They hate it
The gun-obssessed hate it when we throw the lack of gun control -- and the massive amount of unnecessary guns -- in their faces after another mass shooting, this time the one in Virginia. The gun-obssessed are lashing back at anyone, including this columnist, who dares raise the issue of the number of handguns in the country and the uneven regulation of them. Make sure you read the news reports from the Virginia medical examiner. While there was probably no way to stop the VT gunman, or anyone that deranged, from stepping into a building with concealed Glocks and starting a killing spree, there's no way (sort of a suicide bombing) for him to kill that many people that quickly without the firepower he possessed.
One e-mailer believes I have a duty to point this out in a future column:
According to the most recent annual statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, there were 11,500 homicides committed by perpetrators using guns. There were 17,000 deaths committed by perpetrators using vehicles after consuming alcohol. Your chances of being killed by a drunk driver are much higher than being killed by a perp with a gun.
I don't consider the gap he reports -- assuming it is accurate -- to be "much higher" considering the following:
The number of cars per capita versus the number of guns per capita.
Considering the tens of millions who drive cars (some of whom drink and drive) versus the hundreds of thousands (or few million) who have contact with concealable handguns (some of whom drnk and shoot), I would say it's a virtual draw at best.
Comments
You are 100% correct about the guns and ammo allowing the VT gunman to incur so much death in so little time. There is no way he could have done that much damage if he only had things like knives, clubs, and other non-gun weapons with him. Sure, he would likely have killed a few people, but 30, before he was stopped or killed himself? No way.
Posted by: Phil in Columbia | April 24, 2007 8:43 PM
I can't imagine any teenage or college-age kid needing a semi-automatic....practice for what? Hunting? I don't know, it just doesn't seem to make sense to me. It sickens me that a gun shop owner would give half a glance at this young man and what exactly he was buying before crunching his grubby fingers on the cash register.......Somehow, this country needs to find a smarter, more common-sensical and balanced way of gun control and distributing arms to its citizens .
Posted by: Mary Irene | April 25, 2007 1:01 AM
"the hundreds of thousands (or few million) who have contact with concealable handguns"
Few million? The last estimate I saw was in the neighborhood of 100 million Americans owning guns (inclusive of all types) with a total of 200-250 million guns between them. In other words there are about as many guns per capita in the US as cars (car ownership was at 776 per 1000 in 2003 and probably hasn't changed much).
Posted by: Joe T. | May 7, 2007 2:07 PM