Blind to gun problem (Toronto Sun)

By SHEILA COPPS


While the world reels with the news of mass murder at Virginia Tech, the big question remains: Will American politicians have the guts to seek real solutions to gun violence or will they continue to be cowed by the weapons lobby?

The Montreal massacre at Ecole Polytechnique prompted a range of responses, including stringent gun laws and better police training to tackle random assaults. The training proved invaluable in the quick police action at the Dawson College shooting, limiting the tragedy to a single death.

The massacre of 16 innocent schoolchildren in Dunblane, Scotland prompted a British handgun ban that ultimately decreased gun deaths by 21%.

Compare that to the American response to Columbine. Eight years have passed since the senseless deaths of 12 students and their teacher and yet, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "Since these killings, we've done nothing as a country to end gun violence in our schools and communities. If anything, we've made it easier to access powerful weapons."

According to Physicians for Social Responsibility, 5,000 American children under the age of 15 die from gunfire every year. Deaths and injuries related to firearms cost the American economy $100 billion annually.

Yet, so strong is the gun lobby that on the heels of this tragedy, President George Bush felt compelled to convey his support for the right to bear arms along with his condolences. Never mind the questionable logic behind the second amendment right to bear arms. How could any leader not question guns in the wake of one of the worst mass murders in American history?
...(snip)...

Wake up America! All the well-intentioned sympathy in the world will not bring the victims back. Gun control is the only way to make some sense of this senseless horror. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Copps_Sheila/2007/04/18/4055835.html

His/her attitude would change

posting this stuff on guns. You are feeding the Republicans the ammo they need to defeat you in 08. Guns are a losing issue for the Democratic Party and Politicians.

I have seen the debate about guns go on for decades in my life, seemingly beyond all reason and logic. Even here at DU among Democrats for whom most see the U.S. use of capital punishment as being barbaric compared to most of the rest of the civilized world there is an anachronistic embrace of the gun culture using its existence to justify its existence. We, as Democrats, are in agreement with much of the rest of the world as they shake their heads at our military madness and lack of basic health care for our citizens, but many of us and much of the rest of America seem totally befuddled why other countries cannot grasp that guns are just as necessary as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Guns primarily only have one purpose--to destroy, whether life or a target. Although thousands are killed each year by motor vehicles, by accidents or road rage or vehicular homicide, at least their primary purpose is transportation. We all should be able to see that if there were fewer motor vehicles out there that there would be fewer deaths caused by their use, but that same notion seems to escape us when it comes to guns. The answer would probably then be, "well then you would have more people killed falling off from bicycles". It seems that Americans must inherently be a more violent culture who embrace the use and existence of guns as being worth the carnage they cause.
We forget that the Constitution was written by men and not by the finger of God and that just as blacks are no longer looked upon as being three fifths of a person, maybe it is time to stop our worship of the holy and phallic gun symbol.

What's wrong with background checks? What's wrong with banning certain guns and keeping some?

How about having a police officer come to your house to check what kind of storage you have for your gun?

All in the UK. And much less homicides a year due to gun deaths. Fifty people were murdered by the gun in the UK for the entire year between 2005 and 2006. (there were 766 homicides of various sorts, including the 7/7 bombing, in 2005-2006 in England and Wales). Only two police officers died by the gun between the years of 1998 and 2006 in the same area.

I don't understand the fervent need to keep onto guns in America. My British friends asked me and I had no answer to tell them, only "America is a gun-mad country, that's all I can say."

Seriously... I think the tide is turning... There'll be more support for gun control than ever.

But if you look deeper behind the psychology of our nation, you must come to the conclusion that we are basically schizophrenic.

We claim to be a pro-life culture, but we demand capital punishment. Who said: 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, pretty soon we'll all be blind and starving.'

We claim to value each life, but while there are those who would remove the right of every woman to control her own body, they will at the same time let the children who have been born starve to death or die from lack of medical care.

We are truly a nation of violent, unbalanced, and illogical people. Five thousand of our children are sentenced to death every year. Death by firearms. Gun violence has been called a pandemic by our health leaders.

We all know the above is true and yet we let a small but load percentage of our population to demand and get the right to arm themselves as if for war. I am a gun owner and former LEO, and I would gladly give up my guns if it would mean that somehow ALL guns could be removed from civilian hands. And PLEASE DON'T bring up the old 'keep our government from taking away our freedoms', because they've already done that without firing a shot. If that's your idea of protecting freedom, you've already lost. Civilian arms simply can't fight a military takeover.

One day soon I hope we will, as a nation, take a metaphorical pill and come to our senses. Maybe then the world will stop laughing at us and pitying us.

not guns!

I didn't know she was writing articles for the Star.

And this is a good one. But then again, this is in line with what editorialists from all over the world are saying.

The American attitude towards guns is insane, pure and simple.

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