We have had more mass shootings in the United States this year so far than there have been days in the year. More than one per day, and yet nothing is happening to make our system better. All you see is a tragedy followed by scores of politicians going on social media and in front of the media talking about thoughts and prayers, as if that is enough. It isn't enough, and my question is simple. How many people have to die before this is an important enough issue to address on a national scale?
As of August 4th, in the United States, more than 1,300 people have been injured or killed in mass shootings in 2019, according to data collected by Gun Violence Archive. Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as any event in which at least 4 people were shot. By their calculations there have been some 292 mass shootings in the United States in 2019.
The United States has more guns than any other country in the world. There are over 120 guns per every 100 citizens in the United States. 393,347,000. That is the estimated number of civilian owned guns in the United States, a country of just 326,474,000 people as of 2017.
Finally, the United States makes up between 4 to 5 percent of the World Population, but has over 40 percent of civilian owned firearms.
Take those numbers in and think about them. These statistics include babies and children who cannot legally own guns. If you would exclude those people from the numbers the statistics would be even more staggering.
That all aside, let's talk about where we are as a country and where we need to go. It is getting to the point in America where each mass shooting is covered heavily for a 24 hour news cycle, thoughts and prayers are given, and we move on until the next shooting occurs; having made no attempt to improve our current system in America. Some media outlets cover the shootings for longer periods of time, but the shootings have become more normalized than ever before in history.
We need action, and the action isn't to take guns away from everyone or to allow everyone to run free open carrying anything they want. Those are the extreme views out there, and are not the answers to our problem. We can never prevent all deaths, and in a country as large and free as ours there will still be mass shootings and murders, but with common sense actions we can prevent many deaths.
Number 1 is simple. Standard waiting periods for guns in EVERY state. There needs to be a standard, and I don't care if it is 72 hours or 1 week. This is a cool down period. This accomplishes a couple of things. A proper background check can be done, and people who are trying to buy weapons to use in domestic situations at home to harm others have the time to calm down and rethink the insanity they were experiencing. The fact is, if you feel you need a gun right now, you don't need a gun. Applying a standard waiting period across all 50 states makes sense, and it doesn't infringe upon the 2nd Amendment at all.
Number 2 is dealing with the mental health reporting network in the United States. We have had mass shootings occur because proper documentation wasn't filed into the mental health system; documentation that would have prevented the shooter from purchasing the guns they did. We need a mental health reporting system that starts at home, school, and work, and then continues in hospitals, doctor's offices, etc.
There was a recent school shooter who had had the police called to his home on multiple occasions, had people call the FBI and report him on 2 separate occasions, and who had posted hateful things on social media, including a message that he would be the next school shooter. If any of those red flags would have been paid attention to, lives wouldn't have been lost.
There has to be an empowerment of students, parents, teachers and healthcare professionals to report, and when these instances are reported, the authorities need to seriously follow up. First, the mental health reporting network needs to be updated instantly whenever red flags are identified, and actions need to be taken by authorities to validate and vet these red flags.
Number 3 is person to person sale of weapons. Federal law requires background checks for commercial gun sales, but not for private-party sales whereby any person may sell a firearm to an unlicensed resident of the same state as long as they do not know or have reasonable cause to believe the purchaser is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under Federal Law.
That paragraph is ridiculous. So I shop at the gun shop and get a background check, but as long as I don't know that Bob (imaginary person) can't have guns by law I can sell him one without a background check person to person.
Every sale of every gun should be subject to background check requirements, period. Straw Purchasing is absolutely illegal. Does it still happen? Absolutely! That needs to be cracked down on immediately as well.
Number 4 is legislation that defines what people are lawfully able to own. We need to look at this as a country and truly ask ourselves the questions. The Framers of the Constitution didn't have a crystal ball that would allow them to look hundreds of years into the future to see what armament would exist in 2019. People want to continue to say they have the absolute right in the constitution to own whatever they want.
Guess what, you used to have the absolute right in the constitution to own slaves, women couldn't vote, etc. The constitution is a document created as a framework that can be readdressed as times change. The 2nd Amendment isn't exempt from that like so many people like to infer. Your right to bare arms shall not be infringed. Right, you will be able to bare arms, but within reasonable and documented legislative boundaries. This conversation needs to occur, and not in a political way.
Number 5 is concealed carry training and permits, along with constitutional carry and open carry. Here is the problem I have with this. I am pro-concealed carry, but not in the way our country treats it today. After a state passes a law that concealed carry is legal with a permit, hundreds of people in that state jump up and file to become concealed carry instructors. Some of those instructors provide excellent training to those going through their classes, and some of them are simply in it for the money. The problem is that there are so many trainers with so little oversight, you have countless people walking around carrying weapons they have no business carrying because they truly lack the basic fundamental training necessary to properly and safely handle the weapons, and have NEVER handled the weapons under stress in their lives.
That matters for many reasons. Open and Constitutional Carry states are even worse, because you can simply strap a weapon on and go on with your day. That is scary coming from someone who has been to war. There are so many people who would, with their lack of training, cause more lives to be lost during a mass shooting rather than stop the shooter in their tracks.
You hear about the shooters who have stopped assailants, but more often you hear about the other side of reality. We had a concealed carry person just last year who was in a public venue when a mass shooting began. The person pulled their gun and was running around to help. The police showed up and shot the individual who was trying to help. Why? Because he was running around with a gun. Proper training would have had him placing his weapon on the ground immediately when the police showed up, followed by him getting either down to his knees with hands behind his head or all the way to the ground as to not seem a threat to the police. That didn't happen because he didn't have the training needed to conceal carry safely.
The simple fact is that not everyone should be walking around with a gun. There needs to be some better, more stringent standards applied across the board when it comes to legally carrying weapons in public. Imagine a venue where a shooting occurs, and immediately after the shooting starts 40 people pull guns to help. How does anyone know who the assailant is and who is just a Good Samaritan at that point. Stress is up, adrenaline is pumping, and you have many people with fingers on triggers who have no business helping because of their lack of training.
Standardized Training should be a requirement to carry, and I am talking above and beyond the simple courses offered for concealed carry today. We don't live in an anarchy, so let's not talk and act like we do. When I joined the Army eons ago, they didn't just throw a SAW at me and say, "Go Save The World Dunk!" I went through extensive training to be able to properly shoot my weapon both under normal conditions and stress fire, and I went through training to understand what each and every part of my weapon did. I learned to take it apart, properly maintain it, and put it back together. I learned how to safely handle it and to accurately shoot it under any circumstance.
We need something more than we have right now, because what we have right now is simply ridiculous.
Number 6 is that it all starts at home. Parents need to be role models for their children, and all to often that isn't the case when it comes to guns. Parents with guns need to teach their children about gun safety from a very young age, and about how deadly guns are in the wrong hands, to include untrained hands. Parents should also keep their guns locked up and away from their children, to include teenagers and adult children. There have been multiple mass shootings and single murders involving teens who have gotten guns from their parents because the guns weren't properly secured.
Aside of mass shootings, locking up guns properly so children don't have access to them is vital. There are countless shootings every year that occur accidentally because small children gain access to their parent's guns and accidentally shoot themselves or others because they don't understand how dangerous the guns are.
_______________
Now, I could go on forever, but it is late at night as I write this to publish it tomorrow, and I just don't have the time. Also, you signed up to read a blog not a novel.
Let me end with this statement.
Our nation is in a crisis. Those on the far right of the gun debate and those on the far left of the gun debate absolutely need to set their ridiculous vision of gun ownership aside. Congress needs to look at every aspect of gun ownership, access, and deaths, some of which I have kindly provided my insight on above, and they need to change the system and make our laws and approaches to mental health reporting stronger. The entire system needs to be stronger.
