The media could help substantially more than it has. For example, when an idiot like Sen. Tuberville, who believes we fought World War 2 against the socialists and communists, makes an idiotic statement as you quoted, the media needs to follow up and ask "You say what won't work. What do you propose that will help?" If the person obfuscates, then you respond, "Since you have not made a concrete proposal, then do you say that nothing can be done?" When they continue to obfuscate, you make them go on the record for doing something or doing nothing. Letting them get away on the record by saying it's people not guns and the like, or to rant against those who would make policy about access to such dangerous, destructive weapons, you have to keep them on the spot and publish it. Repeatedly. What evolved into Nightline was effective in keeping the daily tally of days since the Iran crisis and the hostage-taking. Major media needs to do the same with this.
Originally from Oregon, I am so thankful that my Grandchildren are growing up in Australia. It took only one mass shooting, Port Arthur in 1996, to immediately change the gun laws here. No mass shootings since and there have never been any shootings in schools. I despair for my home country that nothing changes re gun violence.
You make a good point about the response of other countries versus that of America. It's not just Australia and its response (under a conservative prime minister, John Howard!) to the mass shooting in 1996 that contrasts with America's. Britain likewise banned handguns after a mass shooting in Scotland. New Zealand took just 26 days after its mass shooting in Christ Church to curb access to firearms. The paradox is that the United States was one of the first countries to establish limits on firearms access with the National Firearms Act of 1934, and it became a model for other countries. But since then other nations -- including those like Canada and Australia that have similar gun traditions -- have acted to institute sensible gun safety legislation, while the U.S. has gone in the opposite direction. Nowhere is American Exceptionalism so evident as in modern gun policy.
I haven’t seen any discussion of the Brady Bill lately. When finally enacted in 1994 it had a a 10 year sunset clause related to assault rifles. NRA and W Bush did not get it renewed in 2004 because data showed the ban had no effect. The floodgates opened and now the bell can’t be unrung. Then Obama started talking about banning them and it was the best thing that ever happened to gun and ammo manufacturers. Yes, I agree with most of your ideas, but in the meantime there will be another massive run especially on AR-15’s.
There is a huge disconnect today between the will of the voters and what actually gets passed in Congress. We know this, and we know why: wealthy corporations, individuals and organizations (like the NRA) have outsized influence on legislation due to our money-for-votes system of financing elections. We use euphemistic titles like "lobbying" and "campaign contributions," but we all know what is going on: sheer, unmitigated bribery. The Senate vote after the Sandy Hook massacre was the most egregious illustration of this moral rot, and we all know this. Nevertheless, we continue to reelect the same politicians who participate in and benefit from this travesty.
Until and unless we demand changes in the way we finance elections in this nation, we can expect more and more children and other innocent victims to be slaughtered in cold blood with little to no legislative efforts to address the problem. Meanwhile the gun manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank.
"Thoughts & prayers?" Pffft. Return on investment - that's what Americans seem to want. That, and the antediluvian chest-thumping that goes along with the purchase of a weapon of war.
It’s not just the gun lobby. When the least populated state, (Wyoming) has the same number of senators as the most populated state, (California), we, the majority are being ruled by the minority. When a president needs just to win the electoral college instead of the popular vote, we don’t live in a democracy. It needs to change because at some point, the majority is going to just say no.
Hope, I agree with you. We need to get rid of the outdated electoral college system. Are you all aware of the national popular vote movement? 15 states including my ow, Washinton, have enacted legislation that when enough states also do so to equal 270 electoral votes our next president will be elected by the majority of the American people. Here is its web site: info@nationalpopularvote.com
if you are not already aware of the movement please take action. Oregon has yet to enact the legislation.
Great. Let the East Coast and California always elect our President. Just like in Oregon where Portland and Eugene are in charge of electing our Governor.
I respect all the opinions stated here but the bottom line is that the current day Republicans are cowards and put money over innocent lives. Why when the polls show an 80-90% majority of voters support some constructive change to our gun laws, do our Republican lawmakers do nothing?
Yet they support life to the extent that even if a women is raped, she mustbring that pregnancy to full term. OR ELSE !! In many states these women, and /or anyone who has aided in that abortion, can be imprisoned.
I’ll bet that if any of these Retrumplican’s female family member’s want an abortion, they’ll get it easily, without consequence.
The USA continues to slide downward while these lawmakers are supported by their equally misinformed hypocritical voters.
