[Opinion] Illegal Guns Are The Problem Leading To Gun Fatalities (And So Are Legal Ones)

[Opinion] Illegal Guns Are A Problem (And So Are Legal Ones)

The 2nd Amendment of the American Bill of Rights reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

27 words that are a source of constant controversy and have been for some time now. In a time when the phrase “active shooter” is part of the common vocabulary, the American people are divided on the issue of who should and who should not be able to purchase a firearm. Is the solution to the problem really as simple as banning all guns? Would we see a decrease in gun crime if every able-bodied adult were armed? Why are gun fatalities so relatively routine here in the United States in comparison to other Western nations?

These questions are all valid for exploration and discussion. When talking about potentially saving the lives of innocent people, why are both sides so quick to write off the other and so unwilling to even listen to the arguments against their position?

The one thing that is for sure is that in a country with over 270 million civilian-owned firearms, we can’t bury our heads in the sand and hope that a solution arises on its own. We need to be able to examine the benefits and detriments of the two types of guns that exist in the country today: legal and illegal. Both are responsible for some number of the gun fatalities that occur across the nation.

Without examining both of these types of firearms, we can’t truly make a decision based upon good information or reliable data. The time has come to stop worrying about whether or not guns are banned and instead spend that time and effort saving lives through effective and reasoned policy.

 

How many crimes and deaths are caused by legally owned firearms?

One of the biggest claims of those who don’t support gun control is that most crimes are committed with illegally gained weapons and they are correct! Only about 5% of the gun crimes that occurred in 2013 (approximately 15,000) involved weapons that were legally owned by the perpetrator.

As a liberal progressive who is very much in favor of more reasonable gun control, and very concerned about this country’s high number of gun fatalities, this news isn’t actually that shocking to me. Criminals are often repeat offenders who either can’t procure weapons because of their status as felons, or they don’t wish to have a legally registered weapon because it is far more easily tracked back to them after a yet-to-be-committed crime.

But there are a few things that keep this from being a knockout argument in this debate.

1. While only 5% of gun crimes committed in 2013 involved legally owned firearms, 82% of the mass shootings (meaning in which 4 or more people were fatally shot) in the past 30 years involved weapons that were legally obtained, owned, and used.
2. Gun crimes committed with illegal weapons are often the products of straw purchases in which a person who can legally buy a gun sold or traded the gun to a person who would eventually use that gun in a crime. These purchases are nearly all facilitated without contacting the proper agencies that would normally be able to check the criminal background of the shooter in a conventional retail store. This includes personal sales, online sales from individual to individual, and guns sold by private vendors at gun shows and events.
3. These numbers don’t include suicides or accidental shootings. In 2010 alone, 19,308 gun fatalities out of a total of 31,513 (61%) in the United States were suicides and 600 (2%) were accidental shootings; 66% of these fatalities were committed with legally obtained and owned firearms.
4. Although it might be hard to believe, in the year 2013, more children under the age of 5 years old died from gunshot wounds than police officers did in the same amount of time.

What do these statistics mean? Well, it definitely shifts the argument that gun control advocates make out of the realm of ridiculousness.

While illegal guns do account for 95% of all gun crimes, this number is obviously manipulated more than a bit. It doesn’t separate gun fatalities from crimes that didn’t involve the death or shooting of anyone (muggings, car-jackings, threats, etc.)  It also doesn’t account for all the accidental shootings and suicides that are made possible by legal weapons being made available to people that are either too young or not stable/responsible enough to handle a firearm. These are not minor factors to overlook or dismiss when a solution needs to be reached. We as a culture and as a species have to agree that it is ok to change your mind when given adequate reason to do so!

The Future

I don’t claim to not have a bias in this issue. I like shooting guns, I want to be able to own a firearm and use it to protect my family if necessary, but I do have a few minor suggestions on how we might be able to curb some of horrific gun violence that we seem to now consider commonplace.

• Communication between the various states needs to be much more frequent and thorough. The criminal history, mental health history, and licensing history of all gun-owning adults needs to be made available to any business that sells firearms. A national database would be complicated and difficult to piece together, but is nowhere near impossible.
• Any person who wishes to purchase and own a firearm needs to be taught to handle it, tested for marksmanship and general proficiency, given a cleaning and storage course, and encouraged to buy a gun safe or, at least, a trigger lock. These proficiency tests need to be given periodically.
• Conversations about gun ownership need to be honest, transparent, and fair. Screaming and yelling does nothing but escalate the debate and push it to a place where no one on either side really gets what they want. As much as we Americans might like guns, we (should) love our families and our neighbors much, much more.

David Stansberry is an intern contributor and student at Middle Tennessee State University majoring in Economics and English. He enjoys Star Wars, stand-up comedy, JFK conspiracy theories, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. 

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