Will it end all mass shootings? No, but it will end many countless lives from being senselessly ended. Even one life saved makes any work put in worth it. So get off your partisan high horses and go beyond thoughts and prayers for once.
Until Next Time,
DUNK
As of August 4th, in the United States, more than 1,300 people have been injured or killed in mass shootings in 2019, according to data collected by Gun Violence Archive. Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as any event in which at least 4 people were shot. By their calculations there have been some 292 mass shootings in the United States in 2019.
The United States has more guns than any other country in the world. There are over 120 guns per every 100 citizens in the United States. 393,347,000. That is the estimated number of civilian owned guns in the United States, a country of just 326,474,000 people as of 2017.
Finally, the United States makes up between 4 to 5 percent of the World Population, but has over 40 percent of civilian owned firearms.
Take those numbers in and think about them. These statistics include babies and children who cannot legally own guns. If you would exclude those people from the numbers the statistics would be even more staggering.
That all aside, let's talk about where we are as a country and where we need to go. It is getting to the point in America where each mass shooting is covered heavily for a 24 hour news cycle, thoughts and prayers are given, and we move on until the next shooting occurs; having made no attempt to improve our current system in America. Some media outlets cover the shootings for longer periods of time, but the shootings have become more normalized than ever before in history.
We need action, and the action isn't to take guns away from everyone or to allow everyone to run free open carrying anything they want. Those are the extreme views out there, and are not the answers to our problem. We can never prevent all deaths, and in a country as large and free as ours there will still be mass shootings and murders, but with common sense actions we can prevent many deaths.
Number 1 is simple. Standard waiting periods for guns in EVERY state. There needs to be a standard, and I don't care if it is 72 hours or 1 week. This is a cool down period. This accomplishes a couple of things. A proper background check can be done, and people who are trying to buy weapons to use in domestic situations at home to harm others have the time to calm down and rethink the insanity they were experiencing. The fact is, if you feel you need a gun right now, you don't need a gun. Applying a standard waiting period across all 50 states makes sense, and it doesn't infringe upon the 2nd Amendment at all.
Number 2 is dealing with the mental health reporting network in the United States. We have had mass shootings occur because proper documentation wasn't filed into the mental health system; documentation that would have prevented the shooter from purchasing the guns they did. We need a mental health reporting system that starts at home, school, and work, and then continues in hospitals, doctor's offices, etc.
There was a recent school shooter who had had the police called to his home on multiple occasions, had people call the FBI and report him on 2 separate occasions, and who had posted hateful things on social media, including a message that he would be the next school shooter. If any of those red flags would have been paid attention to, lives wouldn't have been lost.
There has to be an empowerment of students, parents, teachers and healthcare professionals to report, and when these instances are reported, the authorities need to seriously follow up. First, the mental health reporting network needs to be updated instantly whenever red flags are identified, and actions need to be taken by authorities to validate and vet these red flags.
Number 3 is person to person sale of weapons. Federal law requires background checks for commercial gun sales, but not for private-party sales whereby any person may sell a firearm to an unlicensed resident of the same state as long as they do not know or have reasonable cause to believe the purchaser is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under Federal Law.
That paragraph is ridiculous. So I shop at the gun shop and get a background check, but as long as I don't know that Bob (imaginary person) can't have guns by law I can sell him one without a background check person to person.
Every sale of every gun should be subject to background check requirements, period. Straw Purchasing is absolutely illegal. Does it still happen? Absolutely! That needs to be cracked down on immediately as well.
Number 4 is legislation that defines what people are lawfully able to own. We need to look at this as a country and truly ask ourselves the questions. The Framers of the Constitution didn't have a crystal ball that would allow them to look hundreds of years into the future to see what armament would exist in 2019. People want to continue to say they have the absolute right in the constitution to own whatever they want.
Guess what, you used to have the absolute right in the constitution to own slaves, women couldn't vote, etc. The constitution is a document created as a framework that can be readdressed as times change. The 2nd Amendment isn't exempt from that like so many people like to infer. Your right to bare arms shall not be infringed. Right, you will be able to bare arms, but within reasonable and documented legislative boundaries. This conversation needs to occur, and not in a political way.
