We have now had two mass shootings in one week. In Michigan, the right wing extremists funded by the Koch brothers have enacted legislation, contrary to their own sunshine laws and procedures, to legalize guns in schools.
More guns do not make us safer. If more guns could make us safe, we would be the safest country in the world, because we have the most guns. This is as flawed right wing thinking as the belief that tax cuts or redistributing more and more and more money to the wealthy will lead to job creation, when the opposite has consistently been true. We have to stop arguing with people who hold emotional beliefs in place of dealing with facts. We have to stop trying to reason with the right wing crazies who have hijacked the GOP with the aid of rich special interests and crazy extremists.
In the UK, in 1996, there was a terrible school shooting, the Dunblane school massacre. As a result of that mass shooting, and the only other similar mass shooting in 1987, the Hungerford massacre, the UK enacted very restrictive gun regulation. They did not choose to tolerate mass shootings, they did not choose to accept the rate of suicides, murders, murder / suicides, accidental shootings, or all of the injuries that result from firearms, or the intimidation that results from firearms.
It worked. They have far far far less gun crime, they have a largely unarmed law enforcement, with the exception of special SWAT style squads, they have less gun crime and less gun violence.
There are some striking similarities between the Dunblane massacre and the mass shootings in Connecticut.
from wikipedia:
The Dunblane school massacre occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. The gunman, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton (b. 10 May 1952), entered the school armed with four handguns, shooting and killing sixteen children and one adult before committing suicide. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, it remains one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in the history of the United Kingdom.
Public debate subsequent to these events centred on gun-control laws, including media-driven public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official enquiry, the Cullen Report. In response to this debate, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 were enacted, which effectively made private ownership of handguns illegal in the United Kingdom.
On 13 March 1996, unemployed former shopkeeper[2] Thomas Hamilton (born Thomas Watt, Jr. 10 May 1952) walked into the Dunblane Primary School armed with two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson M19 .357 Magnum revolvers, all legally held.[2][3] He was carrying 743 cartridges, and fired his weapons 109 times.[4][5] The subsequent police investigation revealed that Hamilton had loaded the magazines for his Browning with an alternating combination of full-metal-jacket and hollow-point ammunition.
After gaining entry to the school, Hamilton made his way to the gymnasium and opened fire on a Primary One class of five- and six-year-olds, killing or wounding all but one person.[6] Fifteen children died together with their class teacher, Gwen Mayor, who was killed trying to protect the children. Hamilton then left the gymnasium through the emergency exit. In the playground outside he began shooting into a mobile classroom. A teacher in the mobile classroom had previously realised that something was seriously wrong and told the children to hide under the tables. Most of the bullets became embedded in books and equipment, though "one passed through a chair which seconds before had been used by a child."[7] He also fired at a group of children walking in a corridor, injuring one teacher. Hamilton returned to the gym and with one of his two revolvers fired one shot pointing upwards into his mouth, killing himself instantly. A further eleven children and three adults were rushed to the hospital as soon as the emergency services arrived. One child, Mhairi Isabel MacBeath, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
The Cullen Inquiry into the massacre recommended that the government introduce tighter controls on handgun ownership[13] and consider whether an outright ban would be in the public interest.[14] The report also recommended changes in school security[15] and vetting of people working with children under 18.[16] The Home Affairs Select Committee agreed with the need for restrictions on gun ownership but stated that a handgun ban was not appropriate.
In response to this public debate, the then-current Conservative government introduced a ban on all cartridge ammunition handguns with the exception of .22 calibre single-shot weapons in England, Scotland and Wales. Following the 1997 General Election, the Labour government of Tony Blair introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, banning the remaining .22 cartridge handguns in England, Scotland and Wales, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. "Long-Arms") that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a "Handgun" due to their dimensions. The ban does not affect Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
Security in schools, particularly primary schools, was improved in response to the Dunblane massacre and two other violent incidents which occurred at around the same time: the murder of Philip Lawrence, a head teacher in London, and the wounding of six children and Lisa Potts, a nursery teacher, at a Wolverhampton nursery school.
