By Robert B Young, MD
Robert B Young, MD
The cascade of disinformation from proponents of the “public health” approach to gun control continues day in, day out. But on rare occasions the usual suspects share thoughts that may suggest something a little different. It’s worth noting those.
In a CNN commentary January 23, “The Best Way to Respect Guns”, Philip Cook and Kristin Gross of Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, recommend some interventions that make some actual “common sense”.
If what they say can be taken at face value, they acknowledge that “public opinion in support of protecting gun rights has grown in recent decades”.
That’s a big if, because Cook and Gross are prominent anti-gun public policy thinkers. They approve of “regulations … that go well beyond” the national norm, but here they want to discuss “several promising policy approaches that [they believe] are especially well suited to balancing different interests while advancing shared goals”.
One is to “Reduce illicit carrying”. As they say, “Most gun assaults occur outside the home. When an underage youth, gang member or ex-con is picked up carrying a gun, there is a good chance that a serious crime has been [Ed: and could be!] prevented. Judges must do their part by treating illicit gun carrying as a serious offense, rather than dismissing such cases as ‘victimless crimes.’” No kidding. Are they joining the pro-rights call to enforce laws we already have on illegal possession of guns rather than imposing more constraints on legal carry?
Regarding the need to identify, treat and make safe the few people with mental illnesses that make them dangerous, they get it largely right: “carefully crafted policy is needed to allow judges to order guns removed from those who are found to be dangerous to themselves or others due to mental illness. … [Q]uick response policies should be coupled with a process to restore gun rights when the danger has dissipated.”
But this is no conversion experience. They still imagine that “smart guns” will solve more problems than they create, by “cut[ting] down on misuse by curious children, suicidal teens, thieves or other unauthorized users who get their hands on the weapon.” We are far from having guns that will absolutely reliably respond only to authorized users. Saying “that the effort to block the introduction of such guns in the United States … is led by organizations that advocate gun rights” is mudslinging. The only blocking effort by civil rights proponents here is against making such guns mandatory.
Similarly, claiming that “Americans of all political stripes, including gun owners, support background checks on all firearm purchases” is a typical anti-gun partial truth. Few gun owners mind submitting to a one-time NICS check for retail gun purchases. But most Americans do not support anything that establishes ownership registration, as has been intrinsic to recent proposals, because that could enable later confiscation. (For a thoughtful alternative, see the BIDS idea.) That’s a risk rejected by supporters of a strong, literal Second Amendment interpretation, in fulfillment of the trust inherited from our Founders, to be paid forward to our descendants.
Dan Baum, writing for Aljazeera America on January 28 in “Dear gun control advocates: Gun owners are your allies”, comes from a more understanding perspective. His Gun Guys: A Road Trip was published in 2013, a tour of American gun culture by a firearms advocate who is respectful of the fears motivating the gun control agenda. While gun owners and gun controllers will never really be allies, he recognizes that responsible gun management, not laws, will most surely reduce accidental shootings. He asserts that the best intervention for that:
“… is to get gun owners to lock up their guns. … [and] to make it … socially unacceptable to leave a gun unsecured …. The initiative to begin that transformation has to come from gun owners themselves, and several such efforts are underway. Outsiders can’t force it to happen …”
Baum concludes: “Gun control is predicated on the notion that gun owners are a problem, when [they are really] an asset. They are the keepers of the civilian arsenal.”
Couldn’t have said that better myself!