"The... ban on assault rifles... had trouble defining assault weapons" A handgun makes a chest exit wound not much larger than the bullet. An assault rifle makes a chest exit wound the size of an orange. Any questions? (the assault rifle bullet is travelling faster than the speed of sound, so hits flesh with its own shock wave, which travels alongside it, turning flesh into jelly. You shoot someone in the leg with an assault rifle, they die. The bullet shock wave shatters the leg bone, and its the bone fragments that cut the leg artery, so you bleed out in a minute or so).
243
My you have some mistaken ideas about the ballistics but it does impress.
High velocity rounds do produce shock waves that turn tissues into jelly as they move outward from the bullet. That effect occurs with bullets from .357 magnum handguns right up through those from big hunting rifles.
The bullets from AR-15 have less velocity than a lot of hunting rifles and are more prone to being deflected by foliage than most deer rifles. Their range is less. The bullets are long and prone to tumbling. That tumbling causes a lot of damage in irregular paths that are not easy to repair. The gun has far less recoil and is easier to shoot and regain aim at targets. But it fires no faster than any other semi-autos requiring a squeeze to fire every bullet.
It’s deadly because it’s a gun. All guns are deadly. Anyone who points a gun at anyone is posing a deadly threat. People who are careful not to are not.
30
@Phil
I have some old ordinary lever-action rifles that'll do the same thing. Like a Winchester model 1894 (yes, that's 18...) in 30-30 (maybe the most widely-sold rifle in the US in the last 100+ years); several others of generations-old designs. Try a .30-06 bolt-action; maybe the most popular since WWII.
11
@Phil
I've read some of the articles and letters written by trauma surgeons who attended victims of the horrific Las Vegas shooting.
The carnage they dealt with was sickening and appalling.
I am a gun owner and I cannot abide the NRA and those who believe it is their right to own military -type weapons that were designed specifically for the rapid and efficient killing of human beings.
And I am disgusted by our Congress that has simply refused to address the problem.
It's all about the money. And it's SICK. And we, as a society, are SICK.
91
DDear Mr. Kristof
Duh, you seem to -FORGET- your side 'WON' the Gun Control debate in 1993! Then lost spectacularly in 1994! Then again in 2000! Then again in 2016!
The same 'dullards' that signed the Second Amendment, also signed the First Amendment! Also the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, & Eighth Amendments! How dare such 'dullards' contaminate the Bill of Rights! I remind any responding writers that the body of the Constitution provides for an Army and Navy, leaving the Bill of Rights -for the People-, 'NOT' the government!
I'm sure these men were so stupid as not to see advancements in technology but then then I guess they never saw advancements in liberty such as flag burning and pornography! I truly wonder if these 'dullards' would've seen 'Flag Burning' as an acceptable First Amendment right?
2
The second amendment and Slavery are curses from which this country will never recover. Especially so when this culture supports insane ideas about guns that were formed during the rebellion against British rule. How insane those ideas are now in the 21st century.
America is a nation of far too many macho unenlightened nuts like Ted Nugent.
9
The majority of Americans want to see common sense gun control measures enacted. However, Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate has no interest in doing this. That is why these elected officials, all "deadbeats," are unfit for office. They have not been doing their job and have manifested no interest in dealing with gun violence. This is one taxpayer that is feed-up with the inaction and damned tired of hearing about their "thoughts and prayers" when students are killed by gun violence. Why are we paying these slugs a salary and funding their rich benefit plans?
6
Completely asinine take. “Stand up to Guns!!” Guns are not the problem, insane liberals are the problem. Stop that particular madness and watch the rate of gun violence drop.
2
Look at that scared little peanut walking with her hands over her head. Shame on us!!!
3
Americans are in love with guns and don't give a damn about each other. You are the most selfish, self-centred and COWARDLY bunch of hypocrites on the planet. You are terrified of everything and think only guns will protect you. What a sad, sad look for a once proud nation.
11
Do you really expect anything to be done at the Federal level?
3
What we need is a very strict ban on guns. We were born with guns in our hands so who do so many people think they are necessary. And how I wonder do people think they are safe is they have a gun. I realize that there rare other methods to kill but why make it so easy to get a gun and kill. We must have the sickest mental ill people in the world.
The Psychotic in Chief has just withdrawn US cooperation with international agreements limiting the conventional arms trade. The results will probably like getting Iran to restart its nuclear centrifuges.
1
I believe the New York Times should print on the front page a list of the Democrats and Republican who contribute to the NRA. It should include their names with an (R) or a (D) and the amount they donate. I saw it listed perhaps a year ago and found it not only shocking but disgusting.
6
Two dead heroes -- and what, 40,000 others last year? How anyone can actually boast that they are American is just beyond me.
1
Dear Mr. Kristof
Duh, you seem to -FORGET- your side 'WON' the Gun Control debate in 1993! Then lost spectacularly in 1994! Then again in 2000! Then again in 2016!
The same 'dullards' that signed the Second Amendment, also signed the First Amendment! Also the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, & Eighth Amendments! How dare such 'dullards' contaminate the Bill of Rights! I remind any responding writers that the body of the Constitution provides for an Army and Navy, leaving the Bill of Rights -for the People-, 'NOT' the government!
I'm sure these men were so stupid as not to see advancements in technology but then then I guess they never saw advancements in liberty such as flag burning and pornography! I truly wonder if these 'dullards' would've seen 'Flag Burning' as an acceptable First Amendment right?
2
It has been painfully obvious to me for quite some time that the NRA is not about the 2nd Amendment, it is about selling more guns. When we see what is going on currently at the high levels of the NRA it is painfully obvious that greed is the highest motivation for this terrorist organization.
If you belong the the NRA because of gun safety courses and hunting rights they are ripping you off.
If you belong to the NRA because your father and grandfather belonged, they are ripping you off.
If you belong to the NRA because you think Obama, or some other real scary boogie man, is going to take away your guns, you need help.
Since the attacks on the World Trade Center 18 years ago approx. 400 Americans have been killed by Islamic terrorists. Americans killed by other Americans numbers around 400,000.
I read of a fellow who took his British friend into a Wall Mart and showed him the gun department. The Brit turned to him and said, "You people are insane".
That about sums it up.
8
Kendrick Castillo: I was considered a hero but I have to say that I am now a dead hero. I wanted to save lives but I didn’t want to die. I am saddened to learn that my mother and father are now grieving. I know that you can’t contact them but I am well and alive in this side of the fence.
When will this country learn that killing by guns is death. It isn’t just fancy words that mean nothing. I died for no reason. I am angry at congressmen and our lousy president because they won’t do anything to control the amount of guns that have infiltrated our whole society.
I have crossed over but this is not the life I envisioned. This is the life that a crazed person gave me. I worked to save others and this is what happened to me. I forgive this rotten killer but I am still hurting from the results. None of this should be happening.
There is no justice as long as politicians are being bought out by the NRA. Our president Trump was bought out to the tune of NRA’s $30 million. No wonder he has no thoughts except more guns. Guns DO kill. Guns DO kill.
Guns DO kill and I am one victim who is still wanting a life on earth. I loved my school and I loved my classmates and now all I can do is watch them mourn for me. I am sad but I will eventually get over it.
I am alive and I am mad at the money that keeps the NRA from doing any good. I am a victim and I am alive.
Sincerely,
Kendrick Castillo. I was just 18 years old and now I am dead.
2
It is unconscionable that this nation's children should have to defend their very lives in school because adults won't step up to the plate and put down their toys.
9
The thought that these two brave people might have been encouraged to take action by talk of arming teachers and even students sickens me. I'm sure their parents would like a word with those who impressed it upon these saviors that it was their responsibility to stop a shooter. That's perhaps the biggest can that's ever been kicked down the road.
2
Weirdly, people in prison are safer from gun violence than children in our schools. Perhaps it is time to spend the money to harden schools (dedicated security forces, metal detectors, safe rooms) as we do courthouses and other sensitive locations. After all, what is more valuable than our kids? Funding for these necessary measures could come from taxation, or fees charged to gun owners. We can’t just let our children die in school. We can’t tolerate them living in fear. This proposal is kind of dystopian, but that’s where we are, isn’t it?
3
The comment by PAN was wonderfully diabolical. I contacted the NRA online and was told that I would have voting rights after 5 years of membership or purchasing a lifetime membership. 5 years at $45 a year is to long to wait and life membership is $1500 which includes NRA's Brushed Leather Jacket.
Close down and ban the gun manufacturers unless they are for military purposes. Many guns are on the black market and banning guns would not have much of an impact. Chicago has a large no-gun zone but they still have significant gun violence. The ability to manufacture a gun using 3D technology is another matter and probably outside the scope of this discussion but given this newer technology I doubt the ability to legislate the control of gun access will get easier.
2
Yeah, the hundred million households with guns are all Potemkin houses owned by the NRA and the gun manufacturers. I don’t think you know much about guns in this country except that they fire bullets. Banning guns will not be either appreciated by a third of the citizens nor likely to be effective in reducing gun violence, nor allowed under the Constitution.
3
There are a number of good to great ideas running through this column, but there is one gigantic missing one, the insurance industry. It won't cover incidents from those who want to willfully deceive them, but what if property and vehicle owners as well as renters had to declare the number and type of firearms housed on the household or vehicle insured, with corresponding higher rates for types, quantities, and the level of security to make sure that unauthorized people don't have access to them. Add a clause in the policy that non-disclosure voids payouts and you might begin to bend the curve on this problem. Higher insurance rates for individual gun ownership might also encourage guns housed at target ranges and for hunters rifles rented only for a hunting trip instead of individual personal arsenals. Something new has to be tried and reducing individual gun ownership by making it more costly and inconvenient might be a way around NRA purchased politicians.
6
Apparently the comment moderators working Mr. Kristof's column today have suspended the guidelines prohibiting personal attacks. I can not recall this much vitriol in response to any other issue, ever. As the majority of readers responding are hostile to gun ownership, gun owners and virtually everyone advocating for the 2nd Amendment, it especially reflects poorly on that affinity group. It is already difficult to persuade individuals holding an adversarial opinion. The lack of civility on both sides of this issue does not benefit anyone and frankly calls into question the actual motives behind the hostility. There is no doubt in my mind that there are Russian Intelligence officers taking delight in the divisiveness and throwing the occasional rhetorical bomb into either side of the debate, just to keep it as nasty as possible. And then high-fiving each other every couple of minutes. There are valid arguments on both sides, nobody (except sadists) takes pleasure in death & suffering. If you are commenting here out of a need to vent your spleen, find a good therapist instead. If you really want to make the US a better, safer place, ratchet down the hostility, study the history relevant to the issues with an open mind and express yourself with insight & civility. You never know what you might accomplish.
2
A few years ago when I worked in talent management for a multinational corporation, I was at an Ohio university as we recruited sales interns from there. During dinner, the conversation turned to differences between Canada and the U.S. and I was asked to give my opinion. Without hesitation I said "We don't have guns."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the reasons why I'm so glad I live in Canada.
7
Yes, we must celebrate the heroes and mourn at the vigils. But nothing changes. We have to ask ourselves: Is it time to display images of the victims? Maybe seeing dead bodies -- of children, teenagers, and adults with holes in them -- will force all of us to get serious about gun control.
5
I was frequenting a backpacking Facebook group a little wh8le ago when someone said they would be hiking in British Columbia and asked what they should take for Grizzly bear protection.
Automatically, a number of people, Americans, suggested loading up with guns.
I posted the following sentence, and nothing else, lifted right off the BC Parks website, “For your safety, guns are prohibited.”
The simple wording of that sentence set off an apoplectic, confused, reaction among the American gun crowd in the forum. They could not parse how not having a gun would be safer than carrying a gun.
That got me thinking that in about 30 years of hiking in Grizzly Country in the Canadian Rockies, I’ve never seen a hiker with a gun. Occasionally, in season, you’ll see a hunter with a weapon. Factually, millions of little old ladies hike in Grizzly country every year with nothing but bear spray and have no problems, yet American males are quaking in their boots about not having a gun in sImilar circumstances.
Just using the above story to illustrate the difficulty America will have reducing the sheer volume of weapons pervading your society.
Guns = safety in America. In most other countries, citizens do not think that way at all.
It’s an attitude thing.
10
I am a gun owner, 2A supporter, and former NRA member. More importantly I am the father to two young children. I cannot imagine the pain that families feel when a child is taken from them. There are no words to comfort them, no prayers to ease their pain. I agree that something needs to be done to stop the senseless shooting that happen all to often in our schools but also in society in general. The problem is that there is such a divide in this country that there is little hope of finding common ground. Folks from both sides blindly agree or disagree with potential solutions based solely on what side of the isle they stand. I don't know of anyone that would honestly say that our great country doesn't have a problem, that is the easy part. The hard work comes when it's time to find lasting solutions. As I said before I am a gun owner and a 2A supporter and always will be. I'm no genius but I can guarantee that passing new laws for "gun control" will do nothing to stop gun violence. If it were that simple then why don't we just make a law that says murder is illegal - problem solved. While we are at it how about we make a few laws that make heroin illegal and solve that problem to.
Oh wait ....... we already have those laws.
3
@TJ: The second amendment is as badly misunderstood as the first in this comprehensively dishonest nation. It calls upon Congress to exercise its Article I Section 8 militia regulation authorities to protect the rights, properties and liberties of the unarmed.
2
@Steve Bolger Forgive me for my simple mindedness but where in the 2A does it call upon Congress for anything?
2
The appeal here to general legislation to address rising gun violence must address the right issues. It's not mere emotional appeals and tweaking of gun laws that will have the desired effect. It's the culture of gun proliferation, the ideas that we need a vigilante culture of citizen gun owners to combat crime, as if we're living in the wild west.
Indeed, our culture resembles something of pioneer life, as long as the NRA/Republican alliance is allowed to run roughshod over common sense. Common sense--eg, that guns, not only people, kill people--would surely have some scientific basis were it not for the limits to research on gun use propagated by this alliance. As long as we don't define "good guys with guns" as trained agents of public authority, then we allow vigilantes to harbor weapons that many of them will undoubtedly use to ill effect--esp suicide and impassioned manslaughter.
Let's take a clue from New Zealand's PM Ardern and her neighbor Australia in their reactions to the prospect of endemic gun violence. Start teaching that gun proliferation is harmful and promote gun disposals and buy-backs. Attack the patent nonsense of NRA vigilantism and marginalize, to the best of our political ability, those who promote public gun ownership and use.
1
@Tom: Guns are objects that beg to be used for their designed purpose: killing from a distance.
I'm so uncomfortable with the use of "hero" in talking about the two young people who died in the UNCC and the STEM shootings. Calling them heroes makes this gun war seem like something honorable, something that we all agreed to participate in for a greater good. Being called "heroes" and "martyrs" elevates this violence into some kind of noble and holy war.
These young men were murdered while trying to save others. That is heroic and selfless. But this "cause" isn't worth dying for, and it's not worth sacrificing young lives for. Call it what it is: they were murdered by domestic terrorists, and our culture is ok with that in the name of gun rights.
5
Easy solution. Starting on Labor Day, parents, students and teachers around the country should boycott schools until local, state and federal legislators pass reasonable gun safety laws. Without student daily attendance, schools lose funding. Money talks !!
5
This is just a very sad thing. Why doesn't are country do anything about school shooting! Is are country getting a kick from all of this.
More children under the age of 4 die by firearms than do policemen in the line of duty. More civilians have died by guns than have soldiers in ALL OUR WARS. And people have the nerve to say we have no standing to even discuss the issue because we call certain weapons by some "inaccurate" name.
How about "People Killers." Is that accurate enough for you?
8
So many other nations take strong steps to prevent such shootings, while many Americans use tired excuses to avoid enacting even the simplest and most sensible of laws such as universal background checks. Nine churchgoers in Charleston, SC, would be alive if SC didn't allow a gun sale without a completed background check--the gun was sold legally after 3 days. Eleven Jews in Pittsburgh would be alive if there had been similar precautions.
My own synagogue narrowly missed being shot up about 3 years ago only because the FBI conducted a sting on the would-be shooter, who is now in prison for a short time. Since he learned his neo-Nazi creed in prison, no doubt he will be more hateful when he gets out again.
Is there any good reason to sell automatic and semi-automatic weapons so that a few people can have "fun" with them? Is there any good reason that civilians need huge magazines? Do domestic abusers need guns with which to threaten their spouses? Is there any good reason not to require all guns to be locked up at all times and to have foolproof safeties on them? I say no. We need all of this for starters.
5
This is incredibly sad....Do Something Government! One of your primary responsibilities is quite literally protecting us! Do you even care about your own children and grandchildren?
1
Children stolen from their parents, unwilling soldiers forced into battle fighting a war of survival. We must hold those responsible who send our children into warzones.
2
2nd Amendment, 1789, population of 4 million, standing army of 800, allow firearms to muster a militia to try to defend the US. army was only 5,000 in 1801. Time to get rid of it. and time to stop the control of this country by a determined political, social and religious minority who have their heads stuck in the 17th and 18th centuries. Restrict fire-arm possession and strictly. This country is pathetic.
8
NO, these are NOT young HEROES. They are young VICTIMS. To call them heroes burnishes the cruelty of gun violence! When our children are victimized - ALL OF THEM - by Lockdown drills, terrorized by active shooters, they are growing up to live with PTSD! Let's call it what it is! This is shameful and ridiculous to make these children prepare for death by gun violence. We ALL NEED TO take action to prevent violence in schools, places of worship. There are enough profiles of these sick shooters to delve into the whys; if only in America this is an epidemic, there is surely a cure, beginning with getting rid of guns. Period.
6
How many more shootings do we have to witness in order for us to act on it ?
2
I know its easy to blame the NRA, or the republican leadership, but isn't that too simple, all the guns in America were bought by people who wanted them, and if you think they are giving up those guns then you are delusional.
There is only one real answer, and that's economics. Raise the price of guns threefold, raise the price of bullets tenfold , take that gun tax and use the money to support free mental health clinics.
That's a real solution. Get behind a solution like that and you have a chance of stopping the slaughter of the innocents.
2
What can one say? Just take away their guns - they’ll need some other way to feel potent.
3
I don’t believe in “heroes”. Give me a break.
1
May I also suggest that all those touched or victimized by gun violence, obtain a membership in the NRA? Hear me out. All we need is for a bit more than 5 million members to take over the NRA - by voting out the leadership and board and replacing it with one of our own we can resolve the political impasse and threats that originate from this evil organization..
What the current NRA terrorist leadership does not realize is that they are actually endangering the 2nd Amendment by their actions and behavior. Their actions cause the rest of us to question the need of the 2nd Amendment to a civil society.
Taking the NRA back to its roots of common sense gun safety, rules, regulations and laws would do more to preserve the 2nd Amendment than the accelerating slaughter of students, worshipers, movie goers and concert goers in our nation.
Like Formula One and NASCAR cars are not street legal, there is no reason for assault rifles and weapons of slaughter to be street legal. Keep such weaponry restricted to gun ranges like race-cars are restricted to race tracks. SIMPLE! SAFE! At least others at the gun range are better prepared to defend themselves and can play hero to neutralize any nut lashing out with an AR-15.
I am for banning the 2nd Amendment as promoted by the NRA (they even threatening to take away our government with their 8 trillion bullets), but support the 2nd Amendment with common sense laws and regulations. Go figure!
80
@PAN
Wonderfully diabolical! I like it!
8
This is going to sound extremely cynical and for that I apologize to the families and friends of these two young men. It's easier to turn someone who does something like this into a hero than it is to face the fact that it needn't have ever occurred. These two young men ought to be alive and planning their futures. That they are dead is a tragedy for them, their families and friends, and the nation. Our politicians, especially those who are given an A by the NRA and who fight all efforts at gun regulation, should be ashamed of themselves. These young men should not have had to step in like that.