In Australia, a shooting not long after the Dunblane massacre led to a change from what had been similar laws to the U.S. gun laws lead to that nation also enacting strict gun regulation. That mass shooting was the Port Arthur massacre.
citing wikipedia:
Australians reacted to the event with widespread shock and horror, and the political effects were significant and long-lasting. The Federal Government led state governments, some of which (notably Tasmania itself and Queensland) were opposed to new gun laws, to severely restrict the availability of firearms. While surveys showed up to 85% of Australians 'supported gun control', many people strongly opposed the new laws. Concern was raised within the Coalition Government that fringe groups such as the 'Ausi Freedom Scouts',[14] the Australian League of Rights and the Citizen Initiated Referendum Party, were exploiting voter anger to gain support. After discovering that the Christian Coalition and US National Rifle Association were supporting the gun lobby, the Government and media cited their support, along with the moral outrage of the community to discredit the gun lobby as extremists.[15]
Government-level opposition to the new laws was quelled by mounting public opinion and coercion by the Federal Government,[citation needed] which controls the bulk of State revenue.
Under federal government co-ordination all states and territories of Australia banned and heavily restricted the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles, self-loading and pump-action shotguns, and heavily tightened controls on their legal use. The government initiated a "buy-back" scheme with the owners paid according to a table of valuations. Some 643,000 firearms were handed in at a cost of $350 million which was funded by a temporary increase in the Medicare levy which raised $500 million.[16] Media, activists, politicians and some family members of victims, notably Walter Mikac (who lost his wife and two children), spoke out in favour of the changes.
Contrary to what the pro-gun activists claim, gun control works. Gun control drastically reduces and prevents mass shootings and other gun violence. Future tragedies like the shooting in Connecticut, in Aurora Colorado, in Oregon, in Wisconsin CAN be prevented. While we may never be able to prevent or avert 100% of gun violence, we can do so much more than what we have done so far.
Our gun culture is a terrible epic failure. People who live in a country with the level of gun violence and the number of guns we have are not free; we are only endangered. We are better than this; we can do more than we have to address this problem. Guns are the problem, more guns are not the solution.
We can do what they did in Australia. We can do what they did in the UK.
More guns do not make us safer. If more guns could make us safe, we would be the safest country in the world, because we have the most guns. This is as flawed right wing thinking as the belief that tax cuts or redistributing more and more and more money to the wealthy will lead to job creation, when the opposite has consistently been true. We have to stop arguing with people who hold emotional beliefs in place of dealing with facts. We have to stop trying to reason with the right wing crazies who have hijacked the GOP with the aid of rich special interests and crazy extremists.
In the UK, in 1996, there was a terrible school shooting, the Dunblane school massacre. As a result of that mass shooting, and the only other similar mass shooting in 1987, the Hungerford massacre, the UK enacted very restrictive gun regulation. They did not choose to tolerate mass shootings, they did not choose to accept the rate of suicides, murders, murder / suicides, accidental shootings, or all of the injuries that result from firearms, or the intimidation that results from firearms.
It worked. They have far far far less gun crime, they have a largely unarmed law enforcement, with the exception of special SWAT style squads, they have less gun crime and less gun violence.
There are some striking similarities between the Dunblane massacre and the mass shootings in Connecticut.
from wikipedia:
The Dunblane school massacre occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. The gunman, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton (b. 10 May 1952), entered the school armed with four handguns, shooting and killing sixteen children and one adult before committing suicide. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 2010 Cumbria shootings, it remains one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in the history of the United Kingdom.
Public debate subsequent to these events centred on gun-control laws, including media-driven public petitions calling for a ban on private ownership of handguns and an official enquiry, the Cullen Report. In response to this debate, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 were enacted, which effectively made private ownership of handguns illegal in the United Kingdom.
On 13 March 1996, unemployed former shopkeeper[2] Thomas Hamilton (born Thomas Watt, Jr. 10 May 1952) walked into the Dunblane Primary School armed with two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson M19 .357 Magnum revolvers, all legally held.[2][3] He was carrying 743 cartridges, and fired his weapons 109 times.[4][5] The subsequent police investigation revealed that Hamilton had loaded the magazines for his Browning with an alternating combination of full-metal-jacket and hollow-point ammunition.
