When elections are on the horizon, there are a few issues that never fail to show up. They split us right down the middle, Democrat or Republican. Often, these issues are not the most important issues that we have to deal with, but we are so dug into our side, that we make no headway, and are distracted from more important items. Important issues like the economy, war, nuclear proliferation, the environment, education, infrastructure, etc. etc. are not being talked about as much as they should. So, what I want to do today is to help find the middle ground on these partisan issues, promote the middle ground, and maybe we, as a society, can move on to the big ticket items, at least for a bit. First up, GUNS.
A, lets establish the problem.
1. "
a study based on data from 2012 to 2014 suggests that, on average, 5,790 children in the United States receive medical treatment in an emergency room each year for a gun-related injury. About 21% of those injuries are unintentional, .......
From 2012 to 2014, on average, 1,297 children died annually from a gun-related injury in the US, according to the study, published in
the journal Pediatrics on Monday." - http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/19/health/child-gun-violence-study/index.html
2. "When Americans think about deaths from guns, we tend to focus on homicides. But the problem of gun suicide is inescapable: More than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns die by suicide."- https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html
3. Privately owned firearms are stolen in America with alarming frequency: between 300,000 and 600,000 every year, according to a new survey of gun ownership by researchers at Harvard and Northeastern universities. - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/21/gun-theft-us-firearm-survey
4. Mass killings in the United States are most often carried out with guns, usually handguns, most of them obtained legally. 948 victims. Each gun was used to kill an average of three people, not counting shooters. The 948 people came from nearly every imaginable race, religion and socioeconomic background, and 145 were children or teenagers. -https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/mass-shootings-in-america/
B, establish the conflict between left and right.
THE REPUBLICAN VIEW
"We uphold the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, a natural inalienable right that predates the Constitution and is secured by the Second Amendment. Lawful gun ownership enables Americans to exercise their God-given right of self-defense for the safety of their homes, their loved ones, and their communities.
We salute the Republican Congress for defending the right to keep and bear arms by preventing the President from installing a new liberal majority on the Supreme Court. The confirmation to the Court of additional anti-gun justices would eviscerate the Second Amendment’s fundamental protections. Already, local officials in the nation’s capital and elsewhere are defying the Court’s decisions upholding an individual right to bear arms as affirmed by the Supreme Court in Heller and McDonald. We support firearm reciprocity legislation to recognize the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms to protect themselves and their families in all 50 states. We support constitutional carry statutes and salute the states that have passed them. We oppose ill-conceived laws that would restrict magazine capacity or ban the sale of the most popular and common modern rifle. We also oppose any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law.
We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers and the current Administration’s illegal harassment of firearm dealers. We oppose federal licensing or registration of law-abiding gun owners, registration of ammunition, and restoration of the ill-fated Clinton gun ban."- https://www.gop.com/platform/we-the-people/
THE DEMOCRATIC VIEW
Preventing Gun Violence
With 33,000 Americans dying every year, Democrats believe that we must finally take sensible action to address gun violence. While responsible gun ownership is part of the fabric of many communities, too many families in America have suffered from gun violence. We can respect the rights of responsible gun owners while keeping our communities safe. To build on the success of the lifesaving Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, we will expand and strengthen background checks and close dangerous loopholes in our current laws; repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to revoke the dangerous legal immunity protections gun makers and sellers now enjoy; and keep weapons of war—such as assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines (LCAM's)—off our streets. We will fight back against attempts to make it harder for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to revoke federal licenses from law breaking gun dealers, and ensure guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists, intimate partner abusers, other violent criminals, and those with severe mental health issues. There is insufficient research on effective gun prevention policies, which is why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must have the resources it needs to study gun violence as a public health issue.
C. Lets establish some potential solutions, while respecting both sides.
So, you can see the conflict. Now, here is a middle ground plan, that I have to help reduce the problem of gun related deaths/accidents (the Democratic aim) while respecting gun ownership and the rights of individuals (the Republican aim).