The Second Amendment is not a license to kill or to be a one man militia. The NRA and its supporters have twisted this amendment into something it is not. No young person should have to die because his/her schoolmates brought a gun into a school with the intention of killing others. If this doesn't prompt our current elected officials in Congress to do something, nothing will. For the families my deepest sorrows and regrets go out to them even though that will not bring back their sons/brothers/etc.
5/9/2019 1:01pm
4
The American people and their political leadership need to admit that in their insanity they have made the 2nd amendment more valuable than human life. It’s a sick admission. But until the insanity is an admission of guilt, there will be no change in the proliferation of guns and the deaths of more American civilians than American soldiers in imperialistic conflicts around the world. America long ago proved that it is the most cowardly of nations hiding behind s culture of deeply embedded fears that drive a belief that guns are the best tool to take to a conflict rather than words and a desire for life, liberty and peace.
4
As long as McConnell and Republicans control the senate the carnage will continue. 5 and 6 year olds were massacred in Newtown and nothing was done. These people don’t care, the only thing that matters is power and money. Everyone else is collateral damage in their pursuit of power and money.
5
Mr Kristof, you make too much sense. Which means none of what you propose stands a chance of becoming reality in this crazy daily show of American politics.
2
I think it is nothing to do with guns. Guns were always around. It is mentality of people. Our society is sick and is going to be sicker and sicker. It is much easier to remove guns but change mentality is almost impossible .
2
NRA/trump supporters are so cowardly, we now see them allowing little children to die in combat, protecting each other by taking a bullet; not in the military, but in elementary school.
It's amazing how devoted these men are to one phrase in one Constitutional amendment, and the word SHALL is just sacred, right? No discussion, no way to regulate that.
But any other use of the word "SHALL" is easily made flexible if trump wants it to be, amirite? Like that thing about how special counsel procedures SHALL be conducted. Or the place where the census SHALL enumerate, not pick and choose.
If you are going to snip out the parts trump doesn't like, and run around making up reasons that he doesn't have to comply with, you know, the sacred bedrock constitutional requirements of his job, how respectful should we continue to be to your 2A whining when our children have to die for the NRA?
Oh, just to remind, watch trump take the oath of office. He does not promise to protect and defend anything but our constitution. NOT a particular profit-making war weapons dealer.
1
On his show last night, Chris Cuomo accused all of us for being cowards to not do something about this gun horror.
We marched. We vote with our hearts. We call and write our representatives.
Tell me, what else can we little people do?
1
As said below, it is human behavior that is the fundamental problem. But....that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to decrease the violence before we cure the human race. Any person who uses a gun (or has a gun in their possession) while committing a crime should receive a mandatory prison sentence. That won't stop all gun crimes, but maybe it will convince a material subset of criminals to abandon guns as their weapon of choice.
I write as an 83 year-old father, grandfather and retired teacher with 51 years of service. I think we've learned nothing will be done by our political, religious or educational leaders that can seriously challenge America's gun culture.
So, out of desperation I propose this: that every national education association representing teachers, the universities that train them, and parent organizations convene a national convention where they agree to shut down the nation's schools and training programs and keep them shut until politicians at all levels enact legislation to register every gun in America and put realistic limits on who can have them. This is a drastic proposal designed to inconvenience politicians and community leaders enough so they understand the social consequences of continuing the status quo; until they agree ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Concerned teachers, families, their organizations and friends will have to support each others' efforts materially and morally, for it's obvious that no other elements of society have as much at stake in our catastrophe as they do. Prolonged cooperation will be required, otherwise the fatal passivity of our "leaders" and the public will continue. Individually, parents and teachers can do nothing, except continue burying their dead children, while pleasant rhetoric about "thoughts and prayers" issue from power centers after each murderous event. And we are lulled into further passivity.
4
Second-Amendment absolutists vote. That is why we can't get change. In fact, in many states it's becoming much easier to get a gun and carry it without a permit or training.
4
The only intent in proclaiming guns a 'symptom' rather than a 'cause' is to politically demote the rather obvious significance of guns in our now two decade-long epidemic of mass shootings. In short, hold anything else accountable: rock and roll, video games, general cultural malaise, etc, because any fig leaf will do so long as it provides gun advocates with the rhetorical cover to maintain the sophistry that guns are not a cause.
Such a charade is certainly a symptom of our times. But we have yet to fully diagnose the illness.
1
Events like these have become normal in the US. It's unacceptable. Simply blaming gun laws isn't going to work, although at this point anything needs to be done. If someone wants a gun badly enough, they will get their hands on one. In such a short span of time, we have seen too many tragedies like this one.
1
In many of these cases, the guns used by shooters were taken from their parents. We need a federal law that immediately convicts gun owners of 1st degree murder if their guns are used in a homicide. Full stop. No trial. Not manslaughter. 1st degree murder. And the conviction should carry whatever state penalty exists for that crime. Even if guns are "properly stored" in gun safes, that should not exonerate the gun owners.
3
@Chris I agree with you in spirit. Practically speaking however, parents can't do more than properly store the guns, keep the safe locked, and tell their offspring that those guns are off limits. The same goes for people who own guns and have no children. If they don't store the guns and ammunition properly it's an entirely different story. Then I agree that they should be held responsible.
2
The single most important step every American can take to tackle this sick epidemic is to vote for a Congressperson who commits to bucking the NRA and working on sensible gun regulation. This is not a presidential decision. If the people make this a signature issue in how they vote in 2020, your candidates will. Ask your prospective Senators and Congressperson where they stand. Demand they prioritize this issue.
We were fortunate enough to elect Lucy McBath in Georgia's 6th district last year; she beat an incumbent Republican making this a key part of her campaign. It can be done.
3
*YES *YES *YES *YES *YES *YES *YES
We are held hostage everyday by the NRA. Some of our worst fears involving guns are realized every day in this country, so why are we so afraid of taking down the organization that lives to terrorize us?
3
I was in New Zealand at the time of the Mosque shootings. I was told by gun owners that registration, licensing, safe storage and inspection of home storage were required BEFORE THE SHOOTINGS. Before Parliamentary action, one competitive shooter told us he expected his semiautomatic rifle to be outlawed and he was willing to give it up. Yet they carry on hunting and competitive shooting sports. Their national response to the foreign shooter was swift, sane, and comprehensive.
What are you doing TODADY to change gun laws in America?
Meanwhile, here in America my three year old grand daughter in preschool was taught to hide when instructed.
3
I'm deeply concerned about media framing the VICTIMS who confronted attackers as heroes. There are many unintended consequences which may result.
Will children who are under attack by future inevitable school/mass shootings feel compelled to be "heroes"? By inference, will children under attack who run, hide or try to escape feel a moral injury of being cowardly?
These are child victims, and we need to emphasize that this is a Republican caused travesty due to their continued and complete obstruction of gun safety and gun violence control legislation.
Every child and school victim of gun violence is American children's blood on their hands. They may not hold the weapon, but they are firing the shots that maim and kill.
2
Opposition to gun control is from more than 100 million law-abiding gun owners in the US who understand the importance of the Second Amedment. They vote that belief.
It is an emotional argument to continue to use the NRA as a boogeyman. It has falling membership and declining revenues. It has fewer than 5 million members, most of whom join because they participate in the NRA gun safety, training, and marksmanship programs, some of them offered for law enforcement. Free 1-year memberships are often given to purchasers of new firearms.
This is not a growing organization with a politically active membership.
Most of the “solutions” offered by Kristoff and other gun control advocates would be ineffective. Some violate the Fourth Amendment. Others would have no effect on the single largest problems: criminals, terrorists, and the mentally ill who would find ways to violate or ignore any law they would make.
4
Ask the people of Venezuela how gun confiscation worked out for them. The Second Amendment is in the U.S. Constitution for a reason, a reason well understood by our nation's founding fathers.
The sad fact is that school kids used to keep guns in their lockers, and that was no problem. This fact is still within living memory. What's changed?
3
@Mario
Around the time that the glorification of violence was ramped up in movies and on television, the violence started in real life. We need reasonable, common sense control of violence on TV and in movies.
4
@Mario
Your nation's founding fathers had absolutely no idea how guns would progress. I suspect your founding fathers would be appalled at how their misguided 2nd Amendment has been fetishized in America today.
1
@Mario
The liberal press didn't report very much on the mass looting that occurred in Maricaibo, Venezuela in March where about 600 businesses, including entire warehouses and factories, were stripped bare and destroyed by out of control mobs. The only thing that enabled local business owners to protect their property was their possession of guns.
2
Just because nothing has been done at the federal level, it doesn't follow that people don't care, or that nothing is being done about gun violence in this country. It's the lazy way out to say nothing can be done because of the NRA.
States are taking the lead on this issue: for example, Colorado just passed red flag laws; New York is going after the corruption in the NRA leadership, possibly revoking their not-for-profit status. (Question: how do you donate $300 million to Donald Trump's election and remain a non-profit?)
It's not enough, and it's shameful that young people are being left by cowardly adults to pay for this with their lives. I really think that change is going to come from the bottom up, just like with the drunk driving advocacy groups, when people realize that this is not just somebody else's problem, and it may be their child who doesn't come home from school, or church, or the mall, when some disturbed individual shows up with a gun.
4
Guns are not the problem, they are only the symptom. The deep underlying problems are with community and trust. Some people call this a Christian nation but where is the love for neighbor in the broader sense. People are buying guns because they don't feel safe and in many communities there is good reason for not feeling safe. I heard someone from the black community state that having armed security at black churches is not uncommon because they have had to deal with unexpected violence for so long. What is new is the spread to the white middle class.
What is wonderfully different about recent events is that one good person without a gun was able to stop one bad person with a gun. The mantra of addressing violence with violence needs to end and we each need to work in our own communities to build better communities that foster trust between individuals near and far. Only when there is a sea change in our underlying attitudes toward others that builds community and trust instead of suspicion will we resolve these problems.
As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us”
3
The very first sentence of this editorial demonizes the NRA, saying that this organization "allowed the gun lobby to run amok" so that America now has more guns than people.
He neglects to mention that individual citizens purchased those guns with their own free will at their own personal expense. No one mandated that they buy a gun. The will of the people of the USA purchased and acquired those privately owned guns. The "gun lobby" did not force or legislate the purchase of those guns.
If the author really wants to address the situation of gun violence he would work WITH the NRA to prevent gun violence. The NRA actually is quite successful in preventing gun violence, and accidental death, and suicides. Look at their gun safety programs,
https://explore.nra.org/interests/safety-and-education/
Perhaps he can appeal to their better nature and ask them about preventing accidental shootings by children. Or maybe he can ask what program they have to help families of aging gun owners dispose of their gun collections, legally and safely.
It should be noted, frequently, that very few, if any, of our mass murderers were NRA members. However, more than one third of them had served in the military. Liberal gun control advocates frequently say that only the military should have guns. The University of Texas Tower sniper, Charles Whitman, received his sniper training in the Marines.
3
It is long past time to limit guns and gun violence. It is a national disgrace that so many lives are lost and we do nothing about it. It is utterly shameful that our children have to do drills at school to teach them what to do if there is an active shooter. People should be able to worship without fear, and be able to attend concerts and other public events. A good place to start would be to review what kind of weapons were available when framers of the Constitution wrote the 2nd amendment. There were no modern assault weapons, AR-15's, or bump stocks then. If we limited 2nd amendment rights to what the framers intended, we'd all be far safer and much better off.
3
To reduce school shootings it's necessary to provide a disincentive to prospective attackers. That would include swift justice. The parkland, florida shooter, n. cruz, is an example of a man who is known to be guilty, but is living his dream of becoming a 'famous' killer more than a year after his heinous crimes. Cruz has received fan mail and marriage proposals. He continues to influence many prospective wannabe killers. This kind of notoriety, if allowed to continue, will only encourage more copy cat attacks.
2
I haven't heard how the recent shooters in NC and CO got the guns. Were they obtained legally? Are there individuals we can hold responsible? When will we hold the manufacturers and the NRA responsible? Please vote out any member of Congress who values guns more than the lives of our children.
3
This is the United States of America. For the foreseeable future, there will not be gun regulation sufficient to prevent one or two males (so far) from killing one or many innocent people. Maybe, generations from now, if our parents start teaching their sons that guns are not the same as manhood and our movie scriptwriters and producers stop glorifying "good guys with guns," a majority of Americans will demand that the Constitution be amended to limit gun ownership rights to a few who have a compelling reason to own them and require registration of all legal firearms.
1
It's clear that tinkering around with registration and incremental restrictions are not going to cut it. The Second Amendment needs to be repealed, or significantly changed. Sorry, but the Founding Fathers were wrong on this one.
4
Here is a list from early '18 for NRA $ - while McCain has passed, and others haven't sought re-election, the list is pretty telling about who gets the $ and why they offer 'thoughts and prayers' while voting in lock-step against any common sense gun measures. Vote them out!
https://www.businessinsider.com/nra-political-contributions-congressional-candidates-house-senate-2018-2
2
Hey, hey, NRA!
What did you build with your guns today?
What did you build with your guns?
That front picture, the little girl arms above her head.
W LaPierre can be so proud.
Eternal shame.
7
Thank the NRA and their rabid second amendment supporters, we are now, Lockdown Nation.
5
Amen
How would universal background check have prevented this tragedy since the shooters did not legally own firearms?
I expect the NYT Censors to ignore diverse thought.
3
When reporting gun violence' especially by children it should be routine that the news include how and where the shooter obtained his or her guns..
1
I wonder if I will be allowed to post a comment on this editorial. The NYT says they welcome comments, even if they aren't full of praise and corrections to mistakes and false information are invited. I'll try but my record with Nicholas Kristof's articles is not encouraging.
He says, claims, that 22% of guns are obtained without a background check. He quotes a study, linked by the highlighted words "22 percent of guns" published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The very first sentence of that study states,
"Background: In 1994, 40% of U.S. gun owners who had recently acquired a firearm did so without a background check. No contemporary estimates exist."
This is an odd statement and outright false. It cannot be otherwise. Background checks did not exist in the USA until 1998. The very first statement made by this study invalidates its credibility. The actual percentage of legally purchased guns without a background check is in the low single digits. Further analysis will show very few of those background check lacking guns are involved in violent crimes.
3
"Politicians fearful of the National Rifle Association have allowed the gun lobby to run amok so that America now has more guns than people,"
That is willful ignorance. The most prolific cause of increases in the number of guns in America is the threat that gun-control legislation will curtail or end Americans' right to gun ownership. This fact has been visibly manifest for decades. During Obama's presidency, every time he talked about "reasonable gun-safety legislation, a blatant euphemism for "gimme your guns or go to jail," hordes of Americans were not fooled and rushed to the nearest gun dealer to buy a gun or stock up on ammunition before it became illegal.
Control freaks in the media, like Mr. Kristof, must share the blame for the spread of guns along with their political handlers in the Democrat Party. More guns were purchased during Obama's presidency than any 8-year period ever, while the NYT cheered the control freaks on. We are not fooled. Gun-control by government is itself violent.
Any rational person knows the problem of school shootings is merely emblematic of the real problem, which is violence. We are violent people. Our government is violent. The rule of law is violent. Americans who themselves may not be violent nevertheless condone violence by their government agents with every turn of the Congressional Record.
Nicholas, I'll give up my guns if you give up your dependence on government violence. Until the next school shooting, own your role in it.l
5
@Ned Netterville
Even the most minor government regulation is ultimately dependent violence by government employees for it enforcement.
The victims of government violence when government have a monopoly on armed force dwarfs the death toll of civilian violence by several factors.
Get rid of the 2nd Amendment. or put it to a vote.
4
There are provisions for doing that in the U.S. Constitution.
4
Ahh. The healing mantra said by people who just want to feel better after these events. You hear it after every school shooting, church shooting, etc. It's a great placebo perhaps, but it is worthless medicine. Anti-gun advocates need to do the hard work to effect change. Elections, law suits, protests. prison, etc. Holding a remote in your hand and waving it while reciting this cantrip is as effective as holding your...........
We need to make the NRA sympathizers in Congress be afraid of the parents-whose-kids-were-shot-at-school lobby.
4
Nah....ain't gonna happen.
Have A Nice Day.
This country is sick. The best and brightest of our young sacrifice their lives for their friends and the NRA, while trump’s golfing buddy is awarded the Medal of Freedom.
3
This is another great triumph for the National Rifle Association. Their logo should be stenciled onto each gravestone.
3
too many thoughts and prayers. too many dead kids. too many cowards in public office. TOO MANY GUNS.
10
I suggest we ban as many guns as possible. Too much killing. Today road rage shootings are common (the Charleston area had one fatal road rage killing the other day). Today if you accidentally cut someone off you are likely to get a shot going your way rather than the old "middle finger salute" of yesteryear.
Here in South Carolina I talk to ordinary people who carry guns in cars all the time, hunters who have no idea that they are shooting right near homes or people walking in the streets of Charleston packing guns. It has got to stop.
4
Where is our Jacinda, we need her.
6
No one blamed the rifle that killed Pres. Kennedy;
No one blamed the weapon that killed Robert Kennedy;
No one blamed the vehicle that killed Ted Kennedy's passenger;
No one blames vehicles that kill while being driven by drunk drivers;
Yet, somehow, people blame guns.
Now, the Militia Act of 1903 REQUIRES all able-bodied males, 17-45 to be in the unorganized militia, yet 17-year old males can't purchase a rifle or gun!
____
"The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime"..."No state shall convert a liberty into a privilege, license it, and attach a fee to it". Miller v. U.S., U.S. Supreme Court. 319 U.S. 105 (1943).
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/319/105/
3
Nothing is going to happen about guns. Nothing. We are Americans, and being American means we believe that for any problem, you can buy a solution. Feeling depressed about your lousy job? Buy a pill. Feeling unimportant? Buy designer clothes, makeup, etc. And if you're anxious about the way the world is changing and your place in it, buy a gun. Instantly you feel powerful and manly.
We're not going to give that feeling up. Not in a world where Fox News and Donald Trump continually tell us that hordes of criminal dark-skinned foreigners are pouring over our boarders abetted by "cultural marxists" and man-hating feminists. We willingly sacrifice children to have the "right" to purchase weapons designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
The ancients sacrificed children to their stone gods. We sacrifice them to our cowboy myths and consumerist fetishes. We are a debauched and decadent people. Mene mene tekel upharsin.
Amen. Thank you.
guns are a plague of death
7
@true patriot
Guns in the hands of socialist governments have been the greatest plague of death in history.
As if the gun lovers of America cared about dead children.
9
It is outrageous that American young people, children, are getting the message that THEY are the only ones protecting each other! That a young person should even be faced with the choice of almost certain death tackling an attacker or probable death because the attacker could so easily get hold of a killing machine like an AK-15 because so-called adults want their "freedom," is so obscene there are no words. What a shameful, shameful country the US is proving to be and yes, I'm lumping everyone together. You should all be striking, out in the streets protesting, refusing to pay your taxes. Instead, a bunch of idiots are prancing around at the Met Gala looking ridiculous. Imagine if they'd turned that into a statement about gun laws or the constitutional crisis?
3
We have this huge Military to fight Middle Eastern Terrorism but our gun toting Citizens are the greatest threat we all face. The amount of Americans shot dead by their fellow Americans is horrifying. The Terrorists are living amongst us. They are us.
6
Decide, people. Decide what you want. Is your fetish for guns more important than children? Decide once and for all.
5
On guns, ,,,When all is said and done, a great deal is said, and virtually nothing is done.
That is your legacy, shame, and reality, matched nowhere else in the civilized world.
6
Politicians don’t worry about being a victim of a shooting rampage. They don’t go to movies. They don’t go to outdoor concerts in Las Vegas. They and their children do not go to a public high school. They don’t work in a space where a disgruntled employee can bring a gun and kill his supervisor.
