John Traphagan: When will we examine our heavily armed culture?

[NRA Member]

Yup.... gun control will solve all of our problems? Just ask them.......


John Traphagan: When will we examine our heavily armed culture?

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/la...ed-culture.ece



In the past few years, Americans have witnessed shootings at a movie in Colorado, a 3-year-old shooting and killing his father in Indiana and, most recently, nine people killed in a fight among biker gangs in Waco.

Amazingly, Americans seem to see these regular incidents as normal. It’s a powerful and sad testament to how anesthetized we have become to this ongoing violence. And despite all of this violence and loss of life, many in Texas and elsewhere want to increase gun ownership and allow people to openly carry firearms.

Since 9/11, Americans have been deeply concerned about threats to national security. Our tendency has been to define national security only in terms of external threats. A much better way is to see national security is in terms of the well-being of our population. If we think of it this way, the evidence is clear — a heavily armed population in the U.S. is not secure because our culture does not seem to lend itself well to allowing the proliferation of guns.

There are many law-abiding American gun owners who do not go out and kill people and who keep their guns stored safely. But as a whole, Americans do not seem to be able to handle gun ownership in a way that permits maintenance of a civil society. The reality is that the significant numbers of bad apples have spoiled it for those law-abiding gun owners, and it’s time that gun rights organizations such as the National Rifle Association recognize this and begin working with those who want realistic gun control laws, in part as a way of building trust with those who do not own guns.

It’s the one thing we agree on: a desire for a safe and secure society.

Often, those against gun control argue that if you take away the guns from regular people, only the criminals will have guns. Thus, people need to be armed in order to protect themselves. This has not proved true in countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea that have fairly recently enacted strict gun control laws.

There is simply no need for a civilized society to tolerate the type of gun-related violence that Americans seem to accept as normal. Other modern industrial countries have realized, in some cases long ago, that it is unnecessary for people in a free society to have easy access to guns.

The solution to gun-related crime is not further arming the public. It involves enacting comprehensive gun control laws that prohibit many forms of gun ownership, significantly curtailing or eliminating access to and the ability to purchase guns, and implementing programs in which the government confiscates or purchases illegal guns already in circulation among the public.

For those firearms that are legal, ownership should be tied not only to background checks, but to extensive and mandatory training in the safe use and storage of weapons. Evidence from other countries shows clearly that these types of measures will significantly reduce gun-related deaths and lead to a safer and more secure society.

In an era of extreme concern about national security, Americans need to recognize that one of the greatest threats to national security is their own heavily armed population. We need to enact legislation that will greatly reduce gun-related crimes and protect people from the dangers associated with widespread gun access and ownership. Unfortunately, our proven inability to handle widespread gun ownership suggests strongly that the way to do this is to deeply restrict access to and ownership of most types of guns.

Americans should ask themselves whether they want to live in a society that is secure because everyone is ready to shoot one another or one that is secure because people have peace of mind and experience freedom from violence and the freedom to pursue their lives in safety and happiness rather than fear.

John Traphagan is a professor of religious studies and anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnTraphagan or email him at jtrap@utexas.edu.
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[theunrulychef]

Well I'm convinced. Where do I hand in my firearms for confiscation?

[Solaran_X]

There are many law-abiding American gun owners who do not go out and kill people and who keep their guns stored safely.

At least he admits this much...but lets go a bit deeper.

In 2013, we had 33,636 deaths that involved firearms from all categories. (SOURCE: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_us.html)

In 2013, we had 84,258 injuries that involved firearms from all categories.(SOURCE: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html)

So that is a total of 117,894 deaths and injuries involving firearms in 2013.

As we've seen with recent polls (much to the delight of the anti-civil rights groups), gun ownership is currently at roughly 34% (down from a high of 49% some decades ago, hence the delight of the anti-civil rights groups).

In 2013, the US population was roughly 316,500,000 (SOURCE: http://www.google.com/).

So that means in 2013, we had roughly 107,610,000 gun owners.

Now, lets take that 117,894 deaths and injuries and attribute it to 117,894 individual events - in order to general the largest possible number of events (and thus discounting multiple victim incidents). And then lets apply those 117,894 individul incidents to only the 107,610,000 legal gun owners (since I doubt that 34% figure accounts for criminal possession of firearms).

