Sophomore Thomas Braslavsky, a Hatchet columnist, looks at the reprehensible choice D.C. must make between gaining Congressional representation and allowing more guns in the District.
The one thing holding D.C. back from having Congressional representation seems to be a debate on gun rights. The D.C. Voting Rights Act, which would give our city an official representative in the House, has stalled for the past nine months. In February, it passed in the Senate – but only after being stamped with additional language that would abolish many of Washington’s already depleted gun laws. The House seems unsure of what to do, with an influential pro-gun lobby splitting the Democrats while D.C. residents wait. Thank you for helping the nation’s capital, National Rifle Association.
You do realize that the Fort Hood gunman got his hands on a weapon because *he’s a SOLDIER* not because of a lack of gun control.
Come on, check your facts when insulting my intelligence.
It was not his military issued weapon, rather he bought it at a civilian store – “Guns Galore” in Killeen, TX. Texas gun laws are notoriously lax. Just take a look at this report by the NRA: http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/TXSL.pdf .
since when can you walk down the streets of D C safely
Tom, a good lawyer never asks a question that s/he does not already know the answer to. Your question “How many massacres have been committed in our country using other tools?” has some answers you evidently do not know.
Ten miles north of Lansing, MI 45 people were killed and 58 injured. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–12 years of age) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe. The tool? Explosives.
In New York City (and elsewhere) the largest mass murder ever pulled off in America were killed by a small group of reglious fanatics. The tool? Box cutters and airplanes.
So there you have it, Tom. The biggest school massacre in the country and the biggest non-school massacre were achieved with explosives and box cutters.
The reason an amendment was added to the bill proposing legistation allowing representation in congress was to protect the civil rights of the D.C. residents. Because you don’t want those rights and even would deprive others of their rights comes up short. Would you be willing to give up my right to write in order to be represented in congress? The civil right you think so little of in this case is the right of self defense. Just one of several protected by the second amendment.
Tom, you need to spend some time reading the works of another Tom. As in Jefferson. If you read Jefferson’s writings on the second amendment you will quickly find it was not included in the Bill of Rights to protect the militia’s right to arms.
The bill you cite as the reason for his article was withdrawn by its author rather than allow D.C. residents keep a loaded gun in their homes. Its failure is hardly the fault of the NRA as you suggest.
Do a little more reading before you do more writing, at least on the subject of doing away with civil rights. And I am E. Zach Lee-Wright
If a Criminal Think You have a Gun too he is going to think twice. You are writing about all the Cases where A law abiding Citizen’s have saved Their Lives and Their Family’s and even People they didn’t even know but saved Their Lives. If You will Check the States Who have Their Right to Carry The Crime Rate has went Down. If You want to right a story tell Both Sides. The Live that was Saved Because of People have Their right to carry, The story’s would be Much Larger and more of them..
Our Founders, in their infinite wisdom, trusted the PEOPLE to have the wisdom to “keep and bear arms” as well as to vote to elect their chosen representatives. Why would anyone promote the exercise of one right and discourage the other?
If you don’t trust them enough to own guns, the LAST THING you want them to do is be able to vote. Either trust them enough to own the guns that We, The People of the rest of the country can own or stop whining about voting rights.
Hi Tom, I have to agree with E. Zach. You have basically taken a cheat sheet from the Brady Bunch and distorted the facts. It never ceases to amaze me how educated folks can twist the facts to suit their position. While those of us that support the 2nd Amendment (even for people in DC)truly regret these mass shootings, it’s the daily fear generated by an inability to protect one’s self and loved ones that is foremost in our minds.
Using Ft Hood as a rallying cry for more gun control is silly, it was a “gun free” zone, like most schools (V. Tech). What gun control law would you proposed that the Ft Hood shooter would have followed?
If you believe so strongly in gun control, I would suggest that you put a sign in front of your house that says “Gun Free Zone”. Then when, late one night, you hear the window in your daughter’s room break, you can first call 911 then run outside and grab the sign and show it to the creep climbing in the window. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time before the police are able to get there. The sign should do the trick. Good luck.
87 people were murdered in the Happy Land Social Club fire by a single person using $1 worth of gasoline as his weapon of choice.
The constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear arms is only “vague” to the ignorant and the dishonest. To anyone who understands the history of this Country, the right protected is quite clear.
The main thing that the Virginia Tech and Fort Hood massacres had in common was that all of the victims had been disarmed by law or regulation. At Fort Hood, the shooting stopped when an MP showed up (with a gun) and shot Hasan. Imagine how many lives could have been saved if several of the people present when the shooting started had been armed.
Lumping in suicides with homicides makes no sense. Japan is virtually gun-free, yet their suicide rate is double the US rate. Evidence shows that when someone wants to commit suicide, they use what’s at hand. In the US, it’s guns. In Japan, it’s tall buildings.