Me first!! All the politicians who’re ever be support the Second Amendment have this mindset. Sasha Obama’s elite school won’t have a shooting. Malia Obama has a bevy of security that goes everywhere she goes at Harvard. No danger there. Nancy Pelosi makes sure her young family members go to elite schools. No danger there. When is the last Trump or Schumer when to a movie? Ted Cruz? Chelsea Clinton’s kids? All safe.
All the pols know it won’t happen to their family. Will there ever be a school shooting in Chappaqua, NY or Poughkeepsie, NY or where Barron Trump goes to school? Never.
Let's make it as easy to get a gun as it is to buy dynamite.
2
America is now relying on its children to attack shooters bc our leaders won't. Shame on all of us!
6
Issue bullet proof vests to kids at schools. Lock classroom doors once class begins.
1
As a legal, law abiding gun owner, I say no way. And further, learn what you are talking about. It's not hard. I'm sick of tutoring east coast liberals and their at-any-cost lies.
3
OK, Nick.
You take the initiative.
Start at W 220th St and work your way south, knocking on every apartment door and explaining that the residents should surrender their guns so they can't protect themselves any more.
Let us all know how that goes for you.
2
Or maybe it’s time to stand up to disaffected young men who apparently have no moral compass.
4
Yes, ownership of guns need to be restricted. A hundred years from now, people will marvel at our ineptitude and stupidity at solving this problem of guns.
Is it still "premature" to discuss gun control legislation?
We wouldn't want to politicize another child dying, would we?
What. Is. Wrong. With. Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans? !!!!!!!!!!!
1
@Martin
"Is it still "premature" to discuss gun control legislation?"
Start with Article 5 of the Constitution.
2 heros.... when does it end? who will end the NRA's and Deplorables' assault on decency and common sense?
1
Maybe we are approaching this all wrong. I think if we were all a little less emotional and thinking clearly, then we would come to realize the true solution would be to ban children. Maybe the NRA can be the “No Rugrat Association”.
Maybe we should tell parents on the first day of school that if their child takes a gun from home and kills people with it, the parents will be held responsible for murder,
1
Once again we suffer the tyranny of the minority - a tiny percentage of gun nut citizens own most of the guns in this country, and control our gun laws completely. It appears the NRA is imploding, and that should help a bit. But until the republican party is completely dismantled, major progress cannot happen. Vote in 2020.
3
It had been time...
Don’t expect change. We all expect the republicans to do nothing (the party of double chins), the true crime is watching the democrats do nothing.
You would at least think both side could agree we have a mental health crisis on our hands when shootings by young people become so common, but again nothing.
How bad does it have to get?
Our political system is broken, we cannot solve basic problems.
Its time to stop electing into office the same old fools.
Jacinda Ardern, America needs you. Could you make time to give the White House an urgent call? They are in dire need of guidance regarding gun control; it seems that the Republicans for the life of them can't figure this one out. Republicans, here are your instructions: Sit down. Close your mouths. Block out your mind chatter that is already wondering what's in this for you. It's not about you. Turn on the speaker phone loud and clear. Open your ears and listen to what Jacinda has to say. Do not under any circumstance interrupt or talk while she is speaking; you are here to learn. Then do it.
In effect, do your job and protect your citizens. Like Jacinda did.
1
A sickening loss of a precious life, lived according to the idea that school and friends are the places and people who love us.
Children in preschool learn how to resolve conflict in their lives by asking for help immediately. And if they do not find it the first try, they go on until they do. Children are not disposable items we purchase and use. They are gifts from a benevolent Creator who took on death to show love is stronger than hate. When will our lily livered Republicans start listening and acting to make swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.....?????
1
Confiscate and destroy all guns.
3
I agree with some of these suggestions. A "safely secure" law makes a whole lot of sense. I take a more macro approach though. Untracked interstate gun commerce is our biggest problem. Untracked gun commerce in general really. Let's start with the first issue though.
I got my first BB gun when I was about eight or nine years old. The problem of course is I lived in New Jersey at the time and BB guns are legally considered firearms. You need a licence, permit, age limits, and so on. My BB gun was purchased in Pennsylvania as a birthday gift while a family friend was passing through on some trip. Over the counter. No questions asked.
My second BB gun came from a relative in Virginia as a high school graduation present. Strange, right? I didn't ask anyone for a gun and I was still a minor at the time anyway. The relative saw it in a hardware store while running errands. Thought I might like it. The BB gun looked exactly like a 9mm pistol. The box arrived courtesy of USPS. No questions asked.
So I have to ask: What good are state gun laws when guns are flowing freely between states without any oversight? Our gun control law is only as effective as the least controlling state. If were going to honor state gun laws, we need a way to hold buyers and sellers accountable when those guns travel out of state. Otherwise, state sovereignty doesn't mean a thing. That's my perspective anyway.
"Kids, you're now the front lines."
"Man them well."
"Remember to tell mom and dad to stay current on NRA dues."
"Guns, don't kill people. People kill people."
"And they just might kill you. In school. In class. In the hallway. In the cafeteria. At recess. Anywhere."
"Be heroic. We're counting on you. You'll be remembered."
2
We have corrupt political / policy makers (these people are not "leaders") like trump and his Republican zombies in positions of great responsibility to America and our children. They are abject failures and they obviously do not care about our children. Their hypocrisy is stunning. They want to put you in jail if you touch your child while s/he's in mom's belly. Immediately upon exiting the cozy womb, they could care less - you're on your own for the rest of your life. Guns, the gun industry and the NRA are far more important than Kendrick and Riley. Do you really want to vote for these people who call themselves "political leaders?
Apparently, Kristof wants Dems to LOSE the next election as well.
1
I'm just wondering why men are always the heros in these situations? Why dont women ever throw themselves at the shooter to save other people?
Yes, by all means, all you 2020 candidates who think that making your base even happier is the secret to winning the Iron Throne, please, please commit political suicide by taking an anti-gun stance now. You tell 'em Nicky. Sounds like four more years of Trump to me. #2A
It was time to do something after Sandy Hook. What kind of a society continues to let people shoot up schools!!! Our government is a disaster, our president included. No excuse.
Trump: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
Was he right?
Be 20/20 in 2020.
Vote your conscience.
1
Kristof's avoids WHY politicians fear the NRA--that money 'calls the shots' for US lawmakers. Do columnists fear looking too anti corporate if they spotlight this destructive cause/effect?
After each recurring massacre we see the same avoidance of the truth: The NRA wouldn’t be able to set norms and distort the 2nd Amendment if politicians didn’t need their money.
Citizens are safer in nations with strong gun laws -- they don’t turn their elections over to corporations for funding. Our media avoids this contrast.
Collusion? What about NRA/politician collusion? As the bodies pile up regularly.
Richard Painter, Bush ethics lawyer, vividly criticized the NRA/GOP in a NYT op ed:
“Republican politicians must free themselves from the N.R.A. PROTECTION RACKET and others like it.
"The NRA message is clear: 'We will help you get elected and protect your seat from Democrats, and spend millions on ads to make your opponent look worse than the average holdup man robbing a liquor store.
In return, we expect you to oppose any laws that regulate guns---handgun registration, background checks, limiting the right to carry concealed weapons, limiting access to semiautomatic weapons or anything else that would diminish the firepower available to anybody who wants it.
And if you don’t comply, we will load our weapons and direct everything in our arsenal at you in the next Republican primary.”
The 'Upshot'? Gun profiteers regulate US govt & media, not the other way around.
1
Please let me know when that happens.
No We Can't. T&P forever...
People love their guns more than they love their children.
2
Brave students. Cowardly politicians
3
oh, now's the time?
As our Republican friends say, much to early to talk about this. Trying to politicize a tragedy is unbecoming. Where do you think you are, New Zealand?
1
Per the headline= it was time long before now.
The gun lobby are craven cowards, pure and simple. They want guns because they are afraid of anybody who doesn't look like them. They want guns because they are afraid of the government. Their bought and paid for legislators won't regulate guns because they are afraid of losing their jobs. Pathetic, craven cowards - every last one of them.
2
reading the blather in this thread, it is clear that the left wing will not admit the true cause of this carnage...it's not the "guns" or legal gun owners, it's the cheapening of human life, starting with the ability to kill the unborn, the wonton killing, death and destruction of the common mass consumed media (game of thrones anyone?), video games, music, etc....the proof in the pudding is when I graduated from santa fe high school (yes, THAT santa fe high school) in 1979, there were a lot of pickups with gun racks that held a lot of guns...never a school shooting because no one would've ever thought of such a thing...we had respect for each other, respect for the teachers and were taught to treat others with respect and life was not cheapened as it is today...liberal schemes to confiscate firearms (schumer, pulosi, Clinton, et al) will only lead to civil was and all of the horror and blood that entails...think about this...if you leftists get you dream of confiscation, and 99% complied, that would to an armed standing army of 750,000 to a million previously law abiding citizen who now have nothing to lose...
Your 2nd Amendment is a sad joke. When will you learn? I thought Sandy Hook would have been the breaking point.
154
It reflects the spirit of individual liberty being fundamental to the social contract as envisioned by the enlightenment. People agree to affiliate or not with law determining the rules of conduct of that arrangement. It differs from the rights of Englishmen which the ruling class in England jealously limited by having all subject to a constitutional monarchy.
3
@Anti Dentite
So did I. And it was in CT, where comprehensive gun laws were passed along with improved mental health laws. But the rest of the nation, especially in certain states, cling to the theories that a "good guy with a gun is the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun" and the "bad guys will always get guns." They use both as excuses to do nothing, while loudly proclaiming that "nobody will take my guns." Perfection is the enemy of good.
13
The Second Amendment did not produce mass murder. Neither have guns. This gun debate is off track.
The issue is establishing policies and practices that address mass murderers in the most effective ways feasible. Guns are one kind of weapon. There are many others that are as lethal and can be used to kill a lot of people in close quarters. That does not mean that we ought not to regulate guns and who has them, we should.
But the debate has degenerated into personal affronts against those with who people disagree instead of solving the problem. It is now a matter of whose will will be imposed upon everyone.
2
And just yesterday Trump laughs when an audience member at a rally shouts "shoot them" in response to the issue of migrants seeking asylum in the US.
"Only in the Panhandle," Trump, our president, says laughingly as obvious praise for the tough guy character of his Florida audience.
3
I agree completely, but NOTHING will be done. Just like nothing has been done for decades. Anti-gun control politicians get elected, children in their districts are murdered, and they get re-elected. Children at school will continue to die while in school. Why do you think this will change?
When I was 12 I had a BB gun. I shot and killed a squirrel. I was sickened and heartbroken. I cried. And I knew I could never take back that horrible act. For me, the 12 year old, it was abject carnage. I've never wanted or had any sort of gun since then. That people can aim these deadly instruments at one another and purposely pull the trigger to wound or kill is unthinkable. But people do it, over and over again. They believe these instruments of death make them more powerful. A tool for the insecure to prop up their egos...no matter the target.
3
The constitution does allow for the reasonable regulation of and the actual banning of certain weapons, to include some semi-automatic firearms (yes, the semi-automatic AR15). The Heller decision as explained by SCJ Scalia affirmed such regulations.
1 - ban the private possession of all semi-automatic long guns.
2 - include background checks for not just sales of firearms but any and all transfers of firearms. You know, uncle Leo giving his guns to nephew Willy.
Mindless selfishness and the exhaustive male ego will make all of this problematic.
1
The willful misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by the National Rifle Association has been fed to its members seemingly since its creation. The abdication of responsibility against that lie has been supported for far too long by career politicians corrupted by cash, cowardice--in heartbreaking contrast to the two young men Mr. Kristof has written about and thousands before them--and the dread of losing their undeserved positions in Washington. Imagine a former representative or senator in an actual job, possibly as a teacher or professor, and having to face not a lobbyist but a deeply disturbed individual with a gun.
1
Eighteen-year-olds in the Army may have to hurl themselves in front of bullets to save their friends on a battlefield -- but it's an abomination that an eighteen-year-old should have to do that in a high school classroom.
1
Part of the solution to gun violence in our country has to be a change of the language used to address the problem. The NRA has to be rebranded as the MML, the Mass Murder Lobby. The pols who kowtow to the MML have to be known as the MMC, the mass murder caucus. Shame and vitriol have to be heaped on the accomplices to all this bloodshed to the point where decent people and voters will have nothing to do with them.
As long as NRA pours millions to support candidates who are against any gun control; as long as getting elected to Federal and State offices depends on candidates who have no backbone to stand against gun violence; as long as perpetrators of mass murders are treated with legal kid gloves, instead of being hanged in public, as soon as they are proven guilty, mass murders with guns, especially assault weapons like AK 15s, the US will remain the most violent country in the world, among all developed countries , by an order of magnitude!
So did Trump send his thoughts and prayers yet?
And watch the NRA use this horrific tragedy as another marketing opportunity...perhaps to introduce comic-themed assault rifles
for middle school kids to defend themselves in the classroom.
Ain't America Great Again?
Since many readers want to register guns and only allow muskets for the 2nd amendment , how about manual printing presses and quill pens for the 1st amendment and registration of journalists
2
This morning an NPR report on "bible-thumping" Tennessee and guns lawfully purchased for protection being left in unlocked cars, now being stolen out of these cars and used to kill. Tennessee can't seem to figure out what to do... Oh well, I guess more children will sacrifice their lives because why, this country cannot seem to decide what is more important. I hope that the children being born and raised in this insane time of our history will forgive us for our selfishness and complete lack of empathy for the lives they might lead. However, a proposal to gun enthusiasts and the NRA, why don't you put up outlines of children for target practice. I think its about time that we as Americans admit what we are.....cowards.
1
And I just heard a report on NPR this morning about the shameful gun laws in Tennessee where people can get a handgun with no permit, no background check and a few hours training on a computer. Then they keep the guns in their cars and those guns then get stolen and used by kids. Shameful.
is this the 5,987th time a journalist has called for "something" to be done about guns? or the 7,475th time?
A nation that did nothing in the face of the Sandy Hook massacre is paralysed and condemned to watch every week more and more children being killed.
America the great, America the beautiful stained blood and unable to act.
My daughter plays on the Jessica Rekos play set at a Fairfield beach - she was one of the Sandy Hook victims and on a piece of signage, there is a photograph of her that looks out over the beach
One day I'll be asked why that girl is in that picture
Oddly enough, she'll probably understand because they would already be doing active shooter drills at school
Signs of the times?
50
@Rick "Sign of the times"? Unconscionably, only in America.
5
@Rick I am so sorry for your loss.
4
@JRB
Apologies, let me elaborate - Jessica Rekos, a Sandy Hook victim, is the girl pictured on the sign at this play set
There are a number of these around Fairfield county in remembrance of each of the victims.
It is a most sombre reminder
9
Mr. Kristof has one extra word in the under heading causing a loss of focus. We can honor the heroism of two individuals by taking on violence. The real issue is human behavior, not the weapon of choice.
Whether we flay by words or physical force, the real issue is the lawlessness and lack of civility in society across the board via all means available. Guns are but a symptom, not causation.
Look within to solve the issue not to an inanimate object which is unable to pull its own trigger.
20
@Grant This is the parroting of an illogical NRA talking point.
Obviously human behavior is a problem in any act of violence. But diminishing the violent outcome of that behavior by making guns inaccessible is a proven strategy all over the world.
Focusing on causes of violent tendencies is important, but it is incredibly naive to say that guns are not part of the problem. It's pretty simple: without guns, mass shootings don't happen, and thousands more children would still be alive.
44
@Mackuary
I am old now, grew up with hunting. Guns were
tools, and not for sport. We honored the animals.
There were no common slaughters going on in those days; kids were safe. But we had gun regulations, could not have sawed off shotguns or any automatic weapons. Semiauto haas not replaced revolvers or
lever action and bolt action guns, AND, we did not have the violent gun culture and NRA induced paranoias that we have today. The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind: A civilized nation regulates weaponry, strictly,
and business not not promote hero-shooters
as a matter of gun sales. Your argument is old and very dangerous to kids....and others who
probably don't look or worship the way NRA
membership does.
27
@Grant ok, but let's deal with the symptoms first, and take away the guns.
11
We've had enough of "bad guys with guns" killing heroic young "good guys without guns." We need to take the guns from the bad guys, and we need to save the lives of such wonderful young men and others. The Republican Party led by Donald Trump has been outspoken in its support of gun manufacturers and allowing bad guys to get guns. We must finally say "No!" We must end the mayhem and the nearly daily massacres in our schools and places of worship. We must vote out the Republicans (and even the few Democrats) who have blood on their hands. In November, 2020 when we vote we must remember Columbine, remember Newtown, remember Parkland, and remember the two heroic young men--Riley Howell and Kendrick Castillo, who gave their lives to save others. It's time for deeds not words; it's time to vote #NeverAgain against the political gun enablers who are massacring our loved ones and be heroic ourselves in saving the lives of others.
239
Yes...
We must continue to call for meaningful change to gun laws and other aspects of our culture that glorifies violence as the way to resolve conflict or overcome bullies be they in high school or anywhere else. Laws are meant to make people think twice before committing a crime. Yes... make it much harder for anybody to legally purchase a weapon but also encourage teachers, administrators, doctors, police and particularly, parents ...to do more to prevent anyone from becoming so isolated that they feel their only option is to physically lash out and hurt innocent people in such a terrible way. Vote for gun control and positive initiatives to curb violence as a means to resolve conflict.
9
@Paul Wortman
What's especially funny is that those same people calling for better access to better mental healthcare are the same ones who want to gut the ACA requirement that health insurance policies cover this care.
10
@Paul Wortman Are you serious? They are all "good guys with a gun" until they aren't. I'm tired of this ridiculous argument.
4
I've experienced anti-semitism as a child, but I didn't have to be afraid that someone with a gun with 10 or more rounds of ammunition would show up. I did not have to worry about someone using a hand gun. Now I am afraid this will happen. The 1950"s were not a perfect time, but we did not have a president spouting hate and action to that hate. We did not have automatic weapons in the hands of anyone who could buy it. There was no gun culture of paranoid men believing the government would be at their door. No slippery slope. There were plenty of people with mental health issues, but it was rare to hear that they went on a rampage at some school, place of worship or employment. My father was a hunter so I am not opposed to all guns. I believe there are many answers to this situation, but the status quo is not one of them.
1
We actually enjoy less violence today overall. It is ironic that in human history we live in the safest of times from the risk of violence but fear it far more than those who lived with much more of it. The expressions of intolerance are more shocking and seen as more unjust than they were a century ago. Let’s not let people like Trump bring out our wrath so easily. This nasty talk seems to result in more nasty behavior but we still are living in a safer world.
At this point, support for automatic weapons and hand gun sales, or even opposition to some kind of common sense gun legislation, is support for the murder of children. That's what those weapons are used for. We regulate every other salable thing in our marketplace, from small plastic choking hazards to hot coffee to cars, but we cannot stop people from buying guns and killing themselves and others. It is a national madness, fueled by greed and fear, that we cannot prevent the seemingly daily school/mass shootings.
2
Am I wrong or have I not heard a word from our terrible leader about all these heartbreaking tragedies? Right now I believe all he is focusing on is delaying his trip to jail where he rightfully belongs. I am so ashamed to live in a country where guns rule...and the lives of our young people are cut short. Is there no one in D.C. brave enough to stand up to the N.R.A. and our gun culture? How sad we are.
3
This makes me sick - young people should never be put in this position. In addition to effective gun control, we might also consider the overall health of the school environment as a possible contributing factor. While this school has around 1,800 students, Marjory Stoneman Douglas has 3,200 students - there is research that suggests higher levels of violence in large schools, and that the ideal size is 400-800. Also, the CDC and AMA have recommended pushing back school starting times to allow students to get enough sleep, in recognition of the natural rhythms of adolescents. Gun control, yes, but let's also consider the health of the schools themselves.
