Since 1993, the United States has seen a drop in the rate of homicides and other violence involving guns, according to two new studies released Tuesday. Using government data, analysts saw a steep drop for violence in the 1990s, they saw more modest drops in crime rates since 2000.
NPR May 7, 2013 The Two-Way
This 2013 NPR article was part of some sponsored content on Facebook, content from the Advocates, a group that I supported once upon a time. I just want to state this up front, so that the following sentiments expressed by me directly to the Advocates can be understood.
Here’s where I would start. We have to create a level playing field. We will have to lift the ban on the CDC studying weapons and their impact on US society. We have to lift the ban on gun manufacturers being sued for the harm that their products do. We will have to make sure that there are no loopholes for background checks. Make sure that any weapon that changes hands without a background check is an illegal sale. An illegal sale which could be subject to prosecution. Initiate registration for all gun sales after this point. We need to initiate requirements for training as we do for driving a car, before someone can own a firearm.
Having done all that we then wait for the real stats to surface. Real stats, because, without those changes we don’t know the stats on gun violence and its full effects on society. We can do all that or we could just start treating all semi-automatics like we do full automatic weapons. Reinstate the draft so that every able-bodied person in the US can be assessed for weapons proficiency before we let them loose on society to raise havoc with rapid-fire weaponry available on every street corner. Pick one of those options, because it has to be one of them if we are to move away from the place we are in now.
Content from a Facebook post, slightly expanded
I purposefully didn’t include a conclusion to this article because, as this podcast illustrates, we really don’t know the facts around gun violence yet. Yet.
If the changes I outlined above are made, we might be able to get a handle on the real facts about the nature of gun violence in this country.
