Sandy Hook anniversary and America's gun sickness

Whenever FOX needs somebody to say why gun control is bad, they call on John Lott.

Here Lott is gloating that stricter gun control hasn't come to pass one year since the Newtown massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary where 26 people were shot and killed, including 20 children ages 6-7, most of them left beyond recognition even by their parents. Here is the website created by the 26 families in their memory.

As I've described before in meticulous detail, when it comes to gun violence, Lott bends and twists the truth. For instance this: "But gun control advocates aren’t giving up. They are patient, and they have money."

They are spending more money lately, but gun control advocates are still being outspent 13 to 1 by gun rights groups.

Sure, Lott can gloat about even more lax gun control laws passed since Sandy Hook in Red States such as Utah, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Dakota and Kansas, while only a few states such as New York and Delaware passed even more strict gun control laws. 

But he can't simply lie that a clear majority of Americans opposes gun control. Over the past 10 years, the share of Americans favoring stricter gun laws has fluctuated between 44 and 60 percent, with the most recent Gallup figure at 49 percent in favor, 37 percent for the status quo, and 13 percent for even less strict gun laws.  

So, about half of Americans have a sickness that's killing all of us, and they need an intervention. Indeed, since 9/11, about 364,000 Americans were killed by firearms. That's more Americans than died in combat in the Civil War. 

The truth is though, fewer and fewer Americans are choosing to own guns. So how are gun makers' profits at an all-time high since Sandy Hook? Easy. They use the NRA to scare fewer people into buying more and more guns to "defend" themselves against tyrannical Big Government and hordes of non-existent criminals (usually in the guise of minorities). 

It's a sickening paradox, but gun rampages like Sandy Hook are good for gun makers, because as soon as politicians make a peep about sensible measures afterwards like universal background checks, the NRA's fear machine cranks into high gear -- "They're coming to take your guns away!" -- Red States make pre-emptive attacks on existing gun laws, and sales to gun nuts go through the roof again.

1 year after Newtown, support for stricter gun control has disappeared

By John Lott

December 13, 2013 | FoxNews

URL: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/13/1-year-after-newtown-support-for-stricter-gun-control-has-disappeared/?intcmp=HPBucket

Costas, Belcher and gun-rights idiocy

Yeah, I agree with Will Bunch, the whole, "It's too soon," line after NFL player Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and then himself in order to put off public discussion of overdue gun control measures annoys me as well, since multiple-victim gun crimes happen all the time in America. What's too soon for the latest shooting is indeed just a few days or even hours prior to the next shooting. Indeed, a multiple-victim shooting happens every 5.9 days in the U.S.  So it's always appropriate and timely to ask why Americans need so many damn guns -- especially semi-automatic handguns and big ammo clips.

In preemptive response to this latest shooting, conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and AEI's John Lott (FOX's go-to gun apologist after high-profile shooting rampages) have been trotting out the usual statistics about the high rate of gun crime in cities with stricter gun control, like New York and Washington, DC, hoping that we'll pretend America isn't wide open, as if somebody couldn't easily buy a gun in another city or state and take it into NYC or DC... which is exactly what they do.  

They also point to relatively lower gun crime rates in right-to-carry (RTC) states; however, they fail to cite gun crime statistics before & after concealed-carry or RTC laws were passed, so that we can analyze the before-and-after effect. In fact, these were places with lower incidence of gun crime beforehand as well. Based on all the evidence, Yale Law School professor John J. Donahue concluded that:

All we can really say is that we know that there is no evidence of reduction in violent crime when RTC laws are passed, and that, although there is evidence of increases in property crime, the theoretical basis for such a finding is weak. We do know that anything that increases the number of guns in circulation will increase the number of guns in the hands of criminals, since about 1.5 million guns are stolen every year. [Emphasis mine. - J]

These same conservative commentators are also lying to us that countries with stricter gun control see gun crime increase. It's simply not true. According the PolitiFact, the U.S. has about 3.0 firearm homicides per 100,000 population; while other affluent nations like Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, etc. "typically have rates...far less than one-third the frequency seen in the U.S."

So once again, there is no debate if you're not cherry-picking your facts. People who want guns simply want guns. Their selfish desire for a gun is the only non-BS justification for their ownership, besides our antiquated 2nd Amendment. 

And let me throw in another factoid to stir up to pot. Yes, most gun murders do occur in urban areas, as conservatives love to point out, and they are mostly committed by racial minorities in drug-related disputes. However, most multiple-victim shooting rampages -- those evil, senseless murders that leave us shaking our heads and questioning human nature -- are committed by white guys (or white boys) in suburban and rural areas.  I'm not ready to say one crime is worse than the other, but at least in the case of drugs crime, we can say that there is some kind of reason... and some hope to mitigate it, like legalizing some drugs, fighting gangs or encouraging drug-addiction treatment. However, there is no such hope to stop multiple-victim shootings, because they happen everywhere, and, almost as a rule, they are committed by white guys with no prior criminal history. The only uniting factor in all multiple-victim shootings is easy, legal access to deadly firearms.

