Focus needs to be on reducing gun deaths

Posted by:

Almost every day we read about gun deaths. What’s behind this problem? The National Rifle Association tells us, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”  Let’s go with that. The FBI reports that in 2012, people killed 144 babies, 422 kids age 12 and under, 1327 teenagers, 96 husbands, 498 wives, 140 mothers, 126 fathers, 168 boyfriends, 494 girlfriends, and thousands of others, for a grand total of 12,723 people—with guns.

The numbers will not go down dramatically until we change ...

Continue Reading →
21
APR
0

Gun Policy

, , , , , , ,

Kids shot accidentally because of easy access to guns

Posted by:

Just a week ago, NBC News reported that a 12-year old walked into a New Mexico middle school gymnasium, armed with a sawed-off shotgun.  He shot two students.  Both sustained serious injuries.

Yesterday, The Dispatch reported that a 4-year old boy in Detroit was fatally shot by his 4-year old cousin, a girl.  According  to police, the children were playing in a bedroom, where the cousin found a rifle under the bed. The rifle was loaded and unlocked. The cousin picked ...

Continue Reading →
19
JAN
0

Gun Policy

, , ,

Gun storage bill is about safety

Posted by:

Rep. Bill Patmon, D-Cleveland, is sponsoring H.B. 31 that, if passed, will require all firearms to be either safely secured or locked when they are kept in residences and there are minors about who can gain access to the firearms. Gun advocates view the bill as an infringement of their rights.

I understand the concerns of gun advocates, but let’s take a look at the bill’s purpose: keeping kids safe. Too many get shot because guns are left within a kids’ ...

Continue Reading →
8
JAN
0

Gun Policy

, , ,

Is there evidence to support Ohio’s proposed “stand your ground law?”

Posted by:

Ohio House Bill 203, which proposes a “stand your ground law,” passed the house two days ago. The bill changes Ohio’s self-defense law such that anyone facing bodily harm, so long as he is in a place he is lawfully allowed to be, has no duty to retreat before using deadly force in his defense.  The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, believes that the bill will save lives.

I don’t know if Johnson is right or wrong, but here’s something ...

Continue Reading →
22
NOV
0

Gun Policy

, ,

Should teachers carry guns?

Posted by:

A Columbus, Ohio, teacher has suggested in a letter to the editor that teachers who have a concealed carry license be permitted to carry their firearms in the classroom. He proposes the idea to help make “school buildings safer.” With so many mass shootings nationwide, it’s easy to understand why the idea is raised, but the idea necessarily leads to the question, how effective will teachers be in a gunfight?

To get a sense for the blur of thoughts and distorted ...

Continue Reading →
14
NOV
0

Gun Policy

, , , , ,

The NRA suppresses studies on gun violence

Posted by:

Ever wonder why we study highway collisions, smoking and HIV/AIDS for the purpose of reducing risk but don’t do the same for gun-related fatalities? It’s because the National Rifle Association purposefully works to suppress such research. The NRA will likely lobby against the $10 million proposed by President Barack Obama in his 2014 budget to study gun violence prevention.

The NRA’s battle against research began when the New England Journal of Medicine published a study in 1993 about guns in the ...

Continue Reading →
18
OCT
0

Gun Policy

, , , , , , , ,

NRA has lost its way

Posted by:

What do the Great Oz and the National Rifle Association have in common? Both make a lot of noise and try to intimidate anybody who questions them, but unlike the Great Oz, the NRA has real power.

State Rep. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, articulated the NRA’s position in June 2012: “Our Second Amendment rights have been infringed countless times in the past. If we let someone come and take one right away from us … we diminish what it means ...

Continue Reading →
18
OCT
0

Gun Policy

, , ,

Do people have the right to own any semiautomatic rifle, magazine size? Maybe not

Posted by:

Are gun advocates right when they say they have a constitutional right to carry assault weapons such as the AR-15 and large capacity clips? Recent court decisions suggest not.

Until the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed in 2008 a handgun ban in District of Columbia v. Heller, it was unclear whether the Second Amendment was a collective or personal right.

The court’s holding that the amendment conveys a personal right to own handguns was significant, but so too was how Justice Antonin Scalia ...

Continue Reading →
18
OCT
0

Gun Policy

, , , ,

Doctors must be able to ask about guns

Posted by:

On July 30, state Sen. Kris Jordan, R-Dist. 19, introduced Sen. Bill 165, which would prohibit physicians from asking patients questions about whether there are guns in their home. What do guns have to do with a person’s health, and why should physicians care whether their patients have guns?

Pediatricians ask these questions because guns are a leading killer of children. The Children’s Defense Fund reported that in 2008 and 2009, 5740 children and teens, including 299 children under age 10, ...

Continue Reading →
18
OCT
0

Gun Policy

, , , , , , , ,

Page 3 of 3 123