This is so true. Banning abortion does not stop abortion. It becomes accessible to the privileged and the old underground dangerous abortions become a thriving business again. We need to remember the good old days of the orphanages.
Thank you for the wonderful thoughtful column as usual. I appreciate the excellent ideas, particularly shifting the conversation on gun violence to a public health issue. We require people to practice and get a driver's license, have auto insurance and register their cars. How is gun ownership so different that none of those things needs to happen in order to own an unlimited number of guns? Something needs to change!
My thoughts, as a non-American in a country with reportedly the happiest children in the world?
Start a campaign to imprint on the American mind that owning a gun is not "cool" and does not make you a "man" or a "tough guy". Make it clear to Americans that guns were invented for one purpose and one purpose only: to murder human beings with, as effortlessly as possible.
Guns were invented for war, because generals didn't like the amount of skill, strength and training that went into turning their soldiers into skilled archers or crossbowmen. With a gun any untrained idiot can kill at will, as the recent massacres in the USA prove.
Guns are the weapons of cowards.
Repeal the second amendment that really has no place in a civilized society.
Almost all these completely senseless mass shootings are perpetrated by men under the age of 24 who purchased a weapon of war legally at a gun store. This isn’t a coincidence. It is a well documented scientific fact that the human brain is not fully formed until around the age of 24. The last part of the brain to develop is the part that controls impulses and comprehends consequences. No one under the age of 24 should ever be in possession of a gun without adult supervision and that adult must assume responsibility. Maybe then parents will be more careful about storing guns and if they even want to own them at all.
Anyone who has parented a teen knows how impulsive they are and how unlikely they are to take anyone else’s feelings or situations into account when taking any action. The first step to addressing gun violence has to be raising the age at which people can purchase guns.
Also, gruesome as it would be, the media, including social media, needs to start showing the victims of AR-15 violence. We have images from tv and movies of people dying peacefully, using their last words to pray for forgiveness or something similar. Show what really happens to a human body that is hit by these machines of war. Show us why DNA identification is needed to identify the little victims in Uvalde. Maybe then, public sentiment against these weapons will be too loud for politicians to ignore.
It seems clear to me that you can leave one's rights to own guns in place, but subject to a few guard rails. For example: limit magazines to 5 shots. That would permit most pistols and long guns for hunting and target practice. Limit the age of purchase to 21 or older. Do not carve out these phone "private sales" at open air gun markets. Have a national registry for people who have been flagged. Require licensing as you would for a motorcycle or car. In fact, the exact kind of training that is needed used to be what the NRA was know for and good at.
The Global Peace Index ranks the US as the 36th most dangerous country in the world. We’re retired Oregonians who wanted to travel across America. Lots of people do it, but for us, it became too scary. We moved to Portugal (ranked the 3rd safest in the world), and travel throughout Europe. The worst crime that could befall us is probably by pickpockets. Much preferable to random AK47s. And the healthcare is so much cheaper.
How about licensing? Requires a written and proficiency test. Necessary to purchase guns, ammunition, or the materials to reload. Good for five years, and requires proof of the ability to safely store any guns in possession.
Sadly, it would seem that change will only come about when the number of voters impacted by gun violence outnumber the voters who have not been impacted by gun violence.
I have a proposal for you. Before you run for governor again, how about taking on the challenge of tightening and regulating guns in our country by starting with counties first, specifically, Yamhill County?
You know Yamhill County. You have, in your letter printed in the NYTimes many good ideas. If you were to lead this effort here in Yamhill County and succeed bringing disparate factions together for the good of our county, your county, then you would have solid experience to show Oregon when you run for governor next time. I believe you would win easily if you could accomplish this in Yamhill County.
l know there are a lot of Yamhill citizens willing to work together to support you if you were to take on this challenge as it's leader. I know I would be involved.
Please do consider my proposal. Yamhill County needs your help. Succeeding here could be a blueprint for other counties, and then the State of Oregon.
With deep concern for our nation's future and our children.
My daughter goes to a private school in New Hampshire, she's 14 and is now posting in her Instagram story feed poems that hone in on her fear of getting gunned down. Nothing has changed since Sandy Hook. People should go protest in front of that NRA convention that is about to go down in Texas. Thoughts and Prayers are words that have desensitized us, it's a prompt for us to do nothing and 'Go with God'. It does not work.
