National I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.

[ATCclears]

Opinion | I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.

By the time we published our project, I didn't believe in many of the interventions I'd heard politicians tout. I was still anti-gun, at least from the point of view of most gun owners, and I don't want a gun in my home, as I think the risk outweighs the benefits. But I can't endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them. Policies that often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.

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[Andy54Hawken]

Nice article...thank you for sharing it.

Policies that often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.

This quote from the article is one reason why I take the chance , to take non-gun or even anti-gun people
( if they are willing ) shooting or "talk and show" guns with them.
Far too many folks who have strong opinions against firearms have little to no experience with a gun in real life.
Andy

 

[Pops1911]

Yes, thanks ATCclears for sharing this article. Surprisingly well thought out for an admitted anti. There was another article I ran across [I forget where] that looked at exactly "where" all the gun deaths were occurring. Not unsurprisingly in Chicago, Baltimore, etc and several large East Coast metro areas with gang issues. I know I am preaching to the choir here but the trope of "simple, common sense gun control measures" is a true red herring that may sound good but stinks to high heaven with untruth.

 

[etrain16]

That is a good article - she clearly admits her bias (which we all have) and does her best to be objective. And I have to say I largely agree with her. If people are really serious about saving lives, all the talk of gun control has to stop, because it's not solving anything and only creating deeper divides between folks that need to work together.

Surprisingly, both sides want the same thing - to find a way to save lives. But as she points out:

Instead, I found the most hope in more narrowly tailored interventions. Potential suicide victims, women menaced by their abusive partners and kids swept up in street vendettas are all in danger from guns, but they each require different protections

We need to look at the different problems and apply different solutions, solutions that can actually, objectively, be shown to work, rather than trying to use a blanket solution - gun control - that not only doesn't solve the problem, but satisfies a desire by many to restrict the rights of others. Far too many politicians and anti-gun zealots claim they want to save lives, but distort this issue to further a grand plan, gun control, and never are willing to acknowledge the failure of such policies because those policies fit radical political agendas.

Hopefully, as time passes, and more folks, hopefully see gun control as having done nothing to stop these deaths, maybe then folks will sit at the table and try to find some real solutions that may actually make a positive impact.

 

[Diamondback]

I'm just gonna drop this link on Mas Ayoob's wasted effort to educate a media Gun Grabber...
HOW THE GUN PROHIBITIONISTS THINK

 

[Goosebrown]

Best article on the subject for years I think. There are targeted things that can be done, like helping young men stop taking up guns to settle arguments and trying to get people talking when they are thinking of committing suicide. Both would have a positive effect on LOTS of things, not just a decrease in shootings. However as the author states, bans of classes of weapons or enforcing background checks which are followed already by the law abiding for 90%+ of all transfers, those things are not going to help and they are CLEARLY not going to help.