Where do you go to find out what states have the highest
proportion of gun ownership? Or whether
gun ownership correlates with homicide rates in a city? How many guns used in homicides were bought
legally? Where juveniles involved in gun
fatalities got their weapons? What
factors contribute to mass shootings like the Newtown, Conn., one that killed
26 people at a school? You wouldn’t go
anywhere because the data isn’t available thanks to Wayne LaPierre and the National
Rifle Assn. (NRA). They made sure in a
1996 law that stopped gun control research in its tracks.
The Associated Press reports that
although almost as many Americans die from gun violence as car crashes each
year, nothing is done to analyze the former, but the latter has been studied
thoroughly, significantly bringing down the number of car crashes even when the
number of cars on the road goes up. Here’s
an anomaly to illustrate the absurdity of this situation:
"If an airplane crashed today
with 20 children and 6 adults there would be a full-scale investigation of the
causes and it would be linked to previous research," said Dr. Stephen
Hargarten, director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of
Wisconsin.
This is all true because of a law that wacky Wayne LaPierre
and his bunch of gun nuts pushed through Congress in 1996 following a study a
few years earlier showing that “people who lived in homes with firearms were
more likely to be homicide or suicide victims.”
Following this no government agency dared to do anything on the subject
for fear of losing their grant money. Sixteen
years later, we have no real concept of exactly what is causing gun
violence. Except the one thing we know is that gun violence is caused by guns.
What we need is a “black box” like
airliners and newer model cars.
Let me give you an idea why the National Rifle Assn. (NRA)
doesn’t want this research. MSN did an
article on state gun regulations with the
following results:
- Only six states require mandatory background checks on all purchases at gun shows. They are Oregon, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York and Connecticut.
- Only seven states require mandatory background checks on assault weapons. They are California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
- Only seven states have restrictions on high-capacity magazines. They are Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
When you combine all of the states included in the
non-requirements, it adds up to humongous sales for gun manufacturers, and that
is why the NRA is in business; to make sure these companies sell more and more
guns, more and more ammunition, and more and more gun accessories like
high-capacity magazines. And for their
efforts, the NRA receives millions in donations from these gun companies each
year. Since 2005, those donations have
totaled just under $39 million.
The NRA can’t survive without this money and gun companies cannot
survive if we learn the morbid statistics on gun violence.
Private funding for gun control research has been a paltry
amount when compared to potential federal grants. When you Google “private research grants for
gun control,” you get some general stuff but nothing specific to gun
control. One of the most topics that did
show up is the question of whether or not Obama’s executive orders would get
gun control research going.
Unfortunately, the money required to fund this research requires an act
of Congress and we all know there are enough yellow bellied NRA butt-kissers to
stop that. Unless…???