The media could help substantially more than it has. For example, when an idiot like Sen. Tuberville, who believes we fought World War 2 against the socialists and communists, makes an idiotic statement as you quoted, the media needs to follow up and ask "You say what won't work. What do you propose that will help?" If the person obfuscates, then you respond, "Since you have not made a concrete proposal, then do you say that nothing can be done?" When they continue to obfuscate, you make them go on the record for doing something or doing nothing. Letting them get away on the record by saying it's people not guns and the like, or to rant against those who would make policy about access to such dangerous, destructive weapons, you have to keep them on the spot and publish it. Repeatedly. What evolved into Nightline was effective in keeping the daily tally of days since the Iran crisis and the hostage-taking. Major media needs to do the same with this.
Originally from Oregon, I am so thankful that my Grandchildren are growing up in Australia. It took only one mass shooting, Port Arthur in 1996, to immediately change the gun laws here. No mass shootings since and there have never been any shootings in schools. I despair for my home country that nothing changes re gun violence.
You make a good point about the response of other countries versus that of America. It's not just Australia and its response (under a conservative prime minister, John Howard!) to the mass shooting in 1996 that contrasts with America's. Britain likewise banned handguns after a mass shooting in Scotland. New Zealand took just 26 days after its mass shooting in Christ Church to curb access to firearms. The paradox is that the United States was one of the first countries to establish limits on firearms access with the National Firearms Act of 1934, and it became a model for other countries. But since then other nations -- including those like Canada and Australia that have similar gun traditions -- have acted to institute sensible gun safety legislation, while the U.S. has gone in the opposite direction. Nowhere is American Exceptionalism so evident as in modern gun policy.
I haven’t seen any discussion of the Brady Bill lately. When finally enacted in 1994 it had a a 10 year sunset clause related to assault rifles. NRA and W Bush did not get it renewed in 2004 because data showed the ban had no effect. The floodgates opened and now the bell can’t be unrung. Then Obama started talking about banning them and it was the best thing that ever happened to gun and ammo manufacturers. Yes, I agree with most of your ideas, but in the meantime there will be another massive run especially on AR-15’s.
There is a huge disconnect today between the will of the voters and what actually gets passed in Congress. We know this, and we know why: wealthy corporations, individuals and organizations (like the NRA) have outsized influence on legislation due to our money-for-votes system of financing elections. We use euphemistic titles like "lobbying" and "campaign contributions," but we all know what is going on: sheer, unmitigated bribery. The Senate vote after the Sandy Hook massacre was the most egregious illustration of this moral rot, and we all know this. Nevertheless, we continue to reelect the same politicians who participate in and benefit from this travesty.
Until and unless we demand changes in the way we finance elections in this nation, we can expect more and more children and other innocent victims to be slaughtered in cold blood with little to no legislative efforts to address the problem. Meanwhile the gun manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank.
"Thoughts & prayers?" Pffft. Return on investment - that's what Americans seem to want. That, and the antediluvian chest-thumping that goes along with the purchase of a weapon of war.
It’s not just the gun lobby. When the least populated state, (Wyoming) has the same number of senators as the most populated state, (California), we, the majority are being ruled by the minority. When a president needs just to win the electoral college instead of the popular vote, we don’t live in a democracy. It needs to change because at some point, the majority is going to just say no.
Hope, I agree with you. We need to get rid of the outdated electoral college system. Are you all aware of the national popular vote movement? 15 states including my ow, Washinton, have enacted legislation that when enough states also do so to equal 270 electoral votes our next president will be elected by the majority of the American people. Here is its web site: info@nationalpopularvote.com
if you are not already aware of the movement please take action. Oregon has yet to enact the legislation.
Don
Great. Let the East Coast and California always elect our President. Just like in Oregon where Portland and Eugene are in charge of electing our Governor.
I respect all the opinions stated here but the bottom line is that the current day Republicans are cowards and put money over innocent lives. Why when the polls show an 80-90% majority of voters support some constructive change to our gun laws, do our Republican lawmakers do nothing?
Yet they support life to the extent that even if a women is raped, she mustbring that pregnancy to full term. OR ELSE !! In many states these women, and /or anyone who has aided in that abortion, can be imprisoned.
I’ll bet that if any of these Retrumplican’s female family member’s want an abortion, they’ll get it easily, without consequence.
The USA continues to slide downward while these lawmakers are supported by their equally misinformed hypocritical voters.
This is so true. Banning abortion does not stop abortion. It becomes accessible to the privileged and the old underground dangerous abortions become a thriving business again. We need to remember the good old days of the orphanages.
