It hasn’t been perfect. The Virginia Tech shooting was a shocking wake-up call that revealed a big, man-made flaw in the system: a mental patient who should have failed the check was able to buy a gun because funding wasn’t included when the law was passed to include the records of dangerous mental patients. The shortcoming has since been corrected, but the maddening thing was that it was predictable and unnecessary. It was a sad side effect of people playing politics with a very serious issue. To the surprise of everyone but its members, the NRA knew that Congress was going to try to correct the error, so they stepped-in, getting together with congressional leaders to craft some improvements to correct the mistake.
In the end, though, I finally had the answer my in-law asked me for: there seems to be no basis in fact that a waiting period saves lives and, in fact, the evidence shows it to be dangerous. This aspect turned out to be satisfying to my in-law as well, since she’s a supporter of Planned Parenthood and a local women’s shelter. Scratch one more item off of our list!
Keep in mind that this list barely dents the surface and that the items that are effective against crime are only single pieces of a very big puzzle. What we as a people really need to do is to concentrate on the root causes of violent crime. (Note that I don’t normally say, “gun crime,” since any violence is horrible, and if a person is killed by someone wielding a knife or crowbar, they’re just as dead.) Many other countries have high gun ownership, yet they enjoy a much lower incidence of shooting crimes. We need to look at what they’re doing right and what we may be doing wrong. Yes, it’s a bit more nebulous, with many facets to explore and no quick fixes, but with a real discussion, absent the politricks, rhetoric and outside agendas, we can avoid the wild goose chases of the past and make our future a much brighter, safer place for all without depriving hunters and sportsmen or people concerned with self-protection of their firearms.
Discussions are two-way, so this means YOU! I didn’t set out to write just another article; I’d like it to be a continuing series and a mission all in one. So let me hear from you! Send your ideas, thoughts, comments, criticisms and other remarks to: DJStuCrew@gmail.com. I may not respond to every single one, but I promise to personally read them all and reflect your views and sentiments in upcoming installments. Until then, have a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!
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