We Must Do Something!

In the aftermath of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, there are a lot of people insisting that we must do something. I agree; the shooting of innocent people is completely unacceptable. However, the something that we must do is use logic, reasoning, and the scientific method to determine an effective course of action.

The loudest clamoring that I have heard is to ban “assault weapons” (a term with no standard definition, but generally referring to scary looking semi-automatic rifles, and not to be confused with the not generally available selective fire military assault rifles) and high capacity magazines (greater than 10 rounds). The mentally ill shooter had an “assault weapon” and two hand guns. Suppose that the “assault weapon” and high capacity magazine bans were in place and effective, and that Adam Lanza had just the two hand guns with 10 round magazines. How would that have changed the outcome? Not one bit! The six year old kids weren’t going to gang rush the shooter during a magazine change, and by the way, magazine changes don’t really take all that long, and even if they did, with two guns, the shooter can keep one loaded while re-loading the other. As for the range, accuracy, and lethality of the big, scary “assault weapon”, they really aren’t relevant when shooting unarmed people cornered in a confined space. So tell me again why we must ban “assault weapons” and high capacity magazines? It isn’t to prevent a repeat of the elementary school killings.

One thing that the ban-the evil-assault-weapons crowd won’t tell you is that Switzerland actually issues selective fire assault rifles to their reservists, who keep the weapons at home, yet Switzerland’s firearm homicide rate is only .77/100,000, compared with the 2.97/100,000 in the United States http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list. Also, if you look at the FBI statistics, hands or feet were nearly twice as likely as a rifle to be utilized in a homicide. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl08.xls

Even if we could somehow round up all of the guns in the US, all a would-be killer needs is an SUV and a crowd of children to inflict equal or greater carnage. For effective measures, we have to search deeper, and not respond with an ineffective emotional response that has already been tried and shown to have no effect on murder rates.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on mental illness, but we need to focus on why people choose to commit mass murder/suicide and how they get to that state. Another area to consider is a news and consumer culture that give the murders the attention that they were seeking.

(Full disclosure: I do NOT own an “assault weapon”, and up until a possible ban, had no desire to buy one.)

Favorite gun debate exchange: