On December 14, 2012, a crazed
knife wielding man stood outside Chenpeng Village Primary School in Henan
Province, China, and stabbed 24 people before the police
overpowered him.
All of the victims, 23 children and 1 elderly woman (from whom the
attacker originally stole the knives) eventually
recovered. Does any of that sound
familiar? The Sandy Hook tragedy
occurred on the same date, hours later.
The disparity of death toll (0 in Henan versus 20 in Connecticut) has
already been remarked upon in the past four years. It shows that policy can mitigate the
effects of violent outbursts. China is
not the only Asian state to have knife-rampages. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other
countries experience them too. The
attacker in Chenpeng did not have access to a firearm, so he used knives. It is difficult-to-impossible to prevent
these rampages, but with different policy choices, they can be mitigated.
Americans
really do seem to want to take steps to prevent or mitigate violence like the
rampage that rocked Orlando on June 11, based on polling data that finds 77%
support for background checks, and 57% support for outright assault weapon
bans. So why do we not enact policy
pursuant to those ends? For most of my
adult life, the cause of gun control in the United States has been
moribund. Gun control laws loosened,
causing the supporters of gun control to lose morale and only become
pessimistic. Whenever an event like we
saw in Orlando occurs and gains national attention, the gun lobby, personified
in organizations like the NRA, leaps into action and prepares to halt or resist
any policy change that might tighten gun control and make obtaining deadly
weapons, such as the infamous AR-15 family of
guns, more difficult. Basically, by the time legislation that calls
for gun control hits the floor of Congress or state legislatures for debate,
the opponents have been ready to go for some time. Never mind that their arguments might lack
merit, or polling data suggests most Americans support some form of tighter gun
control.
In
contrast, Americans who support gun control legislation are poorly
organized. If you would rather tweet
about how nothing will change than work for change, of
course you will inevitably be disappointed!
And when you are ready to work to make things change, you need clear
goals. Preferably, the kind of goals that can be explained easily and succinctly for
the peanut gallery that does not have the time or the inclination to immerse
themselves in all of the minutiae of policy.
The NRA and similar organizations have simple goals: make it as easy as
possible for any American to purchase firearms and ammunition. What do we mean by control? Do we mean banning certain classes of firearm? Then we need to define what classes we
mean. Do you want to limit the amount of
guns and ammo people may purchase?
Background checks and waiting periods?
Manufacturing restrictions? Tight
licensing requirements for gun owners?
All of these things have been or are real legislative proposals that I
have heard people make on the internet, on television and in newspapers. I do mean people
in a broad sense. Things can change, but
they require input on our part. We all have
some skin in this game. Might as well
act like it.
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