Let Them Have the AR 15

The horrendous shootings of so many children at Newtown, Connecticut will certainly give fresh ammunition to the gun control movement, and no logical and factual argument may be able to contend with the tremendous outrage this incident has rightfully caused.

Compare Rate of Gun Homicide per 100,000 People

In the United States, the annual rate of firearm homicide per 100,000 population is

2009: 2.985
2008: 3.12
2007: 3.36
2006: 3.42
2005: 3.43
2004: 3.20
2003: 3.37
2002: 3.2511
2001: 3.12
1999: 2.976
1998: 3.37
1993: 7.071
Alpers, Philip and Marcus Wilson. 2012. Guns in the United States: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law. Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney.

The spurt in 1993 reflects a sharp rise in gang violence in the 1990’s, which has since diminished greatly.

It will be no use to point out that gun deaths in the US actually appear to be diminishing since the gang wars of the 1990’s calmed down.

It will also be no use to point out that the Aurora, Tucson, Virginia Tech and, now, this latest atrocity were committed by crazed individuals, and that no gun control laws will have any effect on the supply of millions of firearms that are out there in America. It will also have no effect to point out that states that passed concealed-carry laws have all seen a decrease in violent crime since their passing.

Typical comments after Newtown are shown below:

“Friday’s horrific scenes and reports hit especially hard because the victims reportedly included 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10, innocent kids gunned during during a shooter’s cold-blooded rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the normally quiet town of Newtown, Conn.

But aspects of the latest massacre seemed to fit into a nightmarish pattern, a scenario that has shocked Americans again and again. A mentally disturbed young man gains access to an arsenal of guns, walks into a public place and proceeds to shoot multiple people. Perhaps he has a twisted reason for lashing out but most, if not all, of the victims are blameless bystanders.

“As a country, we have been through this too many times,” an emotional President Barack Obama said Friday. “Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago -- these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children……

Will Friday’s mass murder of children at a Connecticut school end up following the past pattern and result in zero action? There were early signs that the atrocity might at least shock some officials into trying to do something.

“As a country, we don’t need more debate, no more excuses. The time for action is now,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in a statement after Friday’s shootings……

In his emotional statement Friday, Obama said, “We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” The president cancelled a scheduled appearance Saturday in Maine, and some administration officials that he might at least propose steps that aim to avert such massacres in the future.

David Chipman, who spent 25 years as a special agent at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told the New York Times that the shooting may prove to be “a game changer.”” St Louis Beacon

Above excerpts from St Louis Beacon

In my opinion, as a gun owner and long-time NRA member, we would be foolish to assume that this time will be like the others, and that the push for some gun control laws will again fade away. I believe that gun owners need to do three things: 1. we need to increase our support for the NRA financially and by recruiting more members, since that organization will come under tremendous pressure to back off from opposing new measures, 2. we should support banning the AR 15 and any firearm that can be converted to full automatic fire fairly easily. Even though these weapons were not used, there is no good argument for their availability, and 3. we should support banning high capacity magazines, which have been a factor in some of these mass shootings.

If we do not support reasonable measures, we may get some very unreasonable ones from the politicians now in power.