US gun control: Do firearms prevent crime, or help create it?

IS the United States addicted to guns? Is it a quest for freedom or a question of culture? As the US struggles with a debate on its gun laws, two opposing views appear — that guns prevent crime, and that they help create it.

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IS the United States addicted to guns? Is it a quest for freedom or a question of culture? As the US struggles with a debate on its gun laws, two opposing views appear — that guns prevent crime, and that they help create it.

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LOOKS DON’T KILL, BULLETS DO

IN the United States, a traffic stop is the second most dangerous job police do.

Only domestic violence is more dangerous. This has led, in part, to the shootings of people who were pulled over for traffic violations.

One shown on Facebook last week, showed three police holding a man down before one of the police pulled out his hand gun and shot the man.

Both police and ordinary people are getting shot to death in this crazy game they play in the US.

But there are good news stories. Steven Hildreth told the story of how he was pulled over for a broken headlight. The officer asked if Hildreth had a gun. Hildreth said, “Yes, it is on my right hip.”

They went through the “slow dance” of Hildreth getting out of the car and allowing a second officer to remove his gun, so Hildreth could reach for his wallet without alarming police. The police decided to let him off with a warning and the post went viral.

Sadly, there are other stories of people reaching for their wallets and being shot. They didn’t do the slow dance, I suppose.

When people die people get emotional and try to lay blame.

In Dallas a single shooter was responsible — reports of three shooters firing from three points, trapping police in the middle, were incorrect.

Courageously, police risked their own lives to help the many who were marching to find safety.  Perhaps when there are men and women like these police, the solution to America’s problem isn’t that far away. It is foolish to blame the gun, gun laws or anyone except the assassin.

The horrible cause is not a dumb object, but society’s sickness.

In 2014, the US Bureau for Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms reported the manufacture of four million guns and the import of an additional 3.5 million.

The US is awash with guns, most likely one for every man, woman and child, yet crime is falling. Since Obama became President crime has halved but gun numbers have quadrupled.

Crime is falling but there are many headline gun crimes. These usually lead to attacks on America’s favourite rifle, the AR15, as a military-grade, designed-to-kill, utensil of death.

Some are fooled by this gun’s appearance. It fires a 22-calibre bullet from an intermediate cartridge. This cartridge is illegal in most parts of Australia to shoot goats because it lacks power and might result in an inhumane kill. The looks don’t kill you, the bullet does, and the bullet will only get there if a criminal sends it.

Licensed American shooters have a crime rate of 0.3 per cent of the rest of their population.

While guns send many into delirious emotional outbursts, they should be considered in a carefully reasoned manner.

Banning guns or restricting them only drives crime up, as criminals don’t obey laws.

The issue in the US is not guns, it is society and culture.

Steve Barrett is an Adelaide Licensed Firearms Dealer

GUN CONTROL SAVES LIVES

WHERE there are more guns there are more gun deaths. In homes, cities, states and regions in the US, where there are more firearms, people are at higher risk of homicide.

Suggestions that culture, and not tighter gun legislation, is the real reason for gun violence in the US is nonsensical.

As most Australians know, there has not been a mass shooting in this country since 1996 — the year Prime Minister John Howard took a stand and enacted uniform guidelines for Australia’s gun laws under the National Firearms Agreement.

There were 11 mass shootings in Australia — defined as involving four or more victims — in the decade prior.

The Alannah & Madeline Foundation was launched by Walter Mikac who lost his daughters and wife at Port Arthur on Sunday, April 28, 1996, when 35 people were killed by a man carrying semi-automatic weapons.

Despite his pain and grief, Walter worked tirelessly to lobby for the introduction of the National Firearms Agreement, which included the banning of semi-automatic firearms.

Walter argues that if the perpetrator of the Lindt café siege in late 2014 was carrying semi-automatic weapons, the body count could have been much higher. He and the Foundation believe the perpetrator’s inability to legally access semi-automatic firearms saved lives. This has nothing to do with Australia’s gun culture.

As of today, more than 26,000 people have signed the Foundation’s gun control petition — calling on all governments to ensure their laws fall back in line with the National Firearms Agreement. It also calls for tighter restrictions on the controversial lever-action Adler A110, which can fire up to eight shots in quick succession.

The Foundation supports the right of an individual to obtain and safely use firearms for legitimate purposes, however we believe that our country is safer by keeping in place a consistent framework for the importation, sale and use of weapons.

In the US nine deaths by firearms are reported each day. Sadly many of these are domestic violence cases and people taking their own lives.

It is true that Americans are caught up in a deadly gun culture fuelled by easy access to firearms.

US President Barack Obama has argued strenuously to tighten US gun legislation in the wake of massacres, such as Sandy Hook, Oregon and Orlando. He has also continually praised Australia and Great Britain for enacting tighter gun legislation.

Arguing that culture is the reason for mass shootings can never be measured. Arguing that tighter gun legislation prevents mass shootings can be measured, and in Australia the facts speak for themselves.

I hope that many more Australia’s will add their voices to this debate to ensure our children’s futures are kept safe from gun violence by signing our petition at amf.org.au

Lesley Podesta is CEO of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation