An Apartment Divided: Gun Control
Hi everyone! We hope you missed us while we were taking our Thanksgiving vacation. Thanks for coming back!
In light of recent tragedies and the inevitable gun control discussion that has followed, Ryan and I are going to tackle the issue of gun control. (As always, our opinions are our own.) This is an enormous topic and there are countless aspects and proposals surrounding this issue we could dedicate multiple posts to. For now, though, we’ll keep it pretty basic.
As I’m sure most of you already know, Democrats are typically in favor of more gun control while Republicans remains supportive of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Here’s why…
Haley:
The United States is a unique country. We were created out of a desperate and passionate defense of God-given fundamental rights. Our country was founded at a time when one of the most powerful governments in the world was attempting to suppress its people, and as a result its people felt defending one’s life, liberty, and property should be one of the founding principles of our new nation. Thus, we as Americans have a firm constitutional right to own guns, and like it or not, this right is permanently woven into the fibers of our political and national identity.
Our country is not lawless. The United States already has hundreds of existing gun control laws. The federal government has required background checks (facilitated by the FBI) since 1993, taxed firearm purchases, prohibited the sale of different types of firearms, and regulated interstate commerce and trade. Additionally, each state has the right and ability to pass its own gun control legislation as they see fit.
Let’s talk California. The state of California, the location of the recent San Bernardino shooting and seven public mass shootings since 2006, has some of the harshest gun laws in the country. The state has passed over 50 new gun restrictions since 1994 and has the highest grade (A-) of any state from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Overall gun-related crime and homicide rates have consistently decreased in the past few decades* despite nearly 40 states loosening their gun restrictions. And, despite states like California passing countless major gun laws, mass shooting rates have remained relatively consistent. This shows more gun control laws won’t solve the epidemic of mass shootings in this country, but mental health reform will.
Mental health experts agree frequent mass shootings are evidence of an unsuccessful mental health system. Currently there is a bill in Congress, introduced by a Republican, which would fix gaps in the mental health system including dangerous HIPAA restrictions, encouraging early treatment, and removing restrictions for mental health facilities to receive federal funding thus allowing greater access to treatment. Over half of the mass shooters in the past two years have had a history of mental illness. Passing this bill would be an important step in reducing gun deaths in the United States and an important way to help the problem without over regulating law-abiding citizens.
All of us can agree mass shootings are a horrible reality our country is currently facing and something must be done to stop them. Unfortunately, no matter how many laws we pass, there will always be people who seek to inflict harm and who are determined to find a way to do so. There are ways to solve the problem of mass shootings in the United States and all options must be exhausted before undermining constitutional liberties.
(*For those of you mentally arguing with me already and citing my second paragraph, homicide rates largely fell in the 1980s well before background checks were required by federal law and well before several other gun laws were implemented. Additionally, many states passed right to carry laws as homicide rates began to fall again in the 1990s.)
Ryan:
We have a gun problem in America and we need to start doing something about it. Whether it’s a mass shooting, a suicide, a toddler picking up his dad’s gun and accidentally shooting his sibling, or an isolated homicide. Something needs to be done.
People are going to say gun control doesn’t work and we already have gun control laws in place. People are going to say enacting any gun restriction at all is hurting our 2nd Amendment rights. What people need to understand is most of these regulations just stop criminals from obtaining guns. While you may have to do a couple more forms of paperwork or wait a few more days, that is not taking away your right to keep and bear arms.
Democrats are not suggesting taking away your guns, so before we began this discussion, get that out of your head. All we want is commonsense reforms like background checks for all gun sales, mentality checks, cool down periods, and training courses to ensure you are trained to use the weapon if the occasion arises for you to need it.
People are going to say criminals are still going to get guns if they want them. Drugs are illegal, and after all that doesn’t stop people from obtaining them. That kind of logic just means we shouldn’t have any laws at all. Just because somebody can find a way to obtain illegal drugs doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be laws against them.
People will also tell you gun control laws don’t work. Just in 2015 there has been over 12,000 gun deaths. These deaths range from mass shootings to drive by shootings to suicides and everything in between. When it comes to homicides by firearm per million people, America leads the developed world at 30, whereas the next closest country is Switzerland at 8.
Gun control laws work. For example, when Connecticut passed a law requiring gun purchasers to first obtain a license, gun homicides fell by 40% and suicides fell by 15.4%. When Missouri repealed a similar law, their gun homicides increased by 23% and suicides increased by 16.1%. In 1996, Australia experienced one of the worst mass shootings in history. The country then passed extremely strict gun laws and they haven’t had a mass shooting since.
I reject the argument that we are just different than all other developed countries, that we just have a violent past and a gun culture that others don’t. What? Great Britain invaded over 90% of the world by the barrel of a gun. They fought wars all over the world, yet when they passed gun restrictions, their guns deaths fell (they only had 59 in 2011 ). In Japan, a country of 130 million people, including criminals and gangs, only had 2 guns deaths in 2006. I could go on and on listing different examples of gun control success stories from around the world, but I won’t waste your time. Gun control works in other developed nations, and it would work for the United States.
There are ways we can maintain our 2nd Amendment rights while making the country a safer place. We can institute universal background checks, mentality checks, training requirements, and cool down periods. We are America. We don’t back down from any challenge. I don’t like the idea that we as Americans look at our gun deaths and say, “Well we are just too unique to change the world.” No, it is the opposite. We are so unique that we can change the world, and we can start with gun control.
Behind the scenes…
Surprisingly, Ryan and I found a lot of common ground with mental health reform ideas. Though we are almost completely divided on the issue of gun control itself, we both agree something needs to be done and mental health is a great bipartisan start. All in all, surprisingly still standing. Thanks for reading, see you next week!