After gaining entry to the school, Hamilton made his way to the gymnasium and opened fire on a Primary One class of five- and six-year-olds, killing or wounding all but one person.[6] Fifteen children died together with their class teacher, Gwen Mayor, who was killed trying to protect the children. Hamilton then left the gymnasium through the emergency exit. In the playground outside he began shooting into a mobile classroom. A teacher in the mobile classroom had previously realised that something was seriously wrong and told the children to hide under the tables. Most of the bullets became embedded in books and equipment, though "one passed through a chair which seconds before had been used by a child."[7] He also fired at a group of children walking in a corridor, injuring one teacher. Hamilton returned to the gym and with one of his two revolvers fired one shot pointing upwards into his mouth, killing himself instantly. A further eleven children and three adults were rushed to the hospital as soon as the emergency services arrived. One child, Mhairi Isabel MacBeath, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Gun control
The Gun Control Network was founded in the aftermath of the shootings and was supported by some parents of victims at Dunblane and of the Hungerford Massacre.[12] Bereaved families and their friends also initiated a campaign to ban private gun ownership, named the Snowdrop Petition (because March is snowdrop time in Scotland), which gained 705,000 signatures in support and was supported by some newspapers, including the Sunday Mail, a Scottish newspaper whose own petition to ban handguns had raised 428,279 signatures within five weeks of the massacre.The Cullen Inquiry into the massacre recommended that the government introduce tighter controls on handgun ownership[13] and consider whether an outright ban would be in the public interest.[14] The report also recommended changes in school security[15] and vetting of people working with children under 18.[16] The Home Affairs Select Committee agreed with the need for restrictions on gun ownership but stated that a handgun ban was not appropriate.
In response to this public debate, the then-current Conservative government introduced a ban on all cartridge ammunition handguns with the exception of .22 calibre single-shot weapons in England, Scotland and Wales. Following the 1997 General Election, the Labour government of Tony Blair introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, banning the remaining .22 cartridge handguns in England, Scotland and Wales, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. "Long-Arms") that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a "Handgun" due to their dimensions. The ban does not affect Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
Security in schools, particularly primary schools, was improved in response to the Dunblane massacre and two other violent incidents which occurred at around the same time: the murder of Philip Lawrence, a head teacher in London, and the wounding of six children and Lisa Potts, a nursery teacher, at a Wolverhampton nursery school.
In Australia, a shooting not long after the Dunblane massacre led to a change from what had been similar laws to the U.S. gun laws lead to that nation also enacting strict gun regulation. That mass shooting was the Port Arthur massacre.
citing wikipedia:
Australians reacted to the event with widespread shock and horror, and the political effects were significant and long-lasting. The Federal Government led state governments, some of which (notably Tasmania itself and Queensland) were opposed to new gun laws, to severely restrict the availability of firearms. While surveys showed up to 85% of Australians 'supported gun control', many people strongly opposed the new laws. Concern was raised within the Coalition Government that fringe groups such as the 'Ausi Freedom Scouts',[14] the Australian League of Rights and the Citizen Initiated Referendum Party, were exploiting voter anger to gain support. After discovering that the Christian Coalition and US National Rifle Association were supporting the gun lobby, the Government and media cited their support, along with the moral outrage of the community to discredit the gun lobby as extremists.[15]
Government-level opposition to the new laws was quelled by mounting public opinion and coercion by the Federal Government,[citation needed] which controls the bulk of State revenue.
Under federal government co-ordination all states and territories of Australia banned and heavily restricted the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles, self-loading and pump-action shotguns, and heavily tightened controls on their legal use. The government initiated a "buy-back" scheme with the owners paid according to a table of valuations. Some 643,000 firearms were handed in at a cost of $350 million which was funded by a temporary increase in the Medicare levy which raised $500 million.[16] Media, activists, politicians and some family members of victims, notably Walter Mikac (who lost his wife and two children), spoke out in favour of the changes.
Contrary to what the pro-gun activists claim, gun control works. Gun control drastically reduces and prevents mass shootings and other gun violence. Future tragedies like the shooting in Connecticut, in Aurora Colorado, in Oregon, in Wisconsin CAN be prevented. While we may never be able to prevent or avert 100% of gun violence, we can do so much more than what we have done so far.
Our gun culture is a terrible epic failure. People who live in a country with the level of gun violence and the number of guns we have are not free; we are only endangered. We are better than this; we can do more than we have to address this problem. Guns are the problem, more guns are not the solution.
We can do what they did in Australia. We can do what they did in the UK.
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