BEATING A DEAD HORSE

Yesterday, a student at South Carolina State University was shot and killed on campus. Today, three people were shot and killed (including the murder suspect) at a mall in Columbia, Maryland. The killings continue at a torrid pace, and I have to wonder how many people will die until we wake up and recognize that the love affair Americans have with guns is a big part of the problem? Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m beating a dead horse!

Earlier this week the University of California, San Francisco released the results of a study its researchers conducted on firearm use in suicides and murders. The study’s results indicated that suicide risks were significantly increased and homicide rates were moderately increased in households where a gun was present. If you’re a gun rights advocate, it’s easy to dismiss those findings because, let’s face it, using a firearm in an attempt to commit suicide or kill somebody makes it more likely that death will occur. That’s part of why the risk of suicide and homicide is higher in households with guns, but there’s another part of the equation that critics of gun control refuse to acknowledge – the lower levels of impulse control and heightened rates of aggression that gun owners exhibit over their unarmed counterparts. Those two factors are really at the heart of the matter. That’s why I say that hotheads shouldn’t own guns.

Most states have laws that prohibit people who’ve had mental health commitments from possessing firearms. Those statutes resulted from the recognition that individuals suffering with mental illness represent a greater danger to themselves and others if they are permitted to possess firearms. Speaking as a person who’s dealt with my own mental health issues, I can state with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t be alive today had I owned a firearm during the lowest depths of my depression. That’s why I recognize that certain gun control laws are both prudent and necessary.

Almost all states also have laws prohibiting youngsters from owning firearms, and barring the use of firearms by juveniles, except under the supervision of an adult. Those laws reflect the fact that juvenile reasoning is still in its developmental stage and very often, juveniles lack the impulse control that is necessary for safe firearm ownership.

Unfortunately, those same laws don’t apply to adult wing-nuts and hotheads, many of whom continue to wreak havoc on our urban landscape with reckless abandon…and the killing continues!