime decreased significantly in a few short years.

2.       Make it a federal offense when any crime is committed with a gun present. First time offense would be a mandatory 10 years imprisonment and a second time offense would be life without parole. If a gun was discharged during the commission of this crime, there would be a mandatory 25 year minimum sentence. This would be an effective deterrent and would keep the criminals using guns behind bars longer.

3.       Allow individual states to legislate their own regulations with regard to how they want to deal with the gun violence in their state. The states are in a better position to take care of their gun violence than is the federal government. The federal government can have legislation which claims that certain types of “assault weapons” cannot cross state lines and if they do, it would be a federal offense.

4.       Modernize the data bank for all gun sales with a national Registry that is easily accessible by all licensed gun dealers. Background checks should not only include whether a person was a felon in the past, but whether a person has a history of schizophrenia or a bipolar condition or another type psychiatric illness, which is deemed by a psychiatrist dangerous enough for that patient to own a gun. Other types of psychiatric illnesses may include personality disorders similar to those youths like the Connecticut killer.

5.       Make it easier for both teachers and parents to report individuals that have made comments about killing someone or that come across as obviously mentally unstable as was the Connecticut shooter and most of these young boys/men involved in the other recent mass killings. There were many individuals who already knew that these killers were unstable; so, there should be a number that people can call and this will be followed up by local law enforcement. In the case of the recent Connecticut shooter, it is possible that if the mother called this number that a local investigator may have removed the weapons from the home until the son was deemed mentally stable. This would have prevented the mother's death and the death of all those unfortunate children.

6.   Lastly, there needs to be a discussion about whether there is a moral decline in our society. Does this moral decline lead to an atmosphere of indifference to life? Does this moral decline make it easier for one to not only kill themselves but also kill others?               

So, let us have an honest discussion on this topic and find solutions by looking at the facts and asking the right questions. As Americans, the goal should be to decrease violence in general so that we can be a safer nation while still maintaining our freedom and liberties.