So...with my "worst case scenario" figure, how many legal gun owners are responsible for all of the deaths and injuries involving firearms in this nation?

0.11%.

Thats right - barely more than 1/10th of 1% of gun owners, in an absolutely worst case scenario, are "irresponsible." The other 99.89% of gun owners have never been involved in any deaths and injuries.

I think that is a bit more than "many."

[bigdawgbeav]

Guess I ruined it for everyone since 1 of those 84,258 injuries was me in 2013... sorry guys.

[streaker69]

Well I'm convinced. Where do I hand in my firearms for confiscation?

Bring them here, I'll ensure they go to the right place.

[Bang]

Professor/University

No need to read further.

Education is a wonderful thing.

[pennlineman]

Well John, we haven't had a chance to examine our heavily armed society as of yet. Lets hope we never do, but people just like you are making the opportunity more and more plausible.

[qmcorps]

Well I'm convinced. Where do I hand in my firearms for confiscation?

PM me your address, I'll pick them up and turn-in, for you. Yea, your welcome, I'm that kinda guy.

[ReconLdr]

Yup.... gun control will solve all of our problems? Just ask them.......


John Traphagan: When will we examine our heavily armed culture?

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/la...ed-culture.ece



In the past few years, Americans have witnessed shootings at a movie in Colorado, a 3-year-old shooting and killing his father in Indiana and, most recently, nine people killed in a fight among biker gangs in Waco.

Amazingly, Americans seem to see these regular incidents as normal. It’s a powerful and sad testament to how anesthetized we have become to this ongoing violence. And despite all of this violence and loss of life, many in Texas and elsewhere want to increase gun ownership and allow people to openly carry firearms.

Since 9/11, Americans have been deeply concerned about threats to national security. Our tendency has been to define national security only in terms of external threats. A much better way is to see national security is in terms of the well-being of our population. If we think of it this way, the evidence is clear — a heavily armed population in the U.S. is not secure because our culture does not seem to lend itself well to allowing the proliferation of guns.

There are many law-abiding American gun owners who do not go out and kill people and who keep their guns stored safely. But as a whole, Americans do not seem to be able to handle gun ownership in a way that permits maintenance of a civil society. The reality is that the significant numbers of bad apples have spoiled it for those law-abiding gun owners, and it’s time that gun rights organizations such as the National Rifle Association recognize this and begin working with those who want realistic gun control laws, in part as a way of building trust with those who do not own guns.

It’s the one thing we agree on: a desire for a safe and secure society.

Often, those against gun control argue that if you take away the guns from regular people, only the criminals will have guns. Thus, people need to be armed in order to protect themselves. This has not proved true in countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea that have fairly recently enacted strict gun control laws.

There is simply no need for a civilized society to tolerate the type of gun-related violence that Americans seem to accept as normal. Other modern industrial countries have realized, in some cases long ago, that it is unnecessary for people in a free society to have easy access to guns.

The solution to gun-related crime is not further arming the public. It involves enacting comprehensive gun control laws that prohibit many forms of gun ownership, significantly curtailing or eliminating access to and the ability to purchase guns, and implementing programs in which the government confiscates or purchases illegal guns already in circulation among the public.

For those firearms that are legal, ownership should be tied not only to background checks, but to extensive and mandatory training in the safe use and storage of weapons. Evidence from other countries shows clearly that these types of measures will significantly reduce gun-related deaths and lead to a safer and more secure society.

In an era of extreme concern about national security, Americans need to recognize that one of the greatest threats to national security is their own heavily armed population. We need to enact legislation that will greatly reduce gun-related crimes and protect people from the dangers associated with widespread gun access and ownership. Unfortunately, our proven inability to handle widespread gun ownership suggests strongly that the way to do this is to deeply restrict access to and ownership of most types of guns.

Americans should ask themselves whether they want to live in a society that is secure because everyone is ready to shoot one another or one that is secure because people have peace of mind and experience freedom from violence and the freedom to pursue their lives in safety and happiness rather than fear.

John Traphagan is a professor of religious studies and anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnTraphagan or email him at jtrap@utexas.edu.
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Makes perfect sense to me....

[polishprince]

John Traphagan is a useful idiot. He wants us to have peace and security,unarmed and defenseless,by trusting in a huge centralized government for our safety.

Lenin,Stalin,Mao and Hitler love this guy!

Here we go again.