I am currently writing a column for the OSU rag, the O'Colly, on guns and violence and gun ownership.
I am posting here to get feedback before I send the column into my editor. Let me know if some wording is weird or if there is anything I could add/subtract.
I have an approximate 500 word limit and am currently at 463, so I can't go crazy and add alot of content.
Anyway, here it is:
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We are a culture of violence where top-selling video games feature the player killing literally hundreds with guns. Our top action movies contain obligatory gun violence perpetrated by either bad guys or exquisite professionals. We have a fragment of our generation explicitly trained to kill others in the military. In addition, with almost ten years of two simultaneous wars, we automatically associate guns with death and extreme violence.
Countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland (where soldiers are allowed to keep their military weapons at home) have high gun ownership rates but rank far lower in gun violence. Firearms in these peaceful cultures are seen as recreational, not violent.
In 2005, the National Institute of Justice estimated 11,346 persons were killed by firearm violence, and 477,040 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm. Of those 11,000 deaths, more than half were suicides and around 2% were accidental deaths. These statistics, of course, are not meant to de-humanize those killed using firearms. They are just meant to show that out of 270 million guns in the US, fewer than 0.004% are involved in death and 0.1% are involved in criminal activity (assuming one gun for every crime or death, which is a very liberal assumption).
The media sensationalizes the gun issue and promotes fear among the general populace. A criminal who uses a gun in a crime is more likely to be newsworthy than the homeowner who uses his shotgun to scare away an intruder. Of course, if the homeowner was to lawfully shoot and kill the intruder the media will cover such a story, further reinforcing the gun and violence connection.
On a personal note, my wife and I own three guns. Never have they been used, or even pointed at, another human being. Are they there for my wife or I to stop a drug-crazed intruder? Yes. They have so far destroyed many water-filled containers at the range.
Being in Oklahoma, only the most devoted liberals would wish to deny anyone the use of a firearm in their own home. Many will still argue, however, against concealed weapons in the general public or in restricted zones like schools or government buildings. They seem to think guns do not belong on college campuses or courthouses.
But the crazies and criminals disagree. Most of the massacres involving firearms in recent history occurred in gun-free zones aka schools or campuses or courthouses. As we have discovered with prostitution and drugs, laws do little to prevent crime, they just allow the criminals to be put away after the crime.
The only thing that making campuses and courthouses gun-free zones accomplishes is ensuring that only the criminal, who has no regard for laws, or the police, who may be minutes away, possess a weapon.
~
Thanks and let me know what ya think!
I am posting here to get feedback before I send the column into my editor. Let me know if some wording is weird or if there is anything I could add/subtract.
I have an approximate 500 word limit and am currently at 463, so I can't go crazy and add alot of content.
Anyway, here it is:
~
We are a culture of violence where top-selling video games feature the player killing literally hundreds with guns. Our top action movies contain obligatory gun violence perpetrated by either bad guys or exquisite professionals. We have a fragment of our generation explicitly trained to kill others in the military. In addition, with almost ten years of two simultaneous wars, we automatically associate guns with death and extreme violence.
Countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Switzerland (where soldiers are allowed to keep their military weapons at home) have high gun ownership rates but rank far lower in gun violence. Firearms in these peaceful cultures are seen as recreational, not violent.
In 2005, the National Institute of Justice estimated 11,346 persons were killed by firearm violence, and 477,040 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm. Of those 11,000 deaths, more than half were suicides and around 2% were accidental deaths. These statistics, of course, are not meant to de-humanize those killed using firearms. They are just meant to show that out of 270 million guns in the US, fewer than 0.004% are involved in death and 0.1% are involved in criminal activity (assuming one gun for every crime or death, which is a very liberal assumption).
The media sensationalizes the gun issue and promotes fear among the general populace. A criminal who uses a gun in a crime is more likely to be newsworthy than the homeowner who uses his shotgun to scare away an intruder. Of course, if the homeowner was to lawfully shoot and kill the intruder the media will cover such a story, further reinforcing the gun and violence connection.
On a personal note, my wife and I own three guns. Never have they been used, or even pointed at, another human being. Are they there for my wife or I to stop a drug-crazed intruder? Yes. They have so far destroyed many water-filled containers at the range.
Being in Oklahoma, only the most devoted liberals would wish to deny anyone the use of a firearm in their own home. Many will still argue, however, against concealed weapons in the general public or in restricted zones like schools or government buildings. They seem to think guns do not belong on college campuses or courthouses.
But the crazies and criminals disagree. Most of the massacres involving firearms in recent history occurred in gun-free zones aka schools or campuses or courthouses. As we have discovered with prostitution and drugs, laws do little to prevent crime, they just allow the criminals to be put away after the crime.
The only thing that making campuses and courthouses gun-free zones accomplishes is ensuring that only the criminal, who has no regard for laws, or the police, who may be minutes away, possess a weapon.
~
Thanks and let me know what ya think!
