We need to look no further than www.justicejournalism.org's discussion of an all-but-forgotten story of absurdity about our quasi nonexistent gun control laws. This real-world example highlights the absurdity of some firearms protocols in America, whether you are pro-gun or pro-gun control. On March 23, 1998, two boys in Jonesboro, Ark., stole into the woods and hunkered down on a hill that afforded a good view of a local school. One of them, Mitchell Johnson, 13, directed the other, Andrew Golden, 11, to go inside the building and activate a fire alarm. Golden then ran to rejoin Johnson at the vantage point. As students and teachers began filing out of the building, Johnson and Golden opened fire with three rifles they took from the home of Johnson's grandfather. They fired for 5 minutes as terrified kids scrambled for cover. The boys killed four girls and a female teacher and injured 10. They were prosecuted and convicted of murder, but under the state and federal laws that the applied, the boys could be held only until they turned 21.
Johnson was freed on his birthday in 2005. Arkansans were stunned to learn that no law would prevent him from buying and owning firearms. His mother assured the edgy city that young Johnson had discovered God and planned to study to become a minister. On Jan. 1, 2007, police in Fayetteville, Ark., pulled over Mitchell Johnson's van for a traffic violation. He was carrying a loaded 9mm pistol. Of course he was never going to buy a gun again, and even if he did, he'd never use it again, right? Would YOU feel safe and secure knowing that YOUR neighbor spent seven years behind bars for killing people with a gun and now owns guns again? Would you applaud the US and Arkansas legal systems for their handling of this case and their 'reform' of this person?
It used to be that citizens were worried about rampant violence and people out of control who decided to take the law into their own hands. In the 1800s, American states began reining in vigilantism and Wild West lawlessness by limiting the rights of citizens to carry concealed weapons. That pendulum began to swing back in 1987 when Florida became the first state to enact a "right-to-carry" law. About half of all states now have some form of the law, with most enacted since 1995. It is estimated that as many as 400,000 or more people in Florida carry concealed weapons. However, currently there are no statistics to track their usage. There is no way of knowing whether these guns are reducing crime or increasing it and if the NRA and other progun lobbyists have their way, there will never be any statistics to prove it one way or another. About the only study to date reviewing such data, More Guns, Less Crime, by John Lott, actually concluded that "getting rid of older black women will lead to a more dramatic reduction in homicide rates than increasing arrest rates or enacting shall-issue laws." Americans are creating more and more illegal guns in our society and as a result, are buying more and more guns to protect themselves from the illegal guns they themselves create.
One more example of the absurdity of the American gun culture. A New York Daily News criminal reporter, David J. Krajicek, was sent to Georgia a few years back to follow up on reports that gun dealers there were selling guns to New Yorkers who paid below city prices for the guns and who would, upon their return to NYC, turn around and sell them to miscreants including Jamaican Posse members to be used in commissions of crime. Before he left Georgia to return to NYC, he stopped in Atlanta to interview a regional official of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The reporter was blown away by the ATF officer's remarks by saying that violence in New York was not necessarily a concern in Georgia. The officer said, "Why should people down here care if a bunch of Jamaicans in New York are shooting themselves up? Why should law-abiding citizens give up their ability to buy firearms because one posse shoots another posse in Brooklyn with a gun somebody happened to buy in Georgia?" If that's the response of our "protectors of our society," then we can only sit and watch capitalism at work unchecked. As long as the guns are taken illegally out of the state and use in crimes in other states, the legal authorities turn a blind eye.
In reality, the idea of the US making ALL guns illegal is totally absurd. Only the brain dead would ever believe this possibility could even exist. There are, however, many who champion this statement and perpetuate it wherever possible, and many of them are gun dealers. Every few years rumors begin to circulate that the current standing president is going to prohibit ALL guns in private hands. Proof is never given of this, of course, but there are many misquotes, and innuendos for the investigative and logically challenged members of society to begin their famous headless chicken routine and open up their wallets and credit cards in order to get "their last possible purchases" before the curtain falls. When the curtain doesn't fall, these people completely forget the lies, innuendos and false statements which ultimately led to their illogical headless chicken routine, and the rumors start once again. I know of no other industry that can constantly dupe tens of millions of Americans in this manner on such a consistent basis and in such a lucrative way.
It is obvious to one and all that the second amendment exists and has never been threatened in the entire history of the US. It is also obvious that the gun culture which currently exists in the US would be far too aggressive for any American government to ever contemplate revising the second amendment or banning all guns. It is equally obvious that the progun lobbyists are easily manipulated and controlled and with the use of mere illogical and absurd bumper stickers, they can be made to spend billions of dollars on more weaponry at the drop of a hat.
In England and Wales with a total population of 55 million people, a place with extremely restrictive gun laws, only 7 shooting related deaths occurred during the entire month of May, 2009. In order to keep pace, the US, with 300 million people, would need to show only 42 gun related deaths over the same time frame. Instead, the number is in the thousands. Yet, if you ask progun lobbyists, they will blurt out that gun violence is on the rise in England because of the gun laws they enacted over ten years ago. One can only imagine what the totals must have been if this "rise in gun violence" has lead to only seven deaths.
As long as law enforcement turns a blind eye to guns being illegally sold in one state in order to commit crimes in another, gun violence in the US will continue to produce tens of thousands of dead each year. As long as there's no registration of guns, there's no tracking of guns, and there's no legal enforcement of the laws already on the books, the US will be known around the world as one of the most violent nations in existence. As long as absurd statements like, "guns don't kill people, people kill people," and "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns," are believed, the private gun industry will have a very lucrative future on both sides of the law. As long as stupid rumors of imminent gun confiscation run rampant, the US will stay at or near the top in gun violence, firearm murders, firearm crime and other violent crimes.
As long as progun lobbyists demonstrate selective amnesia and lack of common sense as their primary motive, tens of millions of Americans will continue to purchase more and more armaments and will, as a direct result, furnish the criminal black market with guns and an ever increasing inventory of weapons for them to choose from.
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