Not Again!

It has happened again—another mass shooting in the United States. There are many other shootings as well, single deaths that don’t make national headlines.  Just a few days ago, the South Bend Tribune, reported the death of three-year-old as the result of a game being played between the mother’s boyfriend and the child.  The boyfriend forgot the gun was loaded.

From time to time, I look at the Slate site’s, “How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?”  The answer as of September 16 was 8,259. I don’t know whether or not that includes the latest spree.

Yesterday David Frum posted the following: 

But if the easy availability of guns is not the sole cause of horrors like the Washington Navy Yard massacre, the easy availability of guns is the proximate cause of thousands of other less spectacular tragedies every year: the accidents, the unintended shootings, the ordinary arguments that escalate into gun battles.

 Gun rights advocates insist that the U.S. faces a choice between the status quo and the repeal of the Second Amendment and mass confiscation of firearms. That is false. Improved gun safety no more requires a gun ban than improved auto safety demanded the outlawing of cars. Gun design could be regulated to enhance safety. Those who wish to own guns could be required to take safety courses and pass a test. Individuals who are found to store their weapons unsafely could forfeit for a time their ownership rights. Persons convicted of drug offenses or drunk driving could be deprived of gun rights in their sentence, as felons now are deprived of the right to vote in many states. The classes of weapons associated with mass casualty shooting could be more strictly controlled. It's not all or nothing, not all one way or all the other way: moderate steps could achieve substantial results. The goal is not to reduce the level of gun violence to zero, any more than it is to stop all auto fatalities. The goal is to enhance safety while upholding legitimate rights. It's been done before. It can be done again.  (from “What if We Treated Guns Like Cars?”) 

I’m going to send this information to my legislators, and I encourage you to do the same. Last week I spoke with a woman who is a state legislator in Maine. Contacting legislators has an impact she said. Please contact yours.