Tell us a bit about yourself:
Other: I'm a citizen who is concerned
about violence.
Please tell us more about why you are
concerned about gun violence:
Guns are one of the tools of violence,
so how we treat them may be indicative of our understanding of the
ultimate problem. If guns are the problem, then controlling them is
vitally important. But if guns are only a symptom of a larger problem
then we need to ensure that controlling guns does not waste energy
and resources that would be better spent on addressing the real
problem.
Have you or anyone in your immediately family been affected by gun violence?
No.
Please tell us more about your story:
My dad accidentally shot himself in the
leg when he was a kid. I don't count that as gun violence, but as a
gun accident. Violence requires either intention to harm or
intentional neglect of the power to prevent harm.
Is there anything else you'd like to
add?
Gun violence is just one manifestation
of the deeper problem of violence in our society. Children die in
motor vehicles on a far larger scale than by fire arms. Our society
has intentionally neglected to use the power of regulation to prevent
children form dying in motor vehicles. That's violence by my
definition and we are not banning any motor vehicles.
We register all motor vehicles and also
license drivers for different kinds of vehicles to ensure they can
demonstrate safe and law abiding use. That should be the case with
fire arms. I am reluctant to support bans on particular classes of
firearms in the same way that I would be reluctant to ban whole
classes of motorcycles, cars, or trucks. We have a functional set of
rules about what counts as street legal and that still allows lots of
people to own and operate vehicles that deviate from those norms. So,
in my view the regulation of guns should be brought into closer
alignment with the regulation of the other major weapon of violence
that kills children on a massive scale in our society, motor
vehicles. And the regulations should focus on classifying firearms
according to various uses and ensuring that owners can demonstrate
safe and law-abiding use for whichever classes of firearms they
choose to own.
The following occurred to me after I submitted the survey:
And in anticipation of those who think
that firearms are critical to citizens being empowered to maintain a
check on the power of the government: consider the strategic value of
your means of transportation as compared to the strategic value of
your firearms. As far as I can tell they will both be critical to
any chance of success in the event armed insurrection is necessary.
And the most devastating attack on our government by a citizen in
recent times was via motor vehicle not firearms (Murrah Federal
Building bombing).
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