I think our friends over at Ohh Shoot, who post stories of "accidental" shootings should start a franchise which specializes in murder/suicides.
Here's a typical case, marital trouble, man owns gun, man does murder, and in this case attempted suicide. He's in critical condition.
Using 20-20 hindsight, can we all agree this guys should not have owned a gun? Please think about it before you begin your knee-jerk arguments. The guy should not have had a gun and probably qualified for the 10% under more than one category.
The only question remaining is, how to identify these guys before they act. Agreed?
Please leave a comment.
Hindsight is a bitch, isn’t it?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY_oKve-bH0
I thought you didn't highlight cases like this. Which is certainly not "accidental."
ReplyDeleteNo, that's not what I said. I often highlight cases like this. What I said was I don't limit myself to them. I highlight the other types too in order to question where do the gang and drug guys get their guns.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, man bites dog. The state moves to emulate the UK and ban teeth.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, even if this guy didn't have a gun, he'd kill his wife the same way guys have been killing their wives for thousands of years: Hands, knives, sticks, and stones.
Identifying criminals before they become so is rather difficult technically, and Constitutionally questionable at best. I'd recommend watching "Minority Report" for more on this subject.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you'll ever get any buy-in from our side on this issue, Mike, as we are unwilling to submit to additional scrutiny that makes us feel like criminals for merely exercising our Constitutionally protected rights just to make you feel safer. This country has added progressively more stringent restrictions on the RKBA since 1934, yet violent crime has increased for the most part. Heck, my dad recalls the days of being able to purchase GI surplus 1911s out of the back of mail order catalogs! Doesn't this suggest that the problem lies somewhere other than with the availability of firearms?
Minority Report is a good flick. I watched it again recently.
ReplyDeleteAlthough you don't like attempts to identify potential criminals before they act, that is what we already do. The restrictions against convicted felons and those with histories of mental illness are just that. These are people who have paid their debt to society and are now functioning within the law, but just in case they do something wrong in the future, we don't let them buy. Most people, even most gun owners don't have a problem with this.
I would like to see these kinds of anticipatory initiatives increased. More training and testing requirements, more of the one-strike-you're-out ideas I often talk about with regards accidents. Gun misdemeanors and juvenile offenses have to be disqualifiers as well. There's more but you get the idea.
All this would still leave the vast majority of gun owners untouched. The difference is quality of that group would be vastly improved by weeding out the problem makers.