1
These kids are heroes and ironically serve as role models for others. But in the big picture we need to recognize that the propaganda shooters adopt to justify their anger is at the heart of the matter. It appears Facebook, et all have recently taken some positive action but the shoot em up/conspiracy mentality of Hollywood is appalling and getting worse by the year. All in the name of making a buck and free speech.
As Mr. Kristof rightly points out, there are already far too many guns in circulation. But there are also too many movies, podcasts, etc. that glorify the abuse of guns and other forms of violent behavior. Seems were stuck with both the 1st and 2nd Amendments and will have to live with the consequences I'm afraid.
1
A little over six years ago, twenty elementary school children died thanks to a madman with guns that no civilian should have access to. America did nothing except think about arming teachers. Anyone who thinks heroic teenagers will make a difference to the current batch of elected gun lobby shills is deluded. The heroic teenagers' friends need to become single issue voters, turf every Republican they can find from elected office, and end the outsize influence of the fear-peddling ghouls at the NRA once and for all. That would be a start. Then perhaps it would be possible to have a conversation about American mythmaking. But this is a problem 250 years in the making; it's going to take a while to sort out.
1
PR: Thank goodness that Canadians and foreigners who want to impose their gun restrictions on Americans cannot vote here.
Actual effects of our modern interpretation of the 2nd Amendment:
Dead Americans
Kids go off to school, to religious worship, concerts, movies, all the while planning for emergency escape, or confrontation with an active shooter.
I have been a teacher in Newtown, CT for nearly 20 years. It is a beautiful, quiet town made up of wonderful citizens, 20 of whom would be moving on to middle school this fall if only their rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness had been adequately valued.
3
Much as I strongly believe in strict gun control, I am convinced that it is not the only answer to this tragic problem. Mass killings are not caused by guns per se, but by our failure to adequately recognize and address mental health issues in the people who carry out these attacks. The killers might just as easily have used kitchen knives or homemade bombs or even vehicles, as many terrorists have discovered. Guns may make killing more efficient, but their absence will not prevent mass murders. I very much fear that too much focus on gun control without an equally strong focus on mental health will only result in more deaths.
1
@janeqpublicnyc: It isn’t an either/or question. We need both strong gun safety measures and effective, widely available mental health treatment. There is no reason that our wealthy society cannot offer the latter in conjunction with the former; New Zealand has shown recently what a country committed to taking serious steps to stop hun bloodshed can do. Unfortunately, the U.S. lacks the will and the moral leadership to offer either. This country is pathetic.
1
@janeqpublicnyc: The denial of the direct effect of guns on mental health is the most dishonest aspect of this farce. They are a physical manifestation of the projectile human brain.
@Olenska: “gun” (typo) bloodshed
I am a gun owner and have been since I was a kid. I grew up hunting upland birds and still do to this day even though I am in my mid 70s. That said, I favor most of the gun reform measures put forth in my state of Washington.
No one can tell me they need an AR-15 for hunting. If you need a 30 round clip to bring down an animal, you don't need an assault weapon, you need more time at the range.
The NRA doesn't represent gun owners, they represent gun makers. Their fear driven agenda alleging gun confiscation leads to more sales. More gun sales leads to more funding for the organization which in turn funds their Republican enablers.
Kids dying so Republican legislators won't get lit up by the NRA
is despicable. How do they wash off the blood?
5
I doubt I have much heroism left in me. If ever. Maybe the idea of trying to escape in these incidences is becoming implausible. Why not fight back?
Once again, I'm suggesting putting a tax stamp on weapons that use detachable magazines (except for rimfire's). They use a Tax stamp on automatic weapons and Short Barrel Rifles (SBR's). This would allow for a thorough back ground check and registration with cost put on the purchase. The tax stamp discourages purchases. Proof there aren't many auto's and SBR's around. At least they don't turn up at crime scenes.
1
Thank you Nick for continuing to bang this drum. It seems there has been some progress lately but not enough and not fast enough. An issue I don't understand in this debate is the supposedly insurmountable amount of money the NRA uses to wed legislators to its cause. This amount was nearly 1/2 billion in 2016. Undoubtably this is a lot of money - but it hardly seems insurmountable - it's not Amazon-size wealth. Why has no one managed to create a PAC that just says 'you take a dollar from the NRA we give your opponent $5'. If that gives half of the people who would take NRA contributions pause, then that means we need to raise a couple billion dollars or less. Totally impossible? I don't think so. There are so many people who care deeply about this topic. Buy down NRA influence in congress and see if reason can prevail.
1
No, it is long past time to stand up to guns. How many tragedies are necessary to make the point, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Chicago's South Side, Las Vegas, ad nauseum? Each time we hand wring and vow to do something, but little happens. We do not need more examples of guns run amok to make the point. Legislators must propose bills that are both effective and pass 2nd Amendment legal muster and then enforce that legislation.
We, as Americans have lost our ability to say no. No to the NRA, No to politicians that don't listen to us, No to guns. We are an armed camp now with no real reason to have guns except to have them. We should take a lesson from our children and be brave to stand up to guns and those who want them. Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Orlando, Columbine, Parkland, our children died and we did nothing. Kendrick, Riley and their friends showed us the way are we as brave as they are and follow them? I know that Congressman and Senators aren't they should be ashamed, and so should we.
1
You have no good reason to have guns. I think that you should do as you think right. But why do you think that nobody has any good reason to keep and use guns? I think anyone who uses anything that can harm has the obligation to make sure that nobody is harmed with them. If they don’t, they should not have them, and there should be a way to interfere with their using things in a dangerous manner. But if anyone keeps save and hurts nobody, I can tolerate that.
1
There are good things and there are bad things guns are a bad thing. Use to own an operate one not any longer. Aggression breeds aggression, violence creates more violence. Having and owning a gun creates a whole different mind set and the state of the this nation's mental heath is not a healthy one. These two things combined create a toxic social environment that has been corrupted into thinking this is just all part of the norm.
1
I give more information to purchase Sudafed than some people are asked to purchase guns and ammo
And if I am really congested and forget my medication at home, I cannot but more for weeks as there is a limit on how much I can purchase
But you can get all the opioids and ammo you want, and no one is tracking any of it.
4
When one reads of calls for federal national gun restrictions to curb school violence at the local level, in a country with a 2nd Amendment right protection against just such an infringement of that individual right, one realizes why the shootings continue. Local communities need to take action to secure the diverse security needs of their schools.
A national one-size-fits all school district gun security approach, like the sweeping federal gun restriction such as Senators Cory Booker or Kamala Harris propose, is not only unconstitutional but it also will not provide security against shooters like the STEM school ones. Local communities that protect their members need to protect themselves, not be uniformly disarmed for uniformed security to respond to their security needs. Our federal government has restricted powers, not unrestricted rights reserved for lawful citizens.
@Bayou Houma - "When one reads of calls for federal national gun restrictions to curb school violence... one realizes why the shootings continue."
The shootings are in retaliation? Justifiable in the face of such calls? The shootings are vindictive reactions against such calls?
Call for controls and the shootings will continue until you people learn to accept that you can be shot anytime by angry people who are lawful citizens right up until they aren't. And even then it seem some are willing to rationalize their behavior as a consequence of trying to save lives.
1
People move about but they tend to keep acting as they have. A dangerous person in one state remains a dangerous person in other states. Without federal laws and institutions local jurisdictions just cannot do their jobs.
The political problem is that a big chunk of Democratic voters want to eliminate guns because they just have no use for them and cannot imagine why anyone would want such dangerous instruments where they live. The candidates must assure them that they support reducing all those guns in private hands, somehow. It’s perceptions they are chasing rather than policies based upon any factual basis.
@Marie
Personal freedom is not without personal liability for irresponsibility under the laws of any just democratic government such as ours. No one has the right to commit a crime with a gun. But no just government deprives the right of a person’s legitimate self-defense with a firearm — an argument the founders of this country made to justify its creation. The more individual Americans take responsibility for protecting their lives and freedom, the less need they will have for local government security to respond to occasions always after they either lose their lives or lose their property.
The Chávez government banned Venezuelan private gun ownership in 2012 but overall crime rate has kept increasing since.
2
Guns are out of control in this county because a few have taken Americans hostage with fear. NRA supporters form only 5% of the population and yet we have a country full of guns. The republican politicians are corrupt, they are supporting NRA because of the money. All people who have kids in schools, the next kid who will be in the line of fire, could be your kid. Make your choice, either you stand up now whilst your kid is still alive or god forbid, you will have to stand up later, when he isn't around anymore.
Guns are possessed in great numbers by nobody knows who. That is why we cannot tell who and how many people who are at risk of harming others have them. Numbers magnify the effects of very small risks into significant great outcomes.
But the panic is unjustified. It turns concern into recalcitrant attitudes that prevent the agreement about solving the problem. The current public discussion is just an emotional conflict that is unresolvable.
We need to look at the facts and work through this together. Reducing the number of guns is not a solution that can be done simply nor in any fair manner that respects the real danger posed by those guns in terms of their likelihood of being used to harm others. It will require huge efforts, suspension of all rights, and years of diligent efforts in searching through millions of home to accomplish by just eliminating according to numbers alone.
Other means to address the problem are feasible but require mutual trust and compromises. Forget the idea of restricting guns held by great numbers of people legally and safely for decades. That’s not reasonable. Register all guns, license all users, remove guns from access to those at high risk of harming themselves or others. The Second Amendment need not prevent these measures if they are implemented with care.
The NRA IS CORRUPTED BY MONEY and threatens politicians with ratings supporting the spread of guns across the country causing the highest gun deaths in the world . Blood is on their hands as we see how corrupt they are looking to Russia for funds as they squander members dues on $800,00 for suits for their cranky old leader to wear in the Bahamas on a junket.
1
People buy guns, nothing forces them to do so. The NRA does obstruct efforts to restrict or eliminate those purchases by legal efforts. When the NRA is accused of spreading guns or promoting gun violence it’s hyperbole based upon a perception of the consequences of their action, an expression of opinion not a description of the reality. They are opposing laws not turning people into gun toting maniacs to increase gun sales.
The Times would do well if it actually learned how a "assault weapon" works. Since so many are against them shouldn't know what exactly it is you wish to ban? IF you are just against something having zero real life experience in at least handling a gun you simply don't know what you are asking which has always and will always defeat your purpose.
3
Safe storage, voluntary buybacks, smart guns and red-flag laws are utterly ridiculous. Nicholas Kristof should either face the fact that all guns should be banned from private ownership or stop writing about them.
Sadly, I gave up all hope after Sandy Hook. If nothing happens when little children get butchered then there is something seriously wrong with our society and you can only despair.
1
If the public really cared about this something would get done. Since nothing is getting done it means the public doesn't care, NYT columns and comments notwithstanding.
3
The photo accompanying this op-ed speaks volumes. We live in a sick, paranoid, and heavily armed society bent upon self-immolation.
C'mon, Nick, you are stopping short. Demand the election of Democrats who will promise to repeal the Second Amendment, and then outlaw all firearms.
I'm sorry but the NRA/GOP couldn't care less about the slaughter of children, and they have proven it a thousand times over.
As far as I'm concerned the blood of these innocents is on the hands of ever NRA member, GOP member, and everyone that votes for and supports them.
Well, something has to happen because prayers are not enough - or God favors the NRA and listens to their prayers over those of grieving parents.
Here is what you New York liberals don't understand. Blasting watermelons with my assault rifle and killing small animals with my hunting rifle are my sacred God-given hobbies. And having a handgun is vitally important to my ego and self-image as a tough guy. (It also is a not-so-subtle reminder to my wife who wears the pants in our house.))) And thanks to a relentless propaganda campaign by the NRA, with the complicity of spineless politicians, even many of you believe the Constitution prohibits even modest restrictions on my ability to own as many lethal weapons as I want, including some limited to military use in almost all countries. And there is virtually nothing you can do to change this situation, no matter how many school children and others have to die, senselessly. We control Congress, not you.
So... so what. Another call for action following another shooting in our schools. Here’s a prayer. Done. Next.
They are children. They are victims. And every voting adult in the United States who does not support gun regulation has their finger on the trigger and blood on their hands.
2
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."
General G.S. Patton
1
It is long PAST time to tackle gun control and the NRA lobby. How many more heroes, children!!!, must give up their lives to save other children while us adults stand by and offer too little, too late? And all for an amendment that has been mangled out of recognition of the founders and writers of the Constitution?
Please!
Vote with your conscience, not with political $$ in mind.
1
Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell showed more courage in their classrooms than the Republicans in the House and the Senate have shown regarding sensible gun regulation. They stand before the children of the US as cowards, afraid of the NRA.
1
2 kids. Dead. Threw themselves in front of other kids and took the bullets. Because the adults wouldn't take the guns.
2
Its disgusting that this is where we are, and it’s not by accident. There has been enough training for this generation to face a shooting that Riley and Castillo has likely already thought how they might act in such a situation. Their heroism is commendable, but we needed upstanding young men like this, their families needed them - instead they were sacrificed for a country that has failed them. For cowardly politicians who place money over human life, even on a scale like this. To a propagandistic lobby that deals in distortions to stay in power rather than recognize the damage they are doing. Their blood is on the hands of the NRA and their A rated lackeys. Must young people who haven’t even graduated high school and college be so brave, and sacrifice literally everything, so that the NRA and its politicians can be so cowardly and not give an inch on our gun laws? NRA: shame on you.
1
Fifty-nine dead and 800+ injured in Las Vegas. We did nothing then and we'll do nothing now because nobody cares.
I will never understand the hypocrisy of people who claim they are pro life, and oppose abortion because every life, especially unborn children, is important. Why were these children’s lives not important enough to ban the guns that killed them?
1
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."
General G.S. Patton
1
They're modern day martyrs, not just heroes.
America's unique sickness is The Second Amendment. Delete it.
An additional factor is the attitude that 'hunting' is reasonable. Killing for fun isn't reasonable.
1
The selfish parent is alive and well inside me - I informed my children yesterday that, in the growing inevitability of their being in a shooting scenario, I did not want them to be the hero. I wanted them to stay alive. After raising them to be generous, altruistic and giving young men they were understandably shocked by my ferocious cowardice.
What have we come to when our children are to be relied on to defend each other against shooters? What have we come to when we would rather debate the words used to describe guns rather than recognize that an entire generation has been raised in fear in the schools and universities that are meant to be the safe spaces for their minds to bloom? This is sick and shameful.
1
Mass shootings on the rise.
Suicides on the rise.
Drug and alcohol abuse on the rise.
Living on the edge hand to mouth on the rise.
Income inequality on the rise.
Any correlation?
1
Anyone who has a gun or encourages gun ownership in any way shape or form should feel personally responsible for every one of these murders.
NRA:
Not Responsible Americans
Now Russian Assets
Negligent Reprehensible Accomplices
Non-Reading Attendees
No Relevance Again
They are seditious, gun-lobby, shills and should be treated accordingly.
Why they have "civil rights organization" protections is beyond me.
1
until a child of a member of Congress is slaughter in a mass shooting, nothing will be done. If this happens, I wonder if “thoughts and prayers” will comfort them.
Stop using the word “hero”. This is not a war. This is not normal! There nothing heroic about children dying like this.
Mr. Kristof---WHY do politicians fear the NRA? Because money 'calls the shots' for US lawmakers. Do columnists fear looking too anti corporate if they spotlight this destructive cause/effect?
After each recurring massacre we see the same avoidance of the truth: The NRA wouldn’t be able to set norms and distort the 2nd Amendment if politicians didn’t need their money.
Citizens are safer in nations with strong gun laws -- they don’t turn their elections over to corporations for funding. Our media avoids this contrast.
Collusion? What about NRA/politician collusion? As the bodies pile up regularly.
Richard Painter, Bush ethics lawyer, vividly criticized the NRA/GOP in a NYT op ed:
“Republican politicians must free themselves from the N.R.A. PROTECTION RACKET and others like it.
"The NRA message is clear: 'We will help you get elected and protect your seat from Democrats, and spend millions on ads to make your opponent look worse than the average holdup man robbing a liquor store.
In return, we expect you to oppose any laws that regulate guns---handgun registration, background checks, limiting the right to carry concealed weapons, limiting access to semiautomatic weapons or anything else that would diminish the firepower available to anybody who wants it.
And if you don’t comply, we will load our weapons and direct everything in our arsenal at you in the next Republican primary.”
The 'Upshot'? Gun profiteers regulate US govt & media, not the other way around.
1
Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell are two more martyrs in the war against the murderous NRA and their complicit and cowardly colleagues in American government. Yes, it is a war against these people, although we will use our voices and our votes rather then violence to take them out of the national dialogue. Those who support relaxed gun laws are quickly becoming pariahs, and perhaps one day we will build a national monument to those who died as victims of the stupidity and greed of of the gun mongers.
From Paris, France, You are a very very sick nation. But your incapacity to rule guns and protect your children is the image of our incapacity as a world to reform our way of life to curb climate change and the 6th extinction. Your incapacity to deal with a strong lobby, reflects our world incapacity to deal with multinationals that ultimately sell us death in the likes of Monsanto, Chevron, Coca Cola etc..,
1
Scoreboard : Today Only
Heroes: 2
NRA: 5.5 million
Out here in Colorado, mass shootings are common place. Columbine. Aurora theater. Planned Parenthood. The list just goes on. What a legacy we've given the nation. I have evangelical relatives who carry their concealed guns to church every Sunday. They love Jesus but their faith is in their Glocks. We just passed a 'red-flag' gun law to let police temporarily confiscate guns from people having mental issues. And all the Republican sheriffs in the state raced each other to the microphone to declare they won't enforce that law. GOP counties announced they were 'Second Amendment Sanctuaries'. They are also sanity-free zones. You go to the grocery store and there is some self-appointed Wyatt Earp pushing a cart in front of you with a pistol on his belt. He's the guy everyone gives a wide berth to. It's crazy out here folks.
1
My heart breaks when I read about Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell, and when I think of their devastated families.
The only thing America seems to be great at now is school shootings and other mass shootings.
Do those perverted gun nuts ever wonder why this doesn't happen in other Western, civilized, countries?
What are they so afraid of that unrestricted access to guns is seen as a sacred right? It's sick.
I understand the NRA is having problems. the only bit of good news.
1
You're wrong Mr. Kristof. It was time to stand up to guns when the babies of Newtown were slaughtered. SHAME on this country. Why weren't we "yellow vesting" from that day forward? I have no hope for this country. None.
2
Nick you are wrong, for once. It’s well past time.
Amen Nicholas.
Oh Nicholas, another sad day in America.
I'm so glad I don't have any school age children of my own today for fear of something terrible like this happening to one of my four boys.Any parent worth their salt should be on the phone to their congress person's office pleading with them to vote for safe gun laws ,or abolish the Second Amendment. Only a fool wants to experience the lost of a child. US Congress 202-224-3121
It was time a long time ago. When nothing was done after Sandy Hook, I knew we were lost to the gun culture and nothing would ever be done, at least not until legislators' kids start getting shot to death in school.
107 die from guns each day, mostly suicides, not murders. According to the CDC, about 130 Americans die each day from Opioid overdoses, yet I hear crickets from the otherwise vocal NYT base on that issue, an issue without the threat to Constitutional rights. You are passionate about one issue, silent on the other. It’s all politics, isn’t it?
@Bee
I hear crickets from the otherwise vocal NYT base on that issue,
My gosh the Opiod epidemic is a constant issue and factors in major campaigns. Crickets are only absent from the ears of those who don't want to hear them. I'd say we hear more about the opiod epidemic than we do gun suicides. But when people use guns to murder that is bound to be get headlines.
1
Kim Kardashian West is apparently a legal force with whom to be reckoned (and she has the President's ear), so let's see what she can do with gun control....
It was time to stand up to guns in December 2012 when elementary children in Newtown, CT were gunned down in their classrooms. Nothing has happened since except more loss of life, more thoughts and prayers, more op-ed columns followed by impassioned comments. I don't want to imagine what it would take to actually spur effective action. In the meantime, we're content to describe youngsters as heroes because we force them to place themselves in harm's way. Shame on the USA.
As an outsider I can only say that you people really are pathetic. Wilfully blind to the carnage you inflict upon each other, full of arrant nonsense about your God-given rights, intoxicated by Hollywood-stoked myths of vengeance and male power, living in a world of good guys and bad guys, you may not deserve any better than what you have.
So, by all means, let the kids keep taking the fall for it: it provides so many occasions for the warm inner glow of short-lived sentiment and purposeless handwringing that is ever so comforting to those not immediately caught by the fiery blast.
250
@Ken Being from Australia doesn't make you an outsider. There have been at least a half dozen terrorist incidents in Australia over the last 5-6 years. The biggest one being orchestrated by Australian Brenton Tarrant in New Zealand. 50 people died in that carnage.
Australia is just as vulnerable to terrorism as the rest of the world is. Believe me, you have bad guys lurking inside Australia right now; planning attacks,testing vulnerable targets and, looking for ways to exact carnage on your society just as they have done here in America..
4
@Ken
Thank you Ken. So spot on.
I wish you were running our country.
13
@nardoi
We are not talking about international terrorists here. We are talking about children and young adults killing children and whomever else is unfortunate enough to be in the way. Talking about "terrorists "just enables our people and lawmakers to look the other way to blame outside forces. We have terrorists is the US planning how to kill for sure and they are our own citizens.
18
We have three dead heroes. Lori Kaye jumped between the gunman and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein at Congregation Chabad north of San Diego, and died later in hospital.
What mighty hearts they had. I wish I'd had the privilege of knowing them all.
91
You can not legally buy a gun in the USA without a background check...That has been a law for decades!
Most "assault rifles" like an AR-15 shoot .223 ammo which is not powerful enough to be used for deer hunting. An old 1890's hunting rifle is much more powerful.
What we need to do is enforce existing laws and stop publishing false information.
1
While American children wait for “adults” to discuss gun control and it’s impact on 2nd amendment rights, it appears children have come to the realization that they are on their own and they have begun to stand up, and face the danger head-on. Unarmed children are now tackling “the shooter”!
@Susan
Exactly. And this is unacceptable and tragic!
the gun control blsther ill never end but we csn do something to stop school shootings.
first, recognized them...shooters enter schools and kill people.
seond, deny shooters acesss to schools.
whateve it stake
first, harden the targets forthwith...add whatever hardwar, secure doors bulllet proff glass, autoatic locking and alarms, etc....
second, improve security, require electronic iID for pass-through and staff the schools with qualified armed men and women, a corps of veteran enforcement and military who wold volunteer for a day or so a week/month (depending on their local numbers) and stand visibly at all entrance/exit points and monitor video surveillance of the grounds (all these fold a well-regulated militia, grant weapons permits, (call them a well regulated militia) give them sate-by-state auxiliary credentials and set them in place,
(if need be use the national guard until the cadre is established).
there is no excuse for another day of lax security at any school.
What are we doing to kids that makes them think that killing a bunch of other people is a good idea? I know a ton of kind, well adjusted people that just really enjoy guns. They are nice, encouraging, and if you ever want to see diversity, go to a gun range. I'm a regular visitor and it's one of the friendliest places you will ever go, and all in all, very welcoming.
We have kids who are raging, and I believe a lot has to do with the climate of hate and exclusion in schools and colleges. Go to a school and be a little different and see what the reaction is from the best and brightest. I grew up chubby and the reaction from my peers was generally exclusion, sometimes accompanied by a barrage of insults. I don't know that all these shooters were bullied, but you seldom hear that they were well liked. Constant bullying and exclusion manifests itself into depression, sadness, despair, and I believe, rage.
America has become an unwelcoming and exclusionary place to all who don't fit an ideal, particularly in white upper/middle class. If you are a white guy who is not good at sports or a girl who has an awkward appearance, you will not likely enjoy the typical suburban middle/high school experience. It will be the worst years of your life. If we don't change this, look for more and more violence.
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The two fine young men who charged at the shooters acted selflessly and saved lives. They would have gone on to be good members of society. I am heartbroken for their families and friends. However, am I alone in worrying that by calling them “heroes” we will inadvertently validate the NRA’s false narrative that rejects constitutionally sound measures that would reduce gun violence in favor of ever more guns and violence in our society. These young men were barely out of their childhood and should not have been expected to die at school or to save anyone. The United States is alone in the developed world in accepting high rates of gun deaths and in expecting its children to die so that the NRA and its obscene agenda can continue.
The grown-ups have done nothing. So now the children are trying to save each other. Have we no shame?
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@DMS have done "nothing"? you don't actually mean that "adults in the US have done "nothing" about guns... Your tag says san diego, have you tried to legally buy a handgun in caliornia? you call that system in place "nothing"? what you actually mean with your comment is we as a society have not come up with a perfect solution, so conceivably you want more done? Fair enough, but don't lie about adults doing "nothing" because the world is yet to be perfected. This type of rhetoric isn't helpful.
@Dave Tell that to the parents of all the children who have been murdered in their classrooms. With the ease of access and the rising death toll, it might as well be 'nothing'.
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@Dave
OK, I'll take the bait: we have not only done nothing, we are exacerbating a public health and public safety crisis by continuing to encourage the likes of the NRA and its lunatic fringe. This ain't about hunting. Look around at the rest of the world (at least those countries that are not lawless) and see the difference.
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I am a gun owner and yes it is past time to restrict gun ownership. I doubt if the Supreme Court of the United States or the Congress will provide an acceptable approach to gun control. My suggestion is not to bar ownership but to limit it. One handgun and one shotgun or single shot rifle per adult (age 21+) members of a household. Prior to purchase potential buyers would have to submit to a national records check. Disqualifying information would include conviction for crimes of violence, including domestic violence. Individuals who have been ordered by the courts to receive mental health treatment would be temporarily disqualified from gun ownership until treatment is completed and the court removes the restriction. To pay for the background checks a fee to 150% the cost of records checks would be imposed. Obviously these requirements could only be imposed on future purchases. Consequently the states would need to impose far harsher penalties for all violent crimes than currently exist. Yes that means more jail time. The 2nd Amendment is intact, existing gun owners can get over there fear of widespread confiscation and MAYBE we will have fewer gun deaths.
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15 school shootings in 19 weeks for this year.
The simple and awful truth is that as a country we love our guns more than our children.
2
All these deaths are part of the price we pay for our Second Amendment freedoms. The Second Amendment freedoms are not worth it.
The Second Amendment freedoms would not prevent or overthrow dictatorships. The best way to prevent dictatorships is to educate people in democratic principles, so that a would-be dictator would not be able to find enough reliable secret police and thugs to enforce his or her type of order.
1
I used to believe there would be a tipping point when it came to gun control and many other of the current Administration's outrageous policies such as climate change, racism, LGBTQ phobia, voting rights, etc. There is no such point. If Sandy Hook, Orlando and Vegas didn't open the eyes of America, nothing will. Thousands or more pleas raised since those tragedies have resulted in no change. America is regressing, not evolving.
3
Follow the money folks. This is really all about money masquerading as a God-given right to bear arms. Gun and ammo manufacturers along with all the accouterments run lock-step with the NRA's mission to arm every human that fogs up a mirror in the USA, all enabled by the GOP. Once you require proper registration and insurance on all guns and ammo and start successfully suing its manufacturers and users for injuries and deaths, is the only way to make sure everyone has skin in the game. It's as if we allow anyone to buy and drive cars without any license, insurance and registration and then offer thoughts and prayers after the inevitable carnage.
In these tragic cases of school shootings, who do you think bears the financial liability? Yes, we all do once the lawsuits are filed and paid out. School districts are going to have to settle and eat the much higher premiums, hire armed guards everywhere, all so our kids can attend school in a virtual prison lock-down. This is ridiculous and proves to all the World how backwards we really are.
1
One person tries unsuccessfully to ignite a poorly constructed shoe bomb on a plane and everyone in America has to remove their shoes before boarding.
30,000 people die every year in this country and too many folks take the attitude: well there's not much we can do. This is the price we pay for an open society.
Really!
2
It's been "time to stand up to guns" for ages now; yet daily the sickening, heartbreaking toll mounts, and the advocates who choose firearms over the lives of humans somehow prevail. Frankly, I don't care about the Second Amendment - devised in a world that was far different from ours, and in order to ensure that militias were "well regulated," not (according to a 2017 report in The Guardian) so that three percent of adults in the U.S. could own a collective 133 million firearms (half of America's gun stock). It frightens me that (according to that same report) three million Americans carry loaded handguns with them daily; I am assuming that a good number of these people are untrained, unskilled amateur fanciers whose carelessness easily may cause injury or even death to others; the very few incidents in which a civilian bystander has waylaid a determined, motivated shooter are no argument for carrying a loaded firearm into a bar, restaurant, movie theater, or other places where people gather. I dream of living in a country in which I can wake up every day and not see headlines about yet another mass shooting, or hear the same tired, mindless arguments about protecting the "right" of people to slaughter each other wholesale in cold blood. I am afraid, however, that short of emigrating, I have no hope of realizing that in the United States of Gun-America.
1
The horse is definitely out of the barn when it comes to guns in the US. The country is infested with them.
The only next logical step is the tight control of ammunition.
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Nick, I admire your work and enjoy your columns. You are wrong here. It is far past the time to stand up to guns. If it hasn't happened after the horrors we have already seen perpetrated over the years, I can't believe it ever will.
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Heroes that didn't need to be heroes. It wasn't a natural disaster or some kind of accident. It was us. It was we. We forced them to sacrifice their lives because that is the way we want it. If we didn't we would make changes. We don't, so that's the way we want it.
By the evidence we must like dead heroes. Especially heroes who didn't need to be heroes. We'd rather call them heroes for protecting our rights to gun ownership than to change anything about our guns or who and when can buy them.
We need to face it. As Americans we like guns more than we like children. It's who we are. It's who America is. We need a gun to protect me and mine and you all can do the same. If there are some deaths along way, well that's OK. Its sad, but its OK.
As far as we are concerned there is no right to children but an ironclad right to guns.
You mean thoughts and prayers aren’t working anymore? The senseless gun-mediated violence will continue in this country until the next generation reaches voting age. Then the GOP will become a minority party.
I’m sick of hearing about thoughts and prayers.
They don’t bring back those killed by gun violence.
They probably don’t provide much solace to the bereaved.
Legislative action is what’s needed. A popular uprising is needed.
But keep your thoughts and prayers handy because a congress that won’t stand up behavior that could kill a democracy certainly isn’t even going to put gun control on the to do list.
Bad people with guns are killing good people without guns. This is a NRA/GOP produced madness. This insanity will be allowed to continue unabated if we don't rid ourselves of the NRA owned politicians who care more about money than lives.
I'm going to beg yet again. News media: please stop giving these shootings such splashy coverage. A couple of lines, no photos. Too many would-be shooters are being influenced. In television coverage, they see all the police cars with lights flashing the worried or weeping parents. Potential shooters see their needs being answered in a mass shooting: those who have somehow wronged them are dead or injured and suitably punished and the shooter is vaulted to fame around the world in living color. He finally is seen. Please stop playing to that. If you save one life, it will be worth it.
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Twenty years have come and gone since the Columbine disaster and things have gotten progressively worse. Gun violence has become a regular occurrence everywhere with no end in sight.
However I have a question that's been bothering me for awhile and I hope someone can enlighten me. Why is it that the bloggers automatically round up the usual suspects--the NRA, Donald Trump, corrupt Republican politicians, the Second Amendment and easy access to guns--but never blame the shooter who caused the carnage?
"Hero" has become a euphemism for doing nothing and "evil" too. Twenty years after Columbine, I fault all the parents whose children are terrorized by gun violence as much as the parents whose have grown to become shooters.
Sure, NRA and people like Alex Jones are culpable. They are not off the hook. But after Columbine, not far from Highland Ranch, you have Sandy Hook and Parkland etc. And we haven't even counted the workplace as well as random acts of mass shootings. Theater, open concert and even Republican baseball game. And yet, the people who are in the position to make changes in DC and state capitols, did nothing. They are people's representatives.
And please stop saying gerrymandering and money. This is the fool me once fool me twice situation. As hard as I say this: Colorado legislature is responsible and therefore the people who voted for them too. They could be the parents of the shooters or the latter's victims. Please stop using the word 'hero' to avoid any culpability
Why isn't the so-called "pro-life" movement getting behind some of the sensible measures outlined by Mr. Kristof? Why is it that this vocal faction is silent when it comes to the lives of the born innocent lives being sacrificed daily in this country? Almost daily I read about the senseless murder of individuals; however, it's the overwhelming number of suicides which rarely are noted. It is frankly amoral of the politicians to sit back and do nothing; a stain is on their souls.
I'm always amazed that no one ever seems to want to address what type of society produces people who want to walk into a classroom, theater, nightclub, etc. and randomly kill strangers. What are the factors that set these folks off? Should guns disappear, what then? Knives? Poison? Vehicles? The problem people don't go away as progressives intimate. Addressing symptoms never gets at the root cause.
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Any "common sense" gun control measure that assumes that terrorists, criminals, and crazies will obediently comply with gun registration and background checks is not common sense at all. It represents a group of politicians who want to proudly tell voters that they've "done something" about gun violence, while never getting to the root causes.
Two quick examples. The Florida Parkland shooter was able to legally purchase a weapon, though he had had encounters with law enforcement almost 30 times prior to the day of the shooting incident. The inquiry panel concluded that law enforcement had failed miserably in getting this nutcase off the streets.
Also, California has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, though please note the number of mass shootings in that state over the last couple of years. If gun laws worked, California should be a model of peace and safety. It isn't.
Oh, another "it's time to stand up to guns" piece. Whatever. Like it's going to change this time.
Maybe it's time to reconsider your methods of persuasion, which clearly haven't worked.
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I would argue, on a more cynical day, the Republican Party actually welcomes school shootings and any other mass shooting because they own the aftermath. Every time a politician, and let's be honest the ONLY politicians who do the siren song when there's a mass shooting are Democrats, stands before her constituents, now engaging in the public mourning jig, and promises to "do something" about this, gun sales go through the roof. Donations to Republicans who scream "not until you prey it from my dead fingers ..." light up board and ... scene; until the next one. If you want to do something about this, stop voting for Republicans.
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No one has the right to an assault weapon of handgun. The constitutional originalists know that. The second amendment says "arms' but doe not specify what kind.
My solution:
First anyone who commits any kind of crime, no matter how minor with gun goes away for life. No parole. That will, in a short time, take care of the idea that people need guns to protect themselves. Criminals are not stupid. If I get a year in jail for breaking in a house without a gun and life without parole for doing it with, I am not going in with a gun. Those who do wont be around very long.
Then we ban all military style guns and handguns. Guns used for hunting and sport shooting will all be in armories that will be build and manned 24/7. You want to shoot, hunt, etc, you go to the armory, sign out your gun and ammo, have your fun and return it. Guns are safe, secure, and accessible.
Anyone caught with a gun not properly checked out has severe penalties.
Those who think they need guns to protect themselves against government power are delusional anyway and should not have them.
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Keep fighting for a 202 Democratic sweep.....Presidency and Congress, and we'll get positive movement toward sensible regulation without infringing very much on the 2nd amendment right's. Just common sense. Dem's will pass positive legislation for our country.....but you have to vote.That is the only way this can move forward. Please. Let's wipe the whole complicit Republican machine out of business for a decade or two until they get real about patriotism and protecting our nation.
"Politicians fearful of the National Rifle Association have allowed the gun lobby to run amok."
Fill in the blanks. "politicians fearful of the___________ have allowed the_____________to run amok.
Politicians fear of losing power and money and their reelections have allowed the country to run amok.
And there are many other things that could be put in those blanks.
Nothing is going to change. The little girl in the photo is a picture of the future and it is sad. The gun lobby has control of the country.
www.twitter.com/bearmaceclub
Just like fire extinguishers, there should be cans of bear mace located throughout our schools in breakable glass containers.
Anyone can smash the glass, grab the bear mace and spray the shooter with debilitating mace.
Bear mace has a 30' range.
We don't need any more heroes. We need practical solutions.
This is one.
@greg
Problem is not everyone is near the mace, in your scenario. Maybe everyone carry mace 24/7(not being sarcastic)? However, why should a five-year-old have to carry mace on their person?
It is time to stand up for gun control and in many states it is happening, albeit too slowly: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/02/07/another-big-year-expected-for-gun-control-in-the-states ("Another Big Year Expected for Gun Control in the States," Feb 2019).
It is not going to happen in Congress, most specifically in the Senate, until the political mix is changed. Mr. Kristoff is earnest in his comments, but they are just the latest in a long line of such editorials in more liberal news media.
There is so much information about the lethal situation in the USA it makes one dizzy: https://proquest.libguides.com/gun_control (Feb 2018). That short bibliography is already out of date.
These two young men had more courage than congress and most of the people in the United States. They went after the shooters, now it is time for the rest of the time to go AFTER THE GUNS.
Let’s get the NRA spending money of lawyers and court charges instead of marketing to sell more guns to murders who go to the places where they KNOW they can kill the most vulnerable children and adults.If you belong to the NRA, YOU are supporting the people who are responsible for killing these children.
Once again the Trump antics have stolen the headlines from an important event that could have an impact on our gun laws. Keep this event in the news, too. The NRA is hoping it will die down as usual.
Thank you again for not giving the shooter media space.
As usual the author and left wing Democrats ignore the actual problems. The problems are the lack of a real mental health system and a reformed legal system that allows families, communities and doctors to do something about the obviously disturbed and violent. Despite the complaints your mental health system consists of the police and the county jail. Parents purposely have no power because of left wing ideology. Guns, inanimate objects, are not the problem. The people yammering about guns are the same people who will oppose changes to mental health laws and committments for care. They are the same people promoting bizarre, ideology, sexuality and violent identity politics. They are Democrats and they have no credibility.
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In the comment section, it asks readers to share their thoughts. if you change that to thoughts and prayers, that would be the maximum effort that has been put forth since we made it OK to shoot up schools and do nothing except expect students to die as heroes.
No, Nicholas, you got this all wrong. The military guy whom Trump just pardoned after getting convicted of executing a terrorist in custody will have his record expunged. Senator Langford is excited for the guy because he can once again own firearms. So if a cop is so outraged by a gruesome murder that he takes the suspect out back of the jail and shoots him in the head, that guy should be pardoned and allowed to carry weapons again. Really. I just wonder what this guy will do if faced with , say, his wife wanting a divorce and custody of the kids? He , clearly, has his head on his shoulders and will just do his fighting in court, right? And if he chooses the same path he did with the terrorist, well we always have thoughts and prayers.
Absolutely, but I would add: Time to stand up to the pervasive, "Gun Culture" in America along with the fetishism of guns and gun ownership over the rights of others to simply live!
We always end up in the same pit. Murdered children, a cry for gun control, hysteria from the NRA, no political will to make any change, money wins and guns remain more easily available than Sudafed. Children die. Honestly, I'm sick of the discussion.
It is obvious that you are a good man Nicholas, but I wonder if you have yet to realize the true nature of the country in which you live.
When it comes to guns, we need to follow Australia's model. End of discussion. Just do it.
Focus on assault style weapons. The vast majority of mass shootings involve these weapons, as the Times has pointed out in previous articles. There's no legitimate excuse to own such a weapon. The PR battle can be won by focusing on them. Also, nix the extreme lefty talk of banning a broad range of weapons. That's the surest way to lose the battle.
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Too many easily acquired guns among people whose only interest is in having them to shoot people helped to create this mess. The real cause is the political in your face tanker, my way or the highway, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is by a good guy with a gun, lots of vitriolic words and NRA advertising to sell AR15's, glorifying the power and coolness of having deadly force and using it, Republican hate your enemy (and everyone is your enemy). This has created the stress, examples, motivation and instructions for this American massacre. Until the Trump, FOX and Republican hate politics cease to exist, the massacres will continue regardless of gun safety laws.
Elsewhere in the NYT today I learned that Greg Crane, the founder of an active-shooter training program, encourages people to “counter” shooters. That is precisely what Kendrick Castillo and earlier Riley Howell, heroes both, did and, by golly, their actions did save lives but at the cost of their own.
I haven't been in high school for over 50 years and can't imagine what it must be like to face the real possibility of being shot by fellow students except I know that I had enough issues to deal with as a teenager without that. And then to be told that if such an incident were to occur I should attempt to "counter" the shooters knowing that this would probably end up getting me killed.
This is America's great plan for dealing with this insanity?
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What's really ironic is that five states recently have been passing new restrictions on abortions. Not coincidentally, these are the same states that are among the least restrictive on sales of firearms. Which means a fetus might be safer in the womb, but once born and enrolled in a school, isn't able to count on sensible laws to prevent it from being shot dead.
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I gave up thinking that anything useful would ever be done about guns after Sandy Hook. If unlimited guns were more important than the lives of those small children, nothing would ever make a difference.
These young men have the courage to give their lives to prevent a worse carnage. But the politicians could not pull up enough courage to stand up against the NRA and possibly lose their seats. Imagine, life vs political seat! The totally distorted Second Amendment is in desperate need of rewriting. Where are the "militia" and the "well-regulated" components.
Stop this nonsense that are killing innocent, promising young lives. I am certain these young men and their families would have much preferred not to become heroes but to simply continue their lives. So would I. So would the people of the United States of America bar a small group of lunatics. This political game is being played at the expense of our children, grandchildren to benefit no one except the gun makers and the gun lobby.
Republicans, gun lovers, be a Kendrick, rush to stop the carnage, and help the children stay alive. Ban these weapons. Be a Kendrick, ...
In addition to all good measures named, there is a standout bigotry to be ended:
The gun lobby strains that law-abiding Americans have a right to bear arms. So be it, since it is written in your constitution. But, what about those breaking the law, especially, those gun shops making a fortune bypassing the mandatory background checks etc.? IMHO, they cease the right to bear arms, more so to sell them!
Ban criminal gun shops!
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It is a categorical failure when we simply throw up our collective hands and declare there is no way to halt the proliferation of guns. Children who have yet to grabble with the enormity of their place in this world should not be sacrificed as the last line of defence because the gun lobby demands guns be a part of the fabric of society. We must refuse their logic that one of the founding principles of our Constitution posits savagery as an unintended consequence enshrining the rights of a free people. It seem a radical idea, but really, can we at least try taking the guns away? Is it really going to destablize all that we hold dear to say to a gun enthusiast we are taking your AR-15 and melting it to the base metals from which it arose because your gun is nothing more or less than an instrument of mayhem?
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They deserve the Medal of Freedom - definitely not Trump cash cow Tiger. They "gave" freedom by their actions....
here we go again, another article about a shooting, killing children, brave kids who tried to stop the shooter and NOTHING from the President and the government of the people, well, that's a laugh isn't it? Government of the people surely means exactly that, obviously our government care much more about lining their pockets from the NRA, why doesn't someone pass a law to take away the people who get perks from the NRA to step down because they do not represent the people the way any civilized country represent the people.
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I’d like to see a column by one Republican, one, who says he was wrong and that it is time we do something: ban assault weapons, make a better background check system, improve mental health treatments and counseling in schools. Something.
That’s just one Republican! The silence is so painful. Disgusting really.
And Democrats, don’t wait for that. Put forth such legislation now, again and again. And newspapers, at the top of the page where you have various categories – include Gun violence.
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Every year in the USA, more than 20,000 people shoot themselves dead. Lonely widowers in rural areas are the most likely to do so. Children and grandchildren who remove the ammo from grandpa's home after grandma dies are doing the right thing.
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If a country as large as Australia can eliminate private ownership of guns, and confiscate them all, surely the US can do the same. Are we not as great as Australia, a country who was settled for the most part by convicts from England?
I fail to see how our government has allowed itself to be owned and strangled by the firearm industry. And the notion that the firearm industry would be injured by the prevention of gun sales to the public is ludicrous, seeing that the government itself purchases enough artillery for the military to keep them in business.
This is a cancer upon our land. It is a misinterpretation of the meaning of the 2nd amendment. It has got to stop.
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Trump wants to put more tariffs on steel so America will have material for defense. Take all the guns and MELT ‘EM DOWN! Make America safe again.
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The NRA has nothing to do with a deranged killer deciding to pull a trigger any more than Ben & Jerry's is responsible for fat people. The NRA is composed of members--myself included--who want to protect their 2A rights, especially from those like the author who know NOTHING about firearms. I love the sheep who bleat time and time again "universal background checks, universal background checks, ban assault weapons, ban assault weapons" just like Orwell wrote about in Animal Farm. problem is, most of the mass killers PASSED background checks. Many--including this killer--did not even use an assault weapon.
This is what NRA members know--that if for some reason the sheep get their way--ban assault weapons, universal background checks, after the next killing they'll go after something else. Probably to ban semiauto firearms (about 90 percent of guns sold). We never had this problem when I was growing up and there were PLENTY of guns around. Maybe its the liberal culture that removed God from the schools and installed moral relativism to replace it. Either way, its not guns--never saw one go off by itself.
Funny how the kids have a strong notion of what their obligations are to society, while the so-called “adults” focus on what their ‘rights’ are in U.S. society. As long as that continues, lives will be the external costs for ‘the merchants of death.’ The. U.S. needs a 21st century, 2nd Amendment “background check.”
1
Yesterday, I watched the CNN interview with Steve Holley and his 12-year-old son, Nate, where Nate said that he was in the corner of his classroom, with a metal bat, and ready to go down fighting. If that isn't heartbreaking (well, along with the Newtown victims), I don't know what is.
The adults in the room are too cowardly to pass sensible gun control laws so a 12-year-old is willing to risk his life... Think about that. Sad and pathetic.
So, Kristoff says to take guns away from the millions and millions of gun owners who did not do it.
American exceptionalism = exceptional male violence, exceptional love of violence, exceptional domestic violence perpetrated by men against women, exceptional number of young men killing classmates and teachers. It is time to redefine American exceptionalism and seek some other achievements, and to call male violence what it is -- a threat to every law abiding, peace loving, innocent person trying to live a decent life.
1
Hollywood relentlessly emphasizes guns. When I search through Netflix and Prime, its flooded with movies about tough men, vengeful men, men seeking justice, men seeking retribution, assasins with a new found conscience, warriors, veterens, police officers, all of whom whose identity and purpose are closely linked to guns.
None of it is very realistic, but the message is clear, a gun will make you safe, a gun will protect you and your family, a gun will even the score, a gun is what separates you and the bad guys.
Hollywood producers, directors and actors are the biggest hypocrites. At least gun advocates are clear about what they believe. Hollywood says one thing and does another every day.
These students showed more guts than my Congressman.
Of course. Last night's news coverage showed once again that the gun violence in this country is intolerable, yet we tolerate it. What kind of monsters are WE?
It's a sad day in America when the first people standing up for American lives, rights, safety and health are children who put themselves in harms way to protect others. Every member of our government should be hanging their heads in shame. We have truly lost our way as a people and a nation.
know this: the people who were not listening last time (and the times before that) are not listening now.
License in the same way you obtain a license to drive, with all of the requirements. And then go after the NRA as a social disease.
1
What we always hear is "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun". Here's a wild and crazy idea. What if the bad guy didn't have the gun in the first place?
(I know another radical leftist, guilty as charged)
1
The time to standup to guns was 50 years ago.
The NRA morphed from a sports organization to a lunatic right wing political organization--lobbyists for the arms industry. Politicians sold their souls and sanity for campaign contributions and "freedom" (= anti government) propaganda.
I'm old enough to remember when David Berkowitz terrorized NYC for a year. He ultimately killed 6 and wounded 7 innocent citizens. The entire world followed the story. Forty-two years later these heinous numbers seem "average". We are a very troubled gun-loving nation.
Face it, politicians, especially republicans, only care about about the cash. If it was a pile money that was being shot at, they would risk everything including throwing their bodies in front of the bullets to stop the shootings.
So the rights of the Hyland ranch school shooters were not infringed. The founding fathers would be proud .
1
These teenagers gave their lives trying to stop bullets. Our politicians won't even give up their NRA donations to stop the bullets and keep students like them safe. Greed and cowardice.
Appalling but a sad tradition that we live in a country where old men send young men to die. Often old men who themselves never had the bravery to put themselves in the line. This we hear about our never ending unnecessary and unjust wars. Take it from me — a Vietnam vet.
And now the old men send high school and college students to protect their classmates from gun toting killers.
Thank the old men of the NRA for these American style massacres: Charlton Heston, Wayne LaPierre, Oliver North.
This is the America that sent doughboys to finish the awful job in Europe in 1917? This is the America of the Revolution, of the Civil War? May 8 was VE Day. Who remembers Victory in Europe? What was it for? The shame of terrorizing every child in the country who today fears to go to school because she or he feels that might be the place where an NRA sponsored gunman will carry out our American version of the Slaughter of the Innocents.
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@James Wright You're right. As Kurt Vonnegut said - babies fight wars. And we're still doing it -- letting the babies fight this battle too. Horrible.
10
Thank you Nicholas. I am deeply moved by this story. As I heard about this terrible event, I thought of a few questions. Are these incessant school shootings part of an organized attempt to destabilize our society as in domestic terrorism? Are our domestic shooters a glaring sign of the complete disaster in mental health care? Both? The sight of these children makes my heart ache. I am sure this next generation of young people will grow up with trauma related illnesses...and they will also grow up fierce advocates for reform. God bless the little children.
1
I guess the idea is that since we don't use posthumous Medal of Honor winners as reasons for wanting peaceful settlements of disputes we shouldn't use this kids as reasons for gun control.
In fact, the pro-gun people are saying they died because there aren't enough guns out there.
Perhaps encouraging students to empower themselves by fighting back will accomplish more than encouraging politicians to enact gun control.
Four suggestions,
1. Start regulating the well-regulated militia.
2. Prohibit the mentally ill from owning firearms. (Anyone who owns more than ten firearms is defined as mentally ill.)
3. Anyone who owns a firearm that is used in a crime is criminally liable for that crime (even if they did not personally commit the crime).
4. Firearms manufacturers may be held financially responsible for firearms they’ve manufactured being used in mass shootings.
2
In an era sadly lacking in heroes, our country now has Riley Howell and Kendrick Castillo. Their bravery should be an inspiration to every American and their names should be immortalized with the issue of a Forever stamp issued by the USPS.
It is not clear to me why there is no movement to repeal the second amendment. The people in this country have an extremely unhealthy attachment to weapons. But, if that's WAY too much to ask, how about restricting firearms to muzzle loaders; that would be closer to the Original Intent so much admired by the Supremes.
1
Of course our culture should regulate guns. Of course when a politician takes campaign money from the weapons-industry lobby it should be a career-limiting move.
But, the election of a right-wing US federal government had an immediate and unintended consequence: the demand for guns dried up and gun factories fell on hard times. The NRA's membership and revenue dwindled. The Obama 44 administration was really good for the firearms trade, and the Trump 45 administration is really bad.
We should look for ways to regulate guns, if there are any, that won't have the opposite consequence of strengthening the gun factories. State by state? City by city?
Guns and those who use them in these horrible shootings share in the problem which is an overarching one of violence. The mother of the child in the Sandy Hook shootings encouraged her sad child to use guns; the parents of the Columbine shooters had no idea of their children's detachment from the world/society; the young man who shot Gabbie Giffords, similar situation. Acting out is now done with a gun, and not just any gun, but usually a rapid-fire semi-automatic gun. We are terribly lost in a confused country. It is not only mental issues that need addressing, of course, nor just more gun regulations or ridding the country of certain weapons, but something in the woven fabric of common sense and caring, from the top down.
2
As a fellow Oregonian and reader of the Times, I have nothing but respect for Nicholas Kristof. What saddens me beyond all rational expression is that this excellent column feels as if it could have been written years ago . . . that I have been reading these words repeatedly week after week, month after month, year after year. After all of this time, after the loss of so much innocence and so many innocent lives, after the shattering of so many families, there has been no change. And once the shock and the grief, the memorials and the thoughts and the prayers have all abated and passed into memory, there will still be no change. On this we can count, on this we can rely. Children will continue to die; teachers will arm themselves; legislators will cower in the face of the NRA; and our classrooms will remain battlefields in which blood is shed, our playgrounds places to run through in terror as young people flee for their lives not knowing if they will see their comrades, their teachers, or their families ever again. Our inaction is a disgrace; the true tragedy is the abject, well-documented cowardice of our Congressional leaders.
5
When I got my first handgun I had to get fingerprinted by the chief of police of my town in New Jersey. My dad was ex-military. Gun safety and gun protocol were drilled into me until I was having dreams about it.
It was very clear to me what guns were for and what an awesome responsibility had been bestowed upon me by my elders to be able to own one without supervision.
I don't know why this same ethos isn't being bestowed upon our children today.
Never once did it occur to me as a child to bring one of my weapons to class and kill my classmates even when I was threatened by bullies and got unfairly graded by teachers who didn't appreciate me. Not only was it never in my mind, I'd go as far to say that it was never in the minds of any of my classmates.
Sneaking beers after school dances. Yes. Driving onto the beach where we weren't supposed to go. Yes.
Shooting someone? Good lord. When did this happen that our young people behave this way?
This is our problem. Taking the guns away does not solve it.
1
@Iceowl
Taking guns away would solve the problem of having guns in the hands of people who kill people with them.
Who, really, needs a gun? What, really, is the purpose if not to kill?
1
“We need more “red-flag laws” that make it more difficult for people to obtain guns when they present a threat to themselves or others.”
That may be true. But the VA Tech shooting, the TX church choosing, and even Parkland showed that the existing “red flag laws,” if better observed, could have made a difference. Reporting needs to be (1) done (I’m looking at you, Air Force) and (2) easier.
As a corollary, we need to relook the mental health laws that were changed during the Reagan Admin. A group of us were discussing the most recent shooting & and an arch-conservative said we need better/more mental health facilities & care. So, Aldo (even thought she couldn’t admit it) Medicare 4 All with its improvements in mental health overage.
Mr. Kristof, I thought that my heart was so hardened by the mass shootings of young people, that I was bereft of emotions. But your column made me cry. After a long time, I am not angry when I see the senseless violence. I just have a crushing sense of sorrow and no other emotion. I have two children approximately the same age as Kendrick and Riley. As a mother, I simply cannot imagine what their parents are going through. The fact that they raised heros and that their children died saving others is not going to help during the birthdays and vacations and when they see milestones of other children that their kids were robbed from. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for making me cry.
2
It was time A LONG TIME AGO to stand up to guns. They may have been essential personal items in the wild west of yore, but they are lethal weapons in our so-called civilized society.
4
The end of the draft in the early 70's, followed in short order by the takeover of the NRA by 2nd Amendment extremists and the steady rise in gun crime is hardly a coincidence. Bear with me.
Thanks to the draft, millions of men who wanted nothing to do with military duty served anyway. There, they were exposed to the weaponry of war, which was not the same as the weapons found in the homes of America's hunters and sportsmen. With few exceptions, none of these men had any desire to own the same guns when they returned to civilian life. They passed their values down to their children. Wars since have been fought by those who volunteered, a percentage of whom, sad to say, looked forward to combat and its inevitable result.
The NRA, under the ham hand of Harlon Carter (and later that of Wayne La Pierre, btw neither were military vets) changed the focus of the NRA from one of good citizenship, good marksmanship and general gun safety to that of a cheerleader and shill for gun makers anxious to move assault style weapons, guns that were cheap to manufacture and sold at huge mark-ups. Today, it is this type of firearm --from rifles to pistols to shotguns-- that dominates the sale of guns. Advertisements for these things emphasize firepower, not accuracy and good sportsmanship. Many of these weapons, in many states, are illegal for hunting game, due to the large magazine capacity they have.
So let's include advertising as a contributor, and treat guns as we do cigarets.
2
It appears the call to ban semi automatic military style rifles has been amended to semi automatic guns since handguns have started showing up in these shootings. What will be the response when a shooter uses a 6 shot revolver? Gun laws, like drug laws, are necessary but can only accomplish so much. They both have there limits, beyond which they become meaningless.
So we should infer that since there is no perfect solution, there is no solution.
Ditto Global Warming, the other intractable problem that could have been thwarted with early, reasonable action.
What you infer is: there is no perfect solution, ergo there is no solution.
Just like Climate Change, right?
1
Maybe we could ban buying meat in the grocery store. If everybody had to go hunting for their hamburgers, the cattle business would certainly demand some kind of restrictions on shooting. And how about the chicken industry?..another potential
gun safety lobby.
Folks, it's time people in the US wake up and realize some facts. It IS NOT the gun that is the problem, it is the people that is the problem. Even universal background checks will do nothing but add another layer of bureaucracy, as criminals will find a way to arm themselves. What is needed is people taking care of people. How many of you know your neighbors? Really know them. How many of you are active within your children's lives? What posses a young person to open fire on his classmates or on the other hand, people he doesn't know? Why aren't our school teachers and officials doing more to recognize problems and deal with them? Why do parents let their children do whatever the heck they want?
Answer some of these questions and you will realize that the gun is not the problem. You need to fix our families, not add more bureaucracy.
No, the gun is the problem, because we aren’t inclined to find how to heal people in time to prevent gun crimes. No matter how you yourself choose to interpret the problem, the gun is the answer for troubled minds.
3
@DEWaldron
And conservatives accuse liberals of solving problems by "holding hands and singing Kumbaya . . ."
Thanks for the finger-wagging lecture; unfortunately, it doesn't deal with the reality and urgency of the current situation in any meaningful way. Maybe It's time for gun nuts to stop fantasizing about "the good old days" and the "good guys with guns" and start "realizing some facts" on their own: It's not 1950 anymore, we live in an increasingly violent world, a lot of our entertainment is violence-based, and the United States is awash in firearms, primarily due to the brainwashing fear-monger tactics employed by the NRA, the firearms industry and right-wing media. Those of us who live in the present reality and bother to pay attention are aware of these things and want something tangible done about the epidemic of gun violence. Reducing the ability for mentally ill and violent people to obtain firearms is a reasonable start.
1
@Nancy Rathkep - And yu are part of the problem! Excuse instead of action.
This article is on point and so is the tribute to Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell. As a retired teacher and Assistant Principal, I am well versed in lock down drills and the fear it instills in some children, especially those with anxiety.
With Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell, we see a new student. I was discussing this with my mother last night. I have no doubt that Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell had given some thought to how they might react in the case of a shooter, unless it was completely spontaneous. But, I think more children are thinking about how they will act and many of our boys are thinking along the lines of Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell. I know this because if there is a fight in a classroom, it is the boys who quickly move in to separate
the fighters.
The NRA is too powerful and our politicans are weak. Easy access to guns, parents with guns that aren't kept locked up, rage and anger, distorted thinking, and more, all add up to these school shootings. Accidental deaths among small children. And, yes, the bulk of deaths by suicide.
Why do we need guns, I asked my mother? Sure, I'd like to go purchase a handgun and go to a shooting range twice a week, so that if someone breaks in the house I can protect my loved ones. But is that a reality? Me, fumbling in the middle of the night to get a gun out of a locked box?
We don't need guns. And, forget the hunting excuse.
Politicians, get rid of the guns. Demolish the NRA.
5
You said it all!!
The picture of the kids accompanying this column tells it all.
Much has been made recently about obstruction of justice. How about obstruction of democracy and good sense? Obstructionist #1 is McConnell. He has to go, but will likely win re-election in 2020, Therefore, we need to flip control of the senate to Democrats -- the only way to take this guy out of power. Up to voters in 2020. If KY won't vote this guy out, people voting for senators have to think about the bigger picture.
6
In spite of guns, I'd much, much, much, much rather vacation in NYC or Chicago, compared to London where guns are illegal. Guns keeps criminals on their toes compared to the bedlam across the pond. In fact, we need more armed citizens.
1
London had ~130 violent deaths in 2018 in a city of about 8 million. Chicago had ~540 in a city of 2.7 million. I have heard numerous fellow Canadians say they are not planning to travel to the States at all anymore until there are more regulations on guns.
10
You might want to rethink that. Recent data indicates that between January and June 2018 NYC's murder rate was twice that of London.
@David H.
The data shows that guns also keep nincompoops on their toes. Shooting themselves, their friends, their kids, their pets and sometimes strange bushes. (Incidentally, most New Yorkers would rather vacation in London rather than Miami Beach.)
Many writers seem to be saying that background checks etc will not deter a shooter, end of story. Aren't we, as a nation, obligated to try to stem these horrific deaths? We can no longer can just sit back and say "that won't work" or argue whether a handgun or assault rifle does more damage to a body.... we will never get rid of all guns in the US, they are too ingrained in our culture of the Wild West and individual rights...but we need to take a hard look at ourselves. There are responsible gun owners. But why should anyone possess a military grade weapon? Military weapons are for the Military. The NRA used to be about gun safety training. Its' message has become twisted and politicized, and frighteningly well funded. We elect officials to represent us...and more than 1/2 of Americans favor universal background checks. Why aren't our government representatives doing what we elected them for?? Why can't we tackle this in many ways? Background checks, education, mental health care, gun buy backs. We should be doing it all...
7
Unfortunately, the author is correct that there is little reason for optimism regarding the reduction of gun violence in America. But it should be noted that it is not because of “inaction since 1966” on the topic, as the author asserts. Rather, there has been a massive increase in gun availability and firepower. In my neck of the woods, every mass shooting has resulted in legislation that increases the number of guns in circulation, their capacity to inflict damage, and the number of places that it is now legal to wield the weapons. Inaction? If we could only be so lucky.
1
What will it take to make Americans face their obsession with the ownership and use of guns? What will it take for Congress to write and pass sensible gun safety laws that will give weapon owners the rights granted them in the 2nd Amendment and Americans the safety that they need and deserve in public places? What will it take to get laws passed that identify and treat those with mental illnesses and prevent these same individuals from having access to firearms? What will it take to get law enforcement officers more training in deescalating dangerous situations and the better judgment than fear in the use of deadly force? What will it take to make gun owners responsible for securing their weapons and ammunition to prevent the death and injuries of those who find and use loaded guns to which they shouldn't have access?
The deaths and injuries over decades have not made a dent in the death grip of the gun manufacturers through the NRA on our lawmakers and some gun owners. The NRA has managed to radicalize a good number of Americans about 2nd Amendment rights. Those rights now trump the lives of innocent Americans in just about any public place you could name. Our young people in schools should not have to throw themselves at gunmen as a human sacrifice to save their fellow students. What is wrong with us that we would allow such a thing to happen over and over again without trying to fix our gun issues? It is an indictment on us as a country and a people.
3
We lived in Florida for 10 years. While there I met a good friend and inevitably invited she and her husband and another couple over for dinner. Her husband came in and laid his gun on my kitchen counter, explaining that he didn't want to leave it in his car. Seeing my horrified look, he quickly took it back out. After everyone had left, I turned to my husband and told him, that as soon as he could wrap up his business, we were moving back home to Toronto. We did. And, by the way, I ruined dinner (forgot the mushroom wine sauce) and to this day, my family calls it "Mom's gun dinner".
10
@REF
Anybody who would cavalierly bring a gun into somebody's home and place in on a kitchen counter without even asking the homeowner's permission is a bad guest and selfish, brass-plated boor. Good God.
Don't feel bad about the "ruined dinner"; that guy deserved worse. What a jerk!
It is time to come to terms with the increasingly demonstrated fact that the second amendment is a failed social experiment. There has been exponentially more harm from this "right" than there has been good. I'm not just talking about assault rifles, but guns in general. There need to be removed/restricted from society at large. We simply have to accept that granting such rights does not necessarily imply that those given these rights will act responsibly, as too often this is not the case. Repeal the second amendment!
7
I agree with universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons. I also recommend that the current federal excise tax on firearms of 11% be raised to at least $1,000 per new firearm sold in the U.S. Then a buy-back program offer $1,000 per used firearm voluntarily sold to the ATF which immediately destroys the firearm.
This tax would raise the cost of firearms from today's less than $400 to at least $1,000. About 10 million new firearms are sold annually; this tax would cut sales down to 1 million or fewer. There are over 300 million used firearms in private hands--a $1,000 buy back could cut this well below 100 million.
No cheap firearms around and only about two-thirds of them voluntarily destroyed means our gun deaths from murder, suicide and accidents will drop.
2
The US is beyond such existential reform. Sometimes even the most negative aspects of an individual's or an organisation identity reflect an inalienable 'authenticity', as repulsive as they may be.
1
Even the military has some sensible policies with weapons. All weapons are to be stored in the arms room . When no longer needed they are returned to the arms room. When I was in Saigon Vietnam in 1969, there was talk of Vietcong activity in the city. We were all issued rifles and had to carry them with us at all times. We were not given any ammunition just the empty rifles. The second amendment talks about arms ,not ammunition. We should at least pass sensible ammunition laws.
3
@Vincent The killer used less than 50 rounds--which you can buy at a Walmart. So he goes through a background check to purchase, do you think he's going to check a box regarding use that says "shooting spree?"
The problem is not guns. We have had more guns per person than we do now and the violence didn't occur - certainly not while I was growing up. The media has failed to shine the light on where the problem is - with the moral fabric of our people. It is not guns but people killing. Something changed since the 40s, 50s and 60s when we didn't have this violence in schools - the change wasn't guns - the change was in people. Let's put the focus back on the real problem. How our children are being educated and brought up.
4
@2observe2b Tell that to the Liberals. I'm guessing they ain't listening.
When those we elect are willing to confront and deal with the social, economic and mental health problems rampant in our country that would be a good start for stemming the violence that has become endemic. Blaming it on the existence and access to guns is simplistic and we do not have simple problems.
When we see ignorance, arrogance and corruption become the normal course of business in Washington and many of our state and local governments and become willing to elect honest and dedicated representatives perhaps I would begin to have hope.
But I don't. I'm afraid it is becoming worse until it engulfs us all. The public seems to becoming more ignorant and our politicians seem to becoming more corrupt.
So things seem to be spiraling downward and have not hit bottom yet.
1
I’m wrestling with our latest brand of hero — kids who tackle gunmen and die. It is not their courage or sacrifice with which I wrestle - those are immutable - but rather, that we who remain applaud their heroism as if it is a solution. As if to say, “See, brave children are all we need to minimize the carnage.” I don’t want to call them heroes, because I am so filled with anger that we use this label to somehow normalize their courage. A child hero should be someone who saves a friend from drowning or catches a child dangling from a ski lift. They should never be asked to jump on an active shooter. That’s not ok. We have failed them and asked them to be heros when we should be asking them only to be kids.
11
The NRA doesn't buy guns - people buy guns. The NRA is simply an expression of the perspectives of the members or at least most of them. NRA members vote and make political contributions. Their views are protected by the 2nd Amendment. Liberals hope to do away with it just like they want to do away with the Electoral College. Unfortunately, we don't exactly know what the 2nd Amendment means as SCOTUS has never issued a thorough and specific interpretation of it. Criminals, terrorists and the mentally disturbed will always find a way to translate their thoughts into violence and action whether it be guns or something else. Timothy McVeigh perpetrated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed or injured hundreds. Dem liberals pat themselves on the back every time they score a political "victory" like limiting magazine capacities from fifteen to ten which has no practical effect other than allowing them to crow about the great victory. Most of those who rail about assault weapons think they are fully automatic, mindless that federal law already prohibits civilians from owning them. The bigger question is why are there active shooters? What drives them? How can society intervene to recognize and help them? Take away their guns and they may just switch to bombs, which would be worse. Perhaps allowing law abiding and trained citizens to carry guns, teachers in particular, may end up being the most effective solution. Who knows?
2
Google says that the costs related to gun violence is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Something close to our defense budget. Seems high but whether the data is correct or not I think these costs should be specifically borne by gun owners. Maybe if they had to pay several $100 dollars a year to have the right to have that gun they might agree to measures that would make them safer and therefore reduce their tax.
While their parents must feel enormous pride for their children's heroism, they are also experiencing life altering, unbearable grief. No parent should ever have to go through that. We can't keep pointing our fingers and saying it's someone else's responsibility to stop this. It's everybody's responsibility.
3
Why aren't the insurance companies more involved? Before anyone buys liability or life insurance, the insurance companies should ask if they have guns, because if they do, there's something like a 300% greater chance of a shooting. Doesn't that effect their bottom line?
@David R Guess what, its none of their business and they have no way of knowing if someone has guns. I would invariably check the "NO" box.
Safe storage of guns: Would require a constitutional amendment; SCOTUS found this law invalid already as it impedes your right to self-defense.
Voluntary gun buybacks: Look at the guns they get at buybacks; they're almost exclusively single-shot shotguns and busted up pump shotguns. These guns just sit in closets otherwise-they're a waste of time and money. No one is going to turn in a $500 AR15 for a $75 gift card.
We should also invest in “smart gun” technologies: If there were a market for that, the market would be producing them.
We need more “red-flag laws”: Seems like lots of states are already adding those.
Why do we bar people on the terrorism watch list from boarding planes while still allowing them to purchase guns? Nick, you're too smart to be asking this question. The watch list is opaque--there's no due process for getting on it or off it. Depriving people constitutional rights based on something lacking due process would immediately be struck down (and thank god for that).
You've suggested a list of items that have ZERO evidence-based support. Why?
2
As along time administrator of an elementary school in a state that pretty much gives free reign to those wanting to arm themselves, I am furious, disheartened, in disbelief that we have not been able to just make the statement that this is simply not going to continue. There has to be action behind that statement. But it appears we are willing to make children’s death just collateral damage from the unspeakable events. Who are we? What do we stand for? Aren’t you all outraged? Are you willing to finally DO SOMETHING to take the gun lobby on and the guns off the streets and homes?
2
@Eva O'Mara "Do something, do something!" Like what? There are 380 million guns out there in private possession. Ban them? Good luck with that, won't happen. Sorry, but as long as their are evil and sick people out there this will continue to happen. Might be a gun, a bomb, a knife, a car, or poison. Who knows.
Seeing the kindergarteners with arms aloft surrounded my cops in flack vests isn't reassuring. Our schools are under siege from within. All of us are complicit in terrorizing the generation of children born after columbine who aren't safe in their schools; nightclubs; malls or their homes, cars and neighborhoods. The shootings are terrorism that has nothing to do with a well regulated militia. Whether a domestic incident; drive by or mass shooting our nation is culpable every time we turn our heads away. Every one of us must push gun reform.
4
Until we take adequate measures to protect our children from a violent gun death in the middle of their school day, our society is engaging in child abuse. We must acknowledge that, and we must reform gun legislation now. Case Closed, to quote gun rights advocate Mitch McConnell.
4
We can stop the carnage without repealing the Second Amendment and need only look across the Atlantic to Germany which has the fourth highest rate of gun ownership in the world after the US, Switzerland, and Finland, and yet one of the lowest rates of gun violence (57 gun murders in 2015 in a country of 80 Million people). How do they do this? Universal licensing and background checks which include checking for a criminal record, a record of substance abuse or mental illness or any other attribute that makes the person questionable to authorities, and for someone younger than 25, a psychiatric evaluation. Safe storage of guns is required and the police have the right to enter the home of a gun owner to examine the safe storage procedures. There are more regulations some of which would not be compatible with the Second Amendment, e.g., limiting gun ownership to hunters, competitive shooters, collectors and security personnel, i.e., it excludes self defense as a reason to own a gun, but the point is, Germany had several school shootings and it learned from them and acted. Germans still own a lot of guns, it's just less likely that guns fall into the wrong hands. Oh, and German police authorities estimate that Germany has 5 times as many illegally-owned guns as legal guns, yet gun violence is not common. In short, the American arguments against sensible gun regulation do not hold water.
1
@G James, How they do it is a homogenized nationality, that in these times is slipping away with a rising crime rate. They also jail people for hate speech. Is that what you want?
Why hasn't reasonable, rational gun control legislation been put forth by Senate Majority Leader McConnell?
Money.
NRA spent $54.4 million in the 2016 election cycle. All of that $54.4 million, except $265.00 dollars, went to Republicans.
But let's not just blame just Republicans. For years, Senator Murphy introduced or cosponsored legislation to close loopholes in our background check system; to make it illegal for those on the FBI terror watch list to buy a gun; to end the ban on gun violence research at the Center for Disease Control; to encourage licensing requirements for handgun purchases; and to help keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. And he's repeatedly said we need legislation to outlaw machine guns from being on the market (i.e., the 'fully automatic', 'bump-stocked semi automatic', type of guns).
Why didn’t Harry Reid put gun control up for a vote? ‘Because the votes weren't there'. Actually, Harry received plenty of $$ from NRA.
Democrats in the House need to finally take the ball on passing comprehensive gun control legislation, and force Republican senators and Trump to say no to it.
And when Republican senators say no to such legislation, then, and only then, will we get the turnover we need in the Senate to get something done on this vital topic.
There are so many guns out there now that even changes to the gun laws will not keep students safe. The federal government needs to start taxing gun manufacturers, gun owners, gun sales, and ammunition sales to provide fences, metal detectors, and armed guards at every school to keep children safe. People don't want to believe that these things are necessary, but it's time to face reality. If gun owners want the right to own guns, they should bear the responsibility of paying for gun violence.
2
Before reading this article, I read about Alabama’s proposed abortion ban. Why aren’t all right to lifers recognizing the hypocrisy of saving the ‘life’ of a few cells but putting the right to own firearms over the rights of children to peacefully attend school. Our distorted value of life can be extended to training young men and women become killing machines and then sending them off to risk their lives in a part of the world that has little to do with the defense of our counrry.
11
Fine, change the laws, do everything we can
but until then and for many years yet to come
whatever we can do in a regulatory way
there will still be millions of guns out there
and crazy people to use them.
How did they get into the school armed?
What happened to security and metal detectors?
2
We honor the dead with silence,
holding their memories in our palms
before setting them into the earth.
Even those who have died
in a maelstrom of bullets
are honored in this routine –
honored routinely
it seems,
their coffins a collage
of sympathies bound by
candle lit prayers and moments of silence.
But silence is as bulletproof
as silk, and even less so,
because at least silk has fiber to it.
Silence consists of nothing but air –
the absence of human voices.
We honor the dead
with silence,
as if there were dignity
in remaining mute.
4
STEP 1: Reframe the conversation in terms of gun safety and a return of the NRA to its founding principles. In 1871, the NRA was founded as a civilian-military joint project to help improve soldiers' safety and marksmanship. In 1934, Erick Fredrickson, then NRA president and olympic gold medal sharpshooter, addressed Congress, expressing the opinion that gun use should be strictly limited and gun ownership be a process of strangulation (his words). He used the accurate meaning of the 2nd Amendment--that guns are a COLLECTIVE and NOT an individual right. 75% of NRA members support increasing gun safety. The remaining 25% are NRA-ists, the most dangerous of domestic terrorist groups, who support the horrible gun slaughter of upwards of 35,000 deaths per year and more than 60,000 nonfatal gunshot wounds per year. In the 18 years of the war in Afghanistan, the number of military killed is upwards of 2,700 with the wounded being upwards of 30,000. That's about 151 deaths per year versus 35,000 on US soil; and upwards of 1,700 wounded per year versus over 60,000 per year on US soil. The evidence shows that the NRA-ists are a terrorist group that is far more deadly to those in the US than military in a war zone in Afghanistan.
1
@John Jones, Most people that own guns, the vast majority of people that own guns, don't belong to the NRA. Take it for what that means. Some people think they're too soft on gun rights while other people can't be bothered. And you're mixing suicides in with you figures, and minority crimes, too. Take them out and you have the gun death rates of Canada or England.
Some say gun control laws (restricting ownership) do not work because criminals will ignore them. This is entirely false.
The National Firearms Act of 1934 severely restricted the ownership of automatic weapons (e.g., Tommy Guns) which were readily and lawfully available up to that point. In the time since the law was passed, it is very rare for a truly full-auto weapon to be used in a mass shooting in America (bump stocks are different, but are now banned).
The astonishing thing is that owning a full-auto gun today is still legal, but you must go through a rigorous ATF permitting process to obtain one. This law has been extremely successful in nearly eliminating their use in crime.
It would be a reasonable amendment to add semi-auto assault rifles to this historically effective statute. I own several such rifles, and I would support such legislation restricting their ownership and transfer. Whatever pleasure I have had from owning and using semi-automatic assault weapons is not worth the loss of life to one more student.
I now despise the NRA and am no longer a member because of its inconsiderate lobbying against modest reform. I previously joined the NRA because of it’s worthwhile programs emphasizing safe use, regulatory compliance, and hunter education. I’m beginning to feel the same way about supporting Republican candidates.
12
@Boethius, That's ridiculous. Criminals switched to a more compact automatic weapon. Ever heard of a MAC-10 or UZI?
Boethius,
Thank you for your actions against the now dangerous NRA. I pray that many other NRA members will see the light. For now, we are Lockdown Nation.
How is it that gun owners are not required to pay a yearly license and have insurance against misuse as I do for my car? My car is not even designed to kill, as guns are. If we made the cost of gun ownership more commesurate with societal costs, as we did with tobacco, that would make ownership go down. How is it that one person in LA had over 1000 guns?? And that wasn't even the first mega-stash of guns in the area. No gun should be sold without a means of tracking it. Like the 2nd amendment this part of our life is mired in the 18th century.
6
@E Campbell, Gun ownership is a Right, car ownership is a Privilege.
What kind of a country permits gun violence go on an on, year after year and has done NOTHING to stop it. What kind of country sells automatic weapons to anyone who wants one? What kind of country is forced to have their young children fearful when they go to school and have to practice lock down drills?
The cherry on the cake: the NRA is not required to pay taxes!
To add insult to injury, as I understand it, fire arms are not permitted in D.C. Our politicians don’t have to practice lock down. They also don’t have to worry about their medical bills as tax payers are paying for their health insurance, or so I understand.
Drilling, poor public education college beyond the reach of a majority of the young.
The State of the Union is truly discouraging.
We have lost our sense of values.
12
There are so many people who do want reasonable gun and yet the legislators cannot pass reasonable gun laws. Why is that? People want to be safe. People want background checks. People want a ban on assault weapons and yet elected officials will not pass these bills. We managed to change the House so that there are legislators there now who do support gun safety measures. Please make sure that when you vote next time, the person you vote for also stands with you on legislation that will help protect all our citizens.
