Op-ed: From a Gun Victim

Op-Ed

The following op-ed appeared in The Providence Journal on January 5, 2013:

When issues of gun policy are raised, I instinctively reflect on personal experience. As a teenager, I learned firsthand the damage that guns can cause even in what should be the safest of settings: a police department with well-trained officers.

While the accident that nearly took my life is a constant reminder that we cannot prevent every gun-related incident, it also leaves me at a loss that we have not taken every possible action to prevent the wrong people from acquiring the most destructive firearms and ammunition.

In the aftermath of the unspeakable tragedy that struck Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Connecticut, I join all Americans in grieving with the families affected, while recognizing that most of us cannot fathom the level of their sorrow. However, no amount of heartfelt words or symbolic gestures will stop the next horrific shooting. And judging from the sobering accounts of at least 62 mass murders in our country over the past three decades, and tens of thousands of gun deaths every year, these atrocities will continue without meaningful action to stop them.

It is incumbent on all of our leaders to ensure that this moment does not pass without effecting necessary change. I am encouraged to hear President Obama say that he will use the power of his office to engage Americans in a conversation about gun violence and propose new measures to address this crisis.

While none of us has all of the answers right now, we must move forward with a basic premise: the solution to gun violence is most certainly not more guns.

I'm troubled by the instinctive suggestions by some that our country would be safer with a greater presence of guns in our schools, movie theaters and other public venues. A national dialogue should not begin with how to fight back against well-armed killers, but instead with how to prevent them from getting the chance to carry out their crimes in the first place.

A study by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center reported indications that the presence of more guns is linked with increased murders. In addition, research has found a correlation between stricter gun-control laws and fewer gun-related deaths.

Yet I do not suggest that gun violence is a simple problem solvable by one single gun regulation, or even by gun control as a whole. We must also examine the ways in which we are failing to evaluate and deliver appropriate services to those with mental illness, so we can expand effective practices that include engaging our education and health communities in a discussion of how to detect and respond to early warning signs of violent behavior.

However, there do exist straightforward, immediate steps, proposed in legislation I support, that would make a difference. We should require a background check for the vast majority of gun purchases and close loopholes for gun shows and many private sales. Even someone on the terrorist watch list is allowed to buy a gun.

Finally, we must ban assault weapons and large-capacity gun clips, some of which can hold dozens or hundreds of bullets. These have no more place on our streets than an Army tank, and these sensible changes would in no way infringe on the legitimate Second Amendment right to bear arms.

I'm disgusted by one gun advocate's comparison of the semiautomatic weapon used in the Newtown massacre to a fancy TV. "It's just like we have television sets that look cool, and others are much more boxy," he told The Washington Post. I'm unaware of a television capable of the kind of horrific destruction that happened at Sandy Hook.

Contrary to the sentiment that the immediate aftermath of such a tragedy is not the time for policy discussions, history has proven that waiting only strengthens the status quo. Different issues arise; the 24-hour news cycle moves on to the next timely story; and lawmakers get bogged down in other important debates.

It is much more likely that if we take up legislative proposals in the near future, when emotions are fresh and memories have not yet begun to fade, we will build the momentum for change.

One can, with time, come to terms with a single gun-related accident at a police station. Mass killings, from Aurora to Newtown, require a much different response. If not now, then when?

James Langevin represents Rhode Island's Second Congressional District.

Source