If you insist on including all deaths by firearm, then it’s only fair that you sign up to lead the charge against owning automobiles (about 40,000 deaths per year) and hospitals (over 100,000 deaths due to “medical misadventure” each year).
While there’s much here to ridicule, the depth of your ignorance only begins to be apparent with the notion that the streets of DC are “safe”. DC is, of course, a perennial contender for Murder Capital of the United States.
You are obviously a victim of the public school system. Please educate yourself on these issues and get a historical perspective. This article clearly demonstrates that you have been led by nose into accepting a communist world view.
Funny thing that this writer doesn’t notice the common factor in most mass shootings;that the victims were in a place that disarms them by law,or in the case of Ft. Hood,Army regulations.He posits that’lax’ gun laws cause the ‘problem’ and are inconsistent with the idea of a civil society.I would attach a different standard.A civil society is one in which the individual can defend his own life,and make his own choices in that regard without the intereference of someone,like the writer,who doesn’t understand the essence of the question,and relies on empty politically correct assumptions to formulate supposed rules to live by for others.Freedom includes the right of the innocent to survive their daily life,without worrying about offending the offensive.A civil society is such because the offensive,or larger,or less civilized among us cannot impose their sick or dangerous demands on the innocent,smaller,or more civil citizens they seek to prey upon.
‘the vague constitutional “right to bear arms”’ So, you haven’t done due diligence in researching the 2nd Amend. thus showing your ignorance.
The rest of your argument goes on to show that the laws (especially gun laws) currently in place, do nothing to stop criminal actions with firearms. So the your solution is to restrict the law abiding from protecting themselves by passing more laws that the criminals ignore anyway. The events you point to all have one thing in common: they occurred in “gun free zones” where the victims were prohibited from using guns in self defense. Why did the police not protect the citizens as the Brady Campaign says they will? What is your solution? 2.5 million times a year, a gun is legally used to defend an American life; usually without even being fired.
The last paragraph said, Tom is a Sophomore.
It should have said, Tom’s thoughts are Sophomoric.
No one will prevent everyone from having guns.
At Fort Hood if everyone was carrying a gun how many people would have been shot?
Your logic is flawed. The second amendment is not constitutionally vague. Have you ever been the victim of a crime? The sad fact is, that 99.9% of the time, the police cannot protect you from crime. They can only try to catch the criminals after the fact. In your statistics, you fail to provide any information about how guns protect individuals from being the victim of a crime. The numbers vary but there is no doubt that millions of violent crimes have been prevented by armed citizens.
If all the “enligtened” law abiding citizens were to give up their guns, I’m sure that would make the not so enlighted criminals very happy.
But it’s not really about crime at all.
Once the Second Amendment goes, the First will soon follow, because if some unelected elite determines that the people can’t be trusted with dangerous guns then it’s just a matter of time until they decide they can’t be trusted with dangerous ideas, either. Dangerous ideas have killed many millions more people than dangerous handguns – listen to the voices from the Gulag, the death camps, and all the blood-soaked killing fields through history.
The Framers, in their wisdom, put the 2nd Amendment there to give teeth to the revolutionary, unheard-of idea that the power rests with We The People. They did not depend on good will or promises. They made sure that when push came to shove we’d be the ones doing the pushing and shoving, not the folks in Washington. And by the way, gun rights supporters are frequently mocked when they say it deters foreign invasion – after all, come on, grow up, be realistic: Who’s nuts enough to invade America? Exactly. It’s unthinkable. Good. 2nd Amendment Mission 1 accomplished.
I feel that Tom’s thoughts are valid and well-put. We really should have more gun protection laws in order to reduce crime. Great article!
Bruce, what in the world are “gun protection laws”?
Tom’s thoughts are, as mentioned above, a poor rehash of Brady disinformation.
We actually should have far fewer “victim disarmament” zones that favor the armed murderer.
Bravo! Tom you are absolutely, unequivocally correct — but unfortunately the people with intelligence and common sense do not run this country. Of course, anyone with any sense KNOWS that the founding fathers did not mean everyone and their mother should be allowed to own a gun when they said a WELL-REGULATED militia but who the hell cares!! This is America, damn it! Land of the free – home of the blood thirsty. Yes, you would hope all gun owners were mature, responsible individuals…but alas, most are Travis Bickles. And just to comment on one of the earlier remarks — please don’t give me that tired argument about law-abiding citizens having the right to bear arms because 100% of the people now serving time in prison for murder were law abiding citizens the day before they pulled the trigger. It is true that guns don’t kill people — people kill people. The logical conclusion then, would be don’t give guns to people. At least until they are proven reliable and responsible, ie, age, background checks and skill tests. You don’t just decide you want to drive a car and get in one and drive. You are required to take lessons and tests and prove you are capable of driving safely. And that should be absolutely the basic rule for owning a gun. Oh, and by the way, you should also be required to purchase gun insurance as well. I agree with Tom and I wish there were more like him in this country.
gun laws are already in place and yet somehow people in DC manage to acquire weapons. Creating more laws to stop people from getting guns is stupid. People who are already buying guns out of a car in an alley are already breaking the law. To prohibit gun purchases does not prevent guns from being owned in the district, it stops law abiding citizens from going through the proper channels to acquire their firearms legally as it is their right to do. Why should we leave our fates in the hands of criminals? They will have guns whether or not the good guys have guns. That being said, i’ll be packin heat. Furthermore, we do not live in an enlightened society, we go to school with a lot of people from the suburbs, but look at the facts. You can’t even take a piss safely in the business school without being beaten with a hammer. Do we enforce a shutdown of all hardware stores in the district because some idiot hit someone with a hammer? no, its ludicrous. Same with guns. Bad people are bad people.
Also, Charly, in order to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm, background checks are run, and many states require lessons with a state certified instructor.
Right, but the gun show loophole negates any so-called “gun laws” that we may have. Here is my take and you can disagree with me if you want — why would some “law-abiding” citizen who suddenly goes off the deep end because he was fired and wants to take revenge on his co-workers, wait to go through all the background checks? He can just go to a weekend gun show and purchase any gun he wants with NO background checks and no incriminating records. BAM, BAM, BAM, the co-workers are dead, and the NRA is screaming, Guns don’t kill people — People kill people!
The kid that shot up Virginia Tech had a record of psychiatric issues and a campus police record, and yet he was able to legally purchase the guns. He had at least 377 rounds of ammunition. Why would a young college student be buying all this ammunition? That’s how effective the gun laws are. All his information just went down the toilet. The recent Ft. Hood shooter was under the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force surveillance for repeatedly contacting a radical imam suspected of having ties to al Qaeda when he walked into Guns Galore gun store in Killeen, Texas, and legally purchased the FN Herstal tactical pistol that authorities believe was used to massacre soldiers.
Here is an interesting statistic about your “law-abiding” citizens, from the Violence Policy Center in Washington, DC:
Key Statistics: From January 1, 1996 to October 9, 1997 Texas concealed handgun license holders were arrested for 946 crimes. Of these, 263 were felony arrests, including: six charges of murder or attempted murder involving at least four deaths; two charges of kidnapping; 18 charges of sexual assault; 66 charges of assault, including 48 cases of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; and, 42 weapon-related charges. Six-hundred eighty-three were misdemeanor arrests, including: 194 weapon-related charges and 215 instances of driving while intoxicated. In the first six months of 1997 (the most recent complete data set available), the weapon-related arrest rate among Texas concealed handgun license holders was more than twice as high as that of the general population of Texas aged 21 and older.
If I lived in bear country I’d own a gun. But the problem with our society is guns have become an addiction like some weird drug addiction, where people just can’t stop buying them. They aren’t satisfied with owning one gun, they have to fill their homes with automatics, semi-automatics, Uzi submachine guns, pistols and cases and cases of bullets and ammunition. And I’d like to know the percentage of these gun owners who have had ANY training on handling a gun.
Now I know a lot of you are reading this thinking, hell, I’ve got over 1,000 rounds of ammunition in my own basement! My question is why, and what for? I think the answer is Travis Bickle. These are not “law-abiding” citizen’s trying to protect their homes — what we have in reality is an UN-REGULATED Militia driven by feelings of power and fear. It is a perversion of the Constitution. Not what the founding fathers meant at all.
Lastly, for any Christians reading this, do you think Jesus approves of guns? Do you really?
30,000 people die every year from gun violence. Obviously what we’re doing now is not working! We need stronger gun laws to make it harder for dangerous people to get guns.
If you’re not sure, watch this video from Virginia Tech survivor or his friend buy guns at gun shows in mulitple without undergoing a background check or even showing an ID: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqurafbX6Ig
Tom, your comments about the need for gun control is spot-on. In the District of Columbia, the local government must continue to apply handgun restrictions, as allowed by the recent Supreme Court decision. For federal legislation to prevent D.C. residents from voting representation in Congress, unless there is freedom to possess a handgun, is blackmail by the gun lobby. Reading many of the comments posted critical of you made me both angry and sad. The level of discourse is so low, mean, ignorant, and arrogant, that there is no debating with them. Victims of gun violence and communities held hostage to the gun lobbies’ tunnel vision, will never get a fair airing of the facts. There is common ground to be found in resolving the D.C. issue, if the gun lobby would listen to others instead of dictating the terms. Keep up your good work Tom.