When innocent people are gunned down in schools or offices or when someone like
George Zimmerman shoots and kills Trayvon Martin, how do members of the NRA and gun-advocates truly feel? I really want to understand. I think I understand the desire to have a gun for self-defense or sport. But when a gun owner sees statistics such as these, how do they react?
From Legal Community Against Violence:
Gun Violence Statistics
Introduction
The United States experiences epidemic levels of gun violence, claiming over 30,000 lives annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every person who dies from a gunshot wound, two others are wounded. Every year, more than 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence. In addition to those who are killed or injured, there are countless others whose lives are forever changed by the deaths of and injuries to their loved ones.
Gun violence touches every segment of our society. It increases the probability of deaths in incidents of domestic violence, raises the likelihood of fatalities by those who intend to injure others and among those who attempt suicide, places children and young people at special risk, and disproportionately affects communities of color.
Why is it that every regulation is fought and every effort to expand the number of guns and where they can be carried and concealed is supported? The example I always hear is that if a car kills someone you don't ban cars. But if there is something that can be done with the car without banning it, such as regulating who drives it or how it is made and sold, why would anybody fight that? I also have heard the argument that regulations only affect law abiding citizens and not the criminals who will ignore them anyway. But many deaths are caused by persons who have obtained and own the weapon legally.
I know the slogan -- "Guns don't kill people; people kill people", but without a gun present there would be no killing. I have no doubt that some crimes, injury or deaths have been prevented by the victim having a weapon or the criminal merely fearing that the victim may have one. I wonder, on the other hand, how many deaths occurred which could have been avoided if the victim or the shooter did not have a weapon (the Trayvon Martin case being a prime example). I truly do not understand the push to allow guns everywhere -- in schools, in churches, in bars, at political rallies, at Starbucks, etc., and I am sincere in saying I want to understand.
The Supreme Court has confirmed the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, but it did not outlaw the need for licenses, permits, registrations, etc. -- reasonable regulations to reduce the death toll. Please explain to me why the NRA calls its members to war on this:
Recently, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. issued a ruling upholding an Obama administration policy that requires federally licensed firearms retailers in states bordering Mexico to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles. The case was brought by two NRA-backed firearm retailers and by the National Shooting Sports Foundation acting on behalf of its affected members. Plaintiffs have already filed an appeal -- but while we await the outcome, your help is urgently needed in seeking congressional action to end this illegal policy.
Along with the fight to block any regulations that affect the sale, ownership and possession of guns, what do gun owners say to the parents of Trayvon Martin or of the 6 dead women at Oikos University or the families of those who will be killed by guns tomorrow? Help me understand this fanatical devotion to gun rights in the face of this senseless and relentless death by guns.