1. Reduce the sales taxes on guns that have built in trigger locks, or come with a trigger lock separately. The point here is to protect your children from gaining access to guns in your home. The non-built in trigger locks can be removed, so they wont always protect your guns from being stolen, but, they will help with prevention of accidental shootings. All things being equal, if there are two guns of the same quality, but one is cheaper due to the sales tax being reduced, most people will go with the cheaper gun. This does come with a cost to state revenue, but well worth it. It would be up to the individual to utilize the trigger lock. I think this measure would save some lives.
2. Educate children about guns. If you have little ones in your house, the NRA has a video you might want to look into. I just watched, and will have my little girl watch it soon. Here it is, Eddie Eagle - https://eddieeagle.nra.org/. I also think that there could be firearm education day in schools, particularly middle school and High school from a state trooper that comes in for a day to talk to the students about proper firearm safety. Such as, you never point a firearm at anything you don't intend to shoot, you always must be aware of where your firearm is pointing. Also, Leave the safety on, and your finger off of the trigger until you are ready to shoot. That sort of thing. Having a state trooper teach a class will lend authority to the class. That would cost money, but well worth it. - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2017/05/02/firearm-education-could-save-kids-lives/?utm_term=.295e85715a62
3. Mental illness and guns should not mix, but at times, they do unfortunately. If we want to prevent gun homicides and suicides that are related to mental illness, then we must protect/bolster our health care system already in place. Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare cannot afford any cuts, and should be improved. Less healthcare = a less mentally healthy population.
D. Conclusion.
If you think there are many middle ground solutions to gun violence/accidents, email your congressman/Senator/your representatives in the state legislature, tell them to make some common sense decisions to save lives, regarding gun safety. Feel free to use some of the ideas listed here, or just tell them to do something, anything, to help solve the gun safety problem we have in our communities, our state, our country.
P.S.
I sent an email to my representatives in the West Virginia State Legislature:
To the honorable Delegate Ambler,
In 2015, 141 children in America were killed by unintentional gun discharges according to the USA today link below. This number is far too high, and I think West Virginia can do more to protect our children, while respecting the 2nd amendment. 1. We could offer state sales tax breaks for guns equipped with a trigger lock built into the gun. All things being equal, I would buy the cheaper gun. This would cost revenue, but if the trigger lock were used by the owner, it may prevent some accidental discharges. It might even save some lives. 2. I think gun safety education could be taught in schools. There is a link to the NRAs website that has a child education video that tells kids what to do if they should find a gun. Its about 8 minutes long. Maybe, this, or some other education could be taught to children to not play with guns.
Recently, an 11 year old boy brought a loaded gun to Winfield Middle school. See the link below for more details. The lack of gun safety in our state/country is a problem, and I would like to see something done about it. I dont care what, just something, an attempt. Thank you for your time.
-Roger Vannoy
I received an interesting response from Delegate Ambler, here it is:
Mr. Vannoy,
Thank you for sharing your concern on gun safety. I share your concern that children, and adults, are not given instructions about gun safety in and around the home. I support the 2nd amendment even though I have some reservations with recent law changes in our state. I support the attempts of various groups, such as the NRA,to make people aware of gun safety. However, without proper instruction we allow anyone to buy a firearm at age 21 and thus to have them in their households where it might be difficult to teach their children gun safety when they have had no safety taught to them. Our Department of Natural Resources is making every attempt to have hunter safety courses to be taught in our area schools and are having several degrees of success. I think the DNR is attempting to get the State Superintend of Schools to mandate hunter education to be taught in our schools yearly. As you are aware gun safety is a major component of this program. This might be one way to get the proper gun safety started. I will chat with others on this issue and we will see where this leads. Have a great day!
George Boogie Ambler
I applaud Delegate Ambler's idea on mandated hunter education in schools. I hope he can help make that happen. This solution will not solve all the gun accidents that we have today, but I believe that the number would fall, and thats the idea. To keep striving to make life better for West Virginians and all Americans. The effort is what counts.