Number 5 is concealed carry training and permits, along with constitutional carry and open carry. Here is the problem I have with this. I am pro-concealed carry, but not in the way our country treats it today. After a state passes a law that concealed carry is legal with a permit, hundreds of people in that state jump up and file to become concealed carry instructors. Some of those instructors provide excellent training to those going through their classes, and some of them are simply in it for the money. The problem is that there are so many trainers with so little oversight, you have countless people walking around carrying weapons they have no business carrying because they truly lack the basic fundamental training necessary to properly and safely handle the weapons, and have NEVER handled the weapons under stress in their lives.
That matters for many reasons. Open and Constitutional Carry states are even worse, because you can simply strap a weapon on and go on with your day. That is scary coming from someone who has been to war. There are so many people who would, with their lack of training, cause more lives to be lost during a mass shooting rather than stop the shooter in their tracks.
You hear about the shooters who have stopped assailants, but more often you hear about the other side of reality. We had a concealed carry person just last year who was in a public venue when a mass shooting began. The person pulled their gun and was running around to help. The police showed up and shot the individual who was trying to help. Why? Because he was running around with a gun. Proper training would have had him placing his weapon on the ground immediately when the police showed up, followed by him getting either down to his knees with hands behind his head or all the way to the ground as to not seem a threat to the police. That didn't happen because he didn't have the training needed to conceal carry safely.
The simple fact is that not everyone should be walking around with a gun. There needs to be some better, more stringent standards applied across the board when it comes to legally carrying weapons in public. Imagine a venue where a shooting occurs, and immediately after the shooting starts 40 people pull guns to help. How does anyone know who the assailant is and who is just a Good Samaritan at that point. Stress is up, adrenaline is pumping, and you have many people with fingers on triggers who have no business helping because of their lack of training.
Standardized Training should be a requirement to carry, and I am talking above and beyond the simple courses offered for concealed carry today. We don't live in an anarchy, so let's not talk and act like we do. When I joined the Army eons ago, they didn't just throw a SAW at me and say, "Go Save The World Dunk!" I went through extensive training to be able to properly shoot my weapon both under normal conditions and stress fire, and I went through training to understand what each and every part of my weapon did. I learned to take it apart, properly maintain it, and put it back together. I learned how to safely handle it and to accurately shoot it under any circumstance.
We need something more than we have right now, because what we have right now is simply ridiculous.
Number 6 is that it all starts at home. Parents need to be role models for their children, and all to often that isn't the case when it comes to guns. Parents with guns need to teach their children about gun safety from a very young age, and about how deadly guns are in the wrong hands, to include untrained hands. Parents should also keep their guns locked up and away from their children, to include teenagers and adult children. There have been multiple mass shootings and single murders involving teens who have gotten guns from their parents because the guns weren't properly secured.
Aside of mass shootings, locking up guns properly so children don't have access to them is vital. There are countless shootings every year that occur accidentally because small children gain access to their parent's guns and accidentally shoot themselves or others because they don't understand how dangerous the guns are.
_______________
Now, I could go on forever, but it is late at night as I write this to publish it tomorrow, and I just don't have the time. Also, you signed up to read a blog not a novel.
Let me end with this statement.
Our nation is in a crisis. Those on the far right of the gun debate and those on the far left of the gun debate absolutely need to set their ridiculous vision of gun ownership aside. Congress needs to look at every aspect of gun ownership, access, and deaths, some of which I have kindly provided my insight on above, and they need to change the system and make our laws and approaches to mental health reporting stronger. The entire system needs to be stronger.
Will it end all mass shootings? No, but it will end many countless lives from being senselessly ended. Even one life saved makes any work put in worth it. So get off your partisan high horses and go beyond thoughts and prayers for once.
Until Next Time,
DUNK
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