Bob Costas Learns the Right Time to Talk About Guns in America: Never

By Will Bunch

December 4, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-bunch/bob-costas-jovan-belcher-guns_b_2234732.html

Gun control won't stop school shootings? Killer stats

Let's focus on multiple-victim school shootings for a minute, since John Lott (see below) compares a "string" of 4 school attacks in Germany from 2002-2006 to America's school shooting carnage. By my count, 14 multiple-victim shootings occurred in U.S. schools (12 of them in K-12) during the same period. 

Anyway, in Germany handguns are legal to buy if you're over 18 years old; and rifles if you're over 21. Yet Germany's gun laws are supposedly "strict," meaning you can't get a gun license if you have a criminal record. Germans, especially rural hunters, love their guns, and German politicians are afraid to take them away. Sounds a lot like the U.S. to me.

By expanding Lott's chosen period to cover 4 more years, and all U.S. schools (not just K-12), I get 123 killed and 193 wounded in 39 multiple-victim shootings. (All my sources are hyperlinked). Lott makes no mention of U.S. students wounded by gun violence, some of whom were made disabled or brain dead. Nor does Lott mention several Columbine-style rampages that were thwarted when student-killers' plans were discovered. The casualty figures could have easily been much, much greater.

Notice how many school multiple-victim shootings there were after Columbine, which spurred schools to use metal detectors and get more serious about deterring gun violence. Also notice how many there were before Columbine (these attacks actually stretch back to 1966); and yet Columbine is cited as the event that triggered so many copycat attacks. Indeed, Harris and Klebold were the real copycats, continuing a 30-year tradition of multiple-victim U.S. school shootings.

Finally, look where the shootings happened: everywhere. But mostly in rural (supposedly more peaceful) areas. Was this because of more lax security, or easier access to hunting firearms, or both? If you look at single-victim shootings, you see many more occurring in urban schools to settle some vendetta. It's the white boys in the suburbs and backwoods who commit multiple gun murders at school.

If gun control isn't the answer, then what is? Everything else has been tried, from metal detectors to school security guards to preparedness drills in case of rampage murders. (And you thought those old "duck and cover" drills were nuts). Gun control -- or outright banning guns -- is the simplest, most direct way to attack this deadly problem. It is probably the only way.

I'm not arguing that Americans have more murder in their hearts than do people of other nations (although some would, like the late Charlton Heston); we Americans simply have easier access to more and deadlier firearms.

Multiple-Victim School Shootings in the U.S., Feb 1996 - Feb 2008:

1. Frontier Middle School, Moses Lake, WA, Feb 1996: 3 killed, 1 critically wounded.
2. Bethel Regional HS, AL, Feb 1997: 3 killed, 2 wounded.
3. Pearl HS, MS Mar 1997: 2 killed, 7 wounded.
4. Stamps, AK, Dec 1997: 2 wounded.
5. Westside MS, Jonesboro, AK, Mar 1998: 5 killed, 10 wounded.
6. Stranahan HS, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Feb 1998: 2 killed, including shooter.
7. Philadelphia Elementary, Pomona, CA, Apr 1998: 2 killed, 1 wounded.
8. Parker Middle School, Edinboro, PA, Apr 1998: 1 teacher killed, 3 students wounded.
9. Thurston HS, Springfield, OR, May 1998: 3 killed, 23 wounded. (Shooter expelled a day prior for bringing gun to school).
10. Armstrong HS, Richmond, VA, June, 1998: 2 wounded by 2 student shooters.
11. Columbine HS, Littleton, CO, Apr 1999: 15 people killed, including the killers, 23 wounded.
12. Heritage HS, Conyers, GA, May 1999: 6 students wounded.
13. Fort Gibson Middle School, OK, Dec 1999: 4 students wounded.
14. Heath HS, Paducah, KY, Dec 1997: 3 killed, 5 wounded.
15. *Buell Elementary, Mount Morris, MI, Feb 2000: 1st grader killed 6 y.o. classmate with uncle's gun after an argument.
16. Beach HS, Savannah, GA, Mar 2000: 2 killed.
17. Santana HS, Santee, CA, Mar 2001: 2 killed, 13 wounded.
18. Granite Hills HS, El Cajon, CA, Mar 2001: 5 wounded.
19. Ennis, TX, May 2001: 2 killed, including shooter, 17 hostages taken.
20. Appalachian School of Law, Grundy, VA, Jan 2002: 3 killed, 3 wounded.
21. Martin Luther King JHS, NY, NY, Jan 2002: 2 seriously wounded.
22. University of Arizona, Tucson, Oct 2002: 4 killed, including shooter.
23. John McDonough HS, New Orleans, LA, Apr 2003: 1 killed, 3 wounded.
24. Rocori HS, Cold Spring, MN, Sep 2003: 2 killed.
25. Ballou HS, Washington, DC, Feb 2004: 1 killed, 1 wounded.
26. Randallstown, MD, May 2004: 4 wounded.
27. Salt Lake City, UT, May 2004: 2 killed, including shooter (suicide).
28. Red Lake HS, MN, Mar 2005: 10 killed, including shooter.
29. Campbell County HS, Jacksboro, TN, Nov 2005: 1 killed, 2 seriously wounded.
30. Pine Middle School, Reno, NV, Mar 2006: 2 wounded.
31. Essex Elementary School, VT, Aug 2006: 2 killed, 3 wounded, including shooter.
32. Platte Canyon HS, Bailey, CO, Sep 2006: 2 killed, 6 hostages taken.
33. Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, Sep 2006: 3 killed, including shooter.
34. West Nickel Mines Amish School, Paradise, PA, Oct 2006: 6 killed, including shooter, 5 wounded.
35. Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, Apr 2007: 33 killed, including shooter, 15 wounded.
36. Delaware State University, Sep 2007: 1 killed, 1 wounded.
37. Success Tech Academy, Cleveland, OH, Sep 2007: 1 killed (shooter suicide), 4 wounded.
38. Louisiana Technical College, Baton Rouge, Feb 2008: 3 killed, including shooter.
39. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Feb 2008: 6 killed, including shooter, 18 wounded.

TOTAL KILLED: 123
TOTAL WOUNDED: 193

*Not a multiple-victim shooting; but particularly awful.

Additional Sources:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/02/15/timeline-of-school-shootings.html?PageNr=2

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1662373.ece

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300976,00.html

http://www.columbine-angels.com/School_Violence_1997-1998.htm

Yes, the Massacres in Alabama and Germany ARE Horrible But More Gun Control Is Not the Answer

By John R. Lott, Jr.

March 12, 2009 | Fox News

Inevitably, the massacres in Germany and Alabama over the last two days have produced more calls for gun control. Already the attack in Alabama is being used to call for a new assault weapons ban, even though there are no published academic studies by economists or criminologists showing that the previous ban reduced violent crime.

The Alabama shooting spree left 11 people murdered, as the killer went from one house to another shooting members of his family and others inside. Three victims were shot from the window of the killer's moving car.

At least 9 students and 3 teachers were killed at the public school near Stuttgart, Germany. Three other people were killed at other locations.

Unfortunately, the latest German attack is just another in a string of horrible K - 12 public school shootings in that country. In 2002, 16 people were killed at an attack in Erfurt. There were two other smaller multiple victim public school shootings in 2002 alone. In 2006, 11 students were wounded in Emsdetten. Germany has had the two worst multiple victim K - 12 school shootings in the world. The last seven years of German school shootings make the United States seem peaceful by comparison: though the US has almost five times as many students as Germany, a total of thirty-seven people were killed during all multiple victim K-12 shootings in the US during the eight years from the Fall of 1997 to the summer of 2005.

Yet, Germany already has some of the strictest gun control laws in Europe and much stricter gun control laws than are being publicly discussed in the United States. It might not get much attention because it doesn't fit the template of gun violence in the U.S., but during the last seven years, other European countries — including France, Finland, and Switzerland — have experienced multiple-victim shootings. The worst outside of Germany have involved 14 murders, and all these killings have occurred in places where guns were banned.

We all want to take guns away from criminals, but gun control is more likely to disarm potential victims relative to criminals and make crime easier to commit.

Multiple-victim public shootings are terrifying and they drive much of the gun control debate, but they make up just a tiny fraction of one percent of the murders in the United States, Europe, or the rest of the world. The problem is that the gun control laws that come out of these crimes not only make crime go up, they also make multiple victim public shootings more likely. Research shows that police are the single most important factor for reducing crime, but even the police themselves understand that they virtually always arrive on the crime scene after the crime has occurred. Letting law-abiding citizens defend themselves not only deters some crimes from occurring, but it is the surest way of reducing the carnage when attacks do occur.

Unlike most public shooting scenarios, where citizens are allowed to carry concealed handguns, the Alabama killer presumably knew whether or where his family member victims had guns in their homes.

The few shots that he fired in public were from the open window of his speeding car, but even here privately owned guns potentially could have made a difference.

ABC News reports:

"McLendon fired several shots at the Bradley TrueValue Hardware store before heading out of town for Geneva, 12 miles away.

"We were just business as normal, and all of a sudden there were bullets flying and glass was everywhere," owner David Bradley told the Dothan Eagle newspaper. "We realized what it was and grabbed our guns, but then he was gone."

The crimes that are stopped rarely get much news coverage and surely not the coverage given to the horrific killings.

Europe is rushing to adopt even more gun control laws. Let's hope the calls for more gun control in the US are given more thought. If not, the "cures" will disarm law-abiding citizens and make the disease of violence even worse.