Thank you for the wonderful thoughtful column as usual. I appreciate the excellent ideas, particularly shifting the conversation on gun violence to a public health issue. We require people to practice and get a driver's license, have auto insurance and register their cars. How is gun ownership so different that none of those things needs to happen in order to own an unlimited number of guns? Something needs to change!
My thoughts, as a non-American in a country with reportedly the happiest children in the world?
Start a campaign to imprint on the American mind that owning a gun is not "cool" and does not make you a "man" or a "tough guy". Make it clear to Americans that guns were invented for one purpose and one purpose only: to murder human beings with, as effortlessly as possible.
Guns were invented for war, because generals didn't like the amount of skill, strength and training that went into turning their soldiers into skilled archers or crossbowmen. With a gun any untrained idiot can kill at will, as the recent massacres in the USA prove.
Guns are the weapons of cowards.
Repeal the second amendment that really has no place in a civilized society.
Never ever vote for a Republican again.
Then maybe the USA has a future.
Almost all these completely senseless mass shootings are perpetrated by men under the age of 24 who purchased a weapon of war legally at a gun store. This isn’t a coincidence. It is a well documented scientific fact that the human brain is not fully formed until around the age of 24. The last part of the brain to develop is the part that controls impulses and comprehends consequences. No one under the age of 24 should ever be in possession of a gun without adult supervision and that adult must assume responsibility. Maybe then parents will be more careful about storing guns and if they even want to own them at all.
Anyone who has parented a teen knows how impulsive they are and how unlikely they are to take anyone else’s feelings or situations into account when taking any action. The first step to addressing gun violence has to be raising the age at which people can purchase guns.
Also, gruesome as it would be, the media, including social media, needs to start showing the victims of AR-15 violence. We have images from tv and movies of people dying peacefully, using their last words to pray for forgiveness or something similar. Show what really happens to a human body that is hit by these machines of war. Show us why DNA identification is needed to identify the little victims in Uvalde. Maybe then, public sentiment against these weapons will be too loud for politicians to ignore.
Or would the carnage simply make us desensitized to the violence? I don't know the answer.
It seems clear to me that you can leave one's rights to own guns in place, but subject to a few guard rails. For example: limit magazines to 5 shots. That would permit most pistols and long guns for hunting and target practice. Limit the age of purchase to 21 or older. Do not carve out these phone "private sales" at open air gun markets. Have a national registry for people who have been flagged. Require licensing as you would for a motorcycle or car. In fact, the exact kind of training that is needed used to be what the NRA was know for and good at.
The Global Peace Index ranks the US as the 36th most dangerous country in the world. We’re retired Oregonians who wanted to travel across America. Lots of people do it, but for us, it became too scary. We moved to Portugal (ranked the 3rd safest in the world), and travel throughout Europe. The worst crime that could befall us is probably by pickpockets. Much preferable to random AK47s. And the healthcare is so much cheaper.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-dangerous-countries
How about licensing? Requires a written and proficiency test. Necessary to purchase guns, ammunition, or the materials to reload. Good for five years, and requires proof of the ability to safely store any guns in possession.
I've asked my Congresswoman and Senators to repeal the 2nd Amendment.
Sadly, it would seem that change will only come about when the number of voters impacted by gun violence outnumber the voters who have not been impacted by gun violence.
Dear Nickolas
I have a proposal for you. Before you run for governor again, how about taking on the challenge of tightening and regulating guns in our country by starting with counties first, specifically, Yamhill County?
You know Yamhill County. You have, in your letter printed in the NYTimes many good ideas. If you were to lead this effort here in Yamhill County and succeed bringing disparate factions together for the good of our county, your county, then you would have solid experience to show Oregon when you run for governor next time. I believe you would win easily if you could accomplish this in Yamhill County.
l know there are a lot of Yamhill citizens willing to work together to support you if you were to take on this challenge as it's leader. I know I would be involved.
Please do consider my proposal. Yamhill County needs your help. Succeeding here could be a blueprint for other counties, and then the State of Oregon.
With deep concern for our nation's future and our children.
Barbara Hilty
McMinnville OR
Our children are laying down their lives for our "freedoms".
My daughter goes to a private school in New Hampshire, she's 14 and is now posting in her Instagram story feed poems that hone in on her fear of getting gunned down. Nothing has changed since Sandy Hook. People should go protest in front of that NRA convention that is about to go down in Texas. Thoughts and Prayers are words that have desensitized us, it's a prompt for us to do nothing and 'Go with God'. It does not work.
I wish you'd cite your info - the facts are pretty compelling, but sources matter.