7
Our Constitution does not guaranty the right of every individual to "adopt a dog" or "board a plane". It does however guaranty each individual the right to own a firearm. This right has been interpreted to allow our government to place certain limits on this right-limiting automatic weapons and requiring background checks when purchasing from those with FFL just to name two. How about a constitutional amendment to expressly allow all individuals, subject to very specific limitations such as those judged guilty of a felony, those judged mentally ill, as examples, the right to own and posses without any registration requirements. We should remember that he purpose of this constitutional right is to arm a militia (individuals) to protect the citizens from an oppressive government. We must not lose sight of that!
1
@clayton e woodrum
You are wrong, the right to bear arms is to protect the continued existence of state militias. Individuals are not a "militia." The militia arms and ammo were stored in central locations. (Yes, individuals also had firearms.) The founding states were not particularly worried about the federal government, which did not even have much of a standing army. They were worried about slave revolts.
You're kidding Right?
Mr. Kristof has described a country that has descended into a state of anarchy. There are only two possible solutions to gun violence in America. The first is to repeal the Second Amendment. The second is to move to a less violent country. No one dares talk about the first option. I represent those who have chosen the second one.
14
Me too!
Young people and children shouldn't be the only thing standing between the victims and the next school shooter.
The majority of Americans support sensible gun safety laws. Even the majority of NRA members support some of those laws.
The only way to get done what we need is to get rid of Republicans. As someone who isn't a member of a political party and who occasionally voted for Republicans, I'm sad to say that but it where we are.
Until every Republican feels threatened by inaction, nothing meaningful will change.
11
Any self-loading firearm with a high-capacity magazine will kill or injure far more victims than a single-shot rifle such as a bolt action or lever action that needs to be reloaded one round at a time.
A six-bullet revolver is a reliable self-loading handgun, in the snub-nose versions much beloved by LEOs, Hollywood film-noir detectives, and gangsters alike, as a reliable back-up that can be tucked away out of sight.
In the bulkier and heavier versions, a typical revolver still fires only six rounds before needing to be reloaded one round at a time, even if you're Dirty Harry.
Contrast this with a semi-automatic pistol, a widely available handgun that takes typically a high-capacity removable box magazine or a removable drum magazine that contains up to fifty rounds in the case of some Glock handguns.
Fifty rounds from a single, removable drum-magazine shot from a handgun that make target can kill or injure badly fifty humans not wearing body armour.
The slower the muzzle velocity of a firearm, the slower the bullet through the body, the more likely it is to cartwheel, the more likely it is to ricochet off bones, bouncing around inside the body, ploughing wide channels through soft tissues, severing major arteries and veins, causing fatal internal bleeding, or ripping apart vital organs.
The public safety issue is not just so-called 'assault rifles'. Any semi-automatic firearm has the potential to kill many victims with bullets shot from a single magazine.
6
Yes, the bravery and courage shown by these young people, students who risked and lost their lives to same their friends and schoolmates, should serve as an example. But, unfortunately, our older generation will probably fail them once more. Cowards we elect to Congress who are more afraid of the NRA than protecting the interests of their constituents will fold once more. than
And we the public are at fault too. There are gun owners that favor some form of gun control - 1) there are some guns that no one except law enforcement and the military should posess, and 2) there are individuals who should not possess any weapon. No need to elaborate, just apply common sense. But we don't.
After each school shooting we listen to our politicians as they ask for silence to respect the dead and not to politicize their kids of life. We abide and then go silent as we continue with our everyday lives, and abandon any possibility of change in the process. But the silence of the majority speaks as loud, if not louder, than the money supplied by the NRA.
The same young people who spoke up after the Florida Parkland school shooting are our best hope. May the courage of these young people be an example to the rest of us. If we cannot change by their example, let's hope that they not fail their children and they provide a safer America for their children than we did for ours.
4
A well regulated militia. It seems to me that that phrase allows for regulation of firearms since it appears we are all in the militia by living here. So why don’t we do just that?
The American voter doesn’t think gun violence will affect them. And until it does they won’t vote for politicians who will perform their duty and regulate.
So sad. And thank you to those who don’t have to have personal experience with gun violence to know we have the right and the obligation to regulate guns. And we wonder why our kids are anxious and suicides are in the rise.
3
I was once with an exchange student from the U.S. (a registered Republican who wasn't impressed by Trump). A level-headed gut, yet he was aghast when I told him about the gun controls in place here. Such as the Police can turn up at your home and demand to inspect your gun safe, and also the total ban on handguns in civilian hands (although they can be stored at a gun club's safe).
So if the average Joe like him can baulk at the level of gun control we have here, just shows how difficult it's going to be to change U.S. gun culture. It's like trying to get the Titanic to make a U-turn.
Not saying that it can't be done, but it will be a long and hard job.
3
Very little benefit accrues to the nation when op/ed writers follow an ill-informed emotional herd. We can stand up to mentally ill shooters. We can stand up to politicians that exploit tragedy. We can stand up to media that sensationalized events to increase circulation or ratings despite the proven copy cat effect. We can stand up to the purveyors of hate that encourage violence. We can celebrate pure, instinctive heroism and forever memorialize the heros. The absurdity of "standing up to guns" is breathtaking, particularly when proposed by Nicholas Kristof. I rarely find fault with Mr. Kristof's opinions but this column struck me as self-serving & counter-productive. I am confident the writer knows better. I would expect Mr. Kristof to defend the Constitution especially when doing so might be unpopular at the moment.
3
@mike4vfr
Sometimes the "herd" is "emotional" for a reason.
Right now, the reason is that people are being shot all the time, including kids in school. It keeps happening.
Standing up to guns means standing up to the profiteers who peddle military weaponry and the grasping, fear-driven populace who enable them.
Somehow I expect that many gun enthusiasts' ardor for defending the Constitution falls down when faced with, say, checks on the executive branch, but hypocrisy is a lighter sin than facilitating thousands of murders.
10
@Dan, thanks for your reasoned (though emotion ladden) response. It is completely understandable that Americans are universally outraged by the devastation caused by those very few people who kill innocents of any age, by any means. As "mass shootings" are customarily reported, there is generally no defense offered for civilian possession of semi-automatic firearms or even firearms of any type. Americans have been conditioned, with our all-volunteer military, to expect to enjoy freedom & security without subjecting themselves to danger or even inconvenience. The historical truth is that freedom is only gained and preserved by citizens willing to sacrifice and even fight. Start your reading list with Aristotle and follow the history of democracy from there. The Romans, the Anglo-saxon tribes, English common law leading up to our Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights, all required military service in some form in exchange for the rights of citizenship. Consider the history of the 20th century. The number of civilians murdered by lawful governments, (mostly authoritarian) and not including casualties of war provides context. Start with the Holocaust, then Stalin's purges, Mao's cultural revolution, the killing fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia, the Armenian genocide, the list goes on! At the low end 200 million men, women & children dead in 100 years. That's an average of 2 million every year, almost 5,480 dead every day! The historic cost of disarming civilians.
2
Could you explain a little more what you think is absurd? Thanks.
1
This isn't rocket science. When the second amendment was drafted they had flintlock pistols and muskets. They didn't have military assault rifles and rapid fire weapons. I'm sure the people who framed the constitution would be aghast at the ineptitude of politicians expressing their "prayers and thoughts" for the mass shooting victims of the many gun massacres that take place in the US. Unless there is some change of heart and introduction of the type of gun control laws that prevent ready ownership of these weapons as we have in Australia these lamentable, preventable and horrific events are just going to continue. The primary duty of any leader is to arrange for the safety of the citizens. Failing to do this is dereliction of duty. Want proof? Just look at comparative gun death statistics for the US and Australia.
12
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It is beyond ridiculous that any court or reasonable person can read these words and say that the second amendment gives a private citizen the right to own an assault rifle. The problem isn't the Second Amendment. It's the willfully corrupt interpretation by judges and politicians.
10
@Barton, it is distressing to see passionately held beliefs based on incomplete information. Sadly, that has become the norm with regard to this issue. Almost every critic of the 2nd Amendment as it is currently interpreted relies on the near universal misunderstanding of "A well regulated militia..." The Militia Acts of 1791, (passed by Congress a week apart in May of 1791) required that every male, with very few exceptions based on occupation, age 18 to 40 would be required to participate as a member of the local militia and would maintain a musket or rifle in good working order at his home. The 2nd Militia Act was much more specific with regard to maintaining the equipment & ammunition required to, essentially provide for one full day's fighting. (24 rounds, powder & ball/bullets, powder horn, cartridge pouch, spare flints, etc.) Furthermore, militia members were subject to the inspection of this equipment by the Officers & NCO's selected to lead their local unit. In addition, militia members were required to maintain & demonstrate their skill with their weapon of choice at periodic marksmanship competitions (usually semi-annual "Turkey Shoots", held as part of holiday celebrations) To summarize, the 2nd Amendment & related federal law required that virtually all males of military age keep militarily useful weapons & a days fighting ammunition supply at all times. It was not voluntary and did not accept hunting or sporting guns as meeting requirements. Google it!
4
Read Scalia’s opinion in DC v Heller. Your interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is not shared by USSC. Scalia abhors the violence and the fear-driven mindset inflamed by NRA. He outlines multiple ways in which guns may be regulated without affront to the 2nd Amendment. We are nowhere close to implementing such regulations. That is Mr Kristof’s point.
3
@mike4vfr
So we can make the same requirements of gun owners today, and should if the Second Amendment cannot be otherwise made safe for citizens.
Also, you are ignoring the fact that the militias stored guns and ammos in central locations in the towns. It was not just about individuals having guns.
As a non American in a country with a very low ownership of guns I can attest that guns are NOT essential. Having guns makes you less safe not more. People keep harping about having guns for security but if your attacker is unlikely to be in possession of a firearm then a baseball bat is as good a weapon as any. I have an anecdote, someone entered my house one night through the kitchen window, I immediately grabbed a hockey stick and went downstairs to investigate with my father behind me. The intruder saw me and ran away the way he came. If I was in the US and even if I had a gun, how could I be sure the intruder wouldn't have a gun and fire at me first?
I also hear the argument for "responsible gun ownership" which is highly flawed. In my country some civilians who do get guns are usually young rich people with no criminal records, go to good schools etc. But every once in a while there is news which goes something like "Altercation outside nightclub leads to shots being fired". In a country where nearly everyone can get access to guns that risk goes up by orders of magnitude.
Guns aren't essential, Americans have to let go of this notion that guns are necessary for survival. Once most guns are removed, then use of guns for security is removed. The only legitimate civilian use then remains security for high value targets or hunting.
7
First, take a look at Fox Butterfield's book, All God's Children. Not that I agree with it all, but it showed how few murders there were in old New England in the early 1800's, while the South had the murder rates of our worst inner cities (over 40 per 100,000 people per year). Among his theses are that freed blacks wanted to act like the violent "honor-bound" masters after the end of slavery, and they brought that approach into the northern ghettos. I leave that thesis to you to ponder.
What we do know is that the old Calvinist upbringing with a focus on self-control did not produce many murderers, and such people could own guns and not aim them at other people, except in war.
Today, we are raising incompetent young people, who, lack self-control, cannot regulate their emotions, cannot sustain the effort to succeed in work. school, or relationships, and who are not competent to own guns.
We need to return to higher pressure to behave, and then we need to funnel out the ill-behaved into more quasi-military settings in which young and older teens learn to work and behave well, or they should be further funneled out into some kind of work corp or foreign legion, but kept away from the rest of us.
Raising self-disciplined citizens takes a lot of work and attention and monitoring of behavior as control precedes self-control, before the reigns are transitioned to the young person as self-control. But taking guns away from little barbarians won't make them less barbarous.
1
@Craig Mason IF we are going to take this action we need to start at the top. While of course he's more of a symptom than a cause, it's no question that there's been a general lowering of behavior since Trump became president. Hey, he even joked that he could kill somebody and there wouldn't be a response.
4
“But taking guns away from little barbarians won’t make them less barbarous.” is a patently false statement. NO other industrialized country is facing such routine acts of gun violence. This scientific fact isn’t due to there being more American “barbarians”, but rather fewer guns in the hands of these other counties citizens.
your previous comments are so off base and bigoted i’m not even going to respond.
1
Since America either can’t or won’t do anything to restrict ownership of firearms, here’s a modest proposal. Why not issue schoolchildren with body armor? I don’t pretend that this is the perfect answer, or even that it would save every life in a school shooting. But having ready access to ballistic vests — preferably the kind that can be donned quickly and have inserts capable of stopping 5.56 mm ammunition fired at close range — would at least give kids a fighting chance. Mostly likely they would never be needed. But this doesn’t stop us from insisting that cruise ships and passenger jets carry life vests. Too expensive? How about financing this with a small tax on gun and ammunition sales? A tax on gun ownership — an annual licensing fee, for instance — might be another possibility, however fraught. But a bullet tax would probably be the best bet: this way, every shot fired in America at a gun club, bus stop or at a deer in the woods would contribute to making American children safer.
Great title. Perfectly describes his relationship with his supporters.
We need leadership. If we had it, we might be able, as a nation, to restore our humanity.
3
The gun violence epidemic can be traced to two sources:
1) Life is tough in America (a single adverse event can make a person or family poor, and the poor get only harassments and no sympathy), while our culture is moralistic, and schools, churches, and the media do not ask people to think. The combined effect of these things is that Americans are very aggressive (most European countries are far less so) and problems tend to be solved by blaming someone, which tends to mean either impulsive or official violence.
2) The almost all-powerful NRA is an interest group lobby, and such groups control American politics. Corporate and interest group lobbies are more important than voters, who are in effect handled with advertising and public relations efforts. Thus, the recurring mass shootings are partly caused by the dominance of money in politics.
The proper name of both problems is capitalism. And particularly our extreme form of it. It is a form of that prefers the freedoms of capital and the wealthy to all other values, and so tolerates the great deal of violence that so much defines American society. Societies that are less neoliberal are less police states, and they are more peaceful.
We have the best ways of dying and living in terror that the profit capital makes from workers, consumers, home buyers and tenants, debtors, students, and prisoners can buy. It is only too bad we do not get a vote in how they spend our money. Others wield influence in our place.
10
@William Heidbreder Crime rate in socialist Venezuela is the second highest in the world.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Venezuela
I am tired of ignorant demagogues blaming capitalism for everything, from crime to ecological degradation, when a ten-second Google search will show that socialism has fared much worse in every category you can think of. Sure, Norway and Iceland have much lower crime rates that the USA. Both are capitalist countries. However, they have sensible gun laws and we don’t. That’s the difference.
Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms. - Aristotle
If you value your freedom, you can't consider giving up the one right that protects all the others.
4
@The Observer
Your freedom ends where my freedom from injury gets violated.
Freedom is not unlimited, unlimited freedom is anarchy. And that is what we are dealing with.
23
At the risk of mentioning reality, it isn’t the government that’s breaking in and opening fire.
3
The people who want to restrict gun ownership generally are not tyrants nor oligarchs. They are people who fear guns and anyone who has them. It’s fear of unknowns that motivates them.
2
@Casual Observer
It's the fear of the known.
5
You know that all gun owners are ticking bombs, then?
1
Guns have been around for a long time, including semi automatic guns. All of a sudden they are the problem. The problem is our children. With all the video games and movies they become desensitized to violence. We need gun control in hollywood movies and video games. Ban guns in all movies and see how that plays out. The media does a good job of playing up gun violence, but neglects other tragic deaths with children. More children drown each year then are killed by guns. Maybe we should ban all backyard pools. All I know I have been around guns my entire life, and no one shot up a school when I was young. No violent movies or video games back then. You settled you beef with your fist, not a gun.
4
@Kevin McGrath There are strict laws regarding fences around pools and pools are not designed for the purpose of killing humans. You analogy is flawed. ( In 2014, 2,549 children (age 0-19) died by gunshot and an additional 13,576 were injured)
The common denominator in firearm injuries/deaths is the tangible firearm, which can be regulated.
There is no cure for puberty, rage, anger and other emotions common among children and adults
11
@Kevin McGrath. I don’t know how old you are, but aside from the 1966 University of Texas massacre, there were 24,000 gun homicides in 1968. There were an estimated 90 million guns in the US, and 45% of households had at least one gun. Yes, those statistics have worsened over the decades, but here’s one that has improved: the death rate for motor vehicles has dropped steadily since the 1960s, largely because we have taken active measures in designing cars, mandating safety features, and the like. Not so with guns: instead we have abdicated our responsibilities to reduce gun violence in the country.
12
@Kevin McGrath You are calling for censorship. In other words, let’s ditch the First Amendment to protect the Second (or rather, your misrepresentation of it). In any case, I just came back from Italy and Switzerland. Guess what? They watch the same violent movies and play the same games as we do in the US. Actually, European horror novels and mysteries are actually more violent (though better written) than their American counterparts. And yet the rate of gun crime in both countries is a fraction of what we have, and there are few, if any, school shootings. The difference is that guns are regulated and licensed, and gun owners trained (especially in Switzerland). You have to show why you need a gun. Fantasies of taking on the US Army with your pea shooter or repelling a zombie invasion don’t count as a need.
16
Come on now folks, let's get serious. The ghastly, grisly gun killings in this country have nothing to do with our 2nd Amendment right to bare arms. Simply put a group of gun manufacturers joined forces, put forth an Association (NRA) to assist in the selling of weapons and thereby substantially increase its profits. Later, contributing financially to Senators and Representatives election campaigns bought them a law absolving them from any and all responsibility resulting from the shootings, killings and malfunction of said weapons.
Think about why 27 little words, 3 commas and one period (the Amendment) has managed to bring untold grief to tens- of -thousands of survivors of these deaths and why nothing is being done to remedy this catastrophe !
As the man said.....follow the money.
9
Want to get serious about standing up to guns? Then it's time to stand up to the GOP.
10
One immediate penalty, take away the NRA's non-profit status.
Like NOW.
14
It was time to “stand up to guns” after Sandy Hook.
And instead of striking while the iron was hot—and the NRA and GOP reeling—a certain Joe Biden was sent off to study the situation for six weeks and report back.
6
A certain Joe Biden was sent off to study the situation for six weeks and report back.
By then the NRA and GOP had recovered and returned to their usual positions.
1
They are victims first, heroes second. Their blood is on our hands.
5
Mass murders are now become routine in the US whose gun-loving citizens have made Amendment 2, the indespenable law of the land. Add to this, the greed of corporations to make money making and selling guns. They and the NRA have the blood of 1.4 million Americans on their hands, as noted by Kristof!
We are now being privy to the financial corruption within the ranks of NRA leaders which has thrown the whole association into a crisis mode. And the NRA is a non-profit organizations, an insult to worthy non-profits!...what a joke...may their demise come soon.
3
mandate that gun owners carry insurance
1
Let us all honor the sacrifices of American children who lay down their lives on a daily basis to protect our freedom to own guns.
7
Should've been done long ago. The only reason Congress won't pass laws to stop this is greed, i.e. Congressional members are bribed by the NRA. Unless they are completely ammoral.
4
Your comments are well taken of course, but how often do we have to preach to the faithful when the 'cowboy culture' ends in reckless behavior, as guns are so readily available it stinks? The NRA has blood in it's hands, in the name of greed (the selling of ever more efficient and effective weapons for the kill of innocent human beings); but the republican politicians, prostitutes selling themselves to the highest bidder...so they can perpetuate themselves in their miserable congressional seat, however unrepresentative of people's demands for background checks, and the elimination of military style rifles to the sadists out there, mentally deranged and resentful men ( and it's always men), easy prey to hateful speeches 'a la Trump'. Guns galore remain a huge problem we seem unwilling to tackle, cowards as we are in facing the culprits and stop their criminal intent. No courage...other than the few heroes dying in their intent to stop the killers?
3
Truism: Never bring a knife to a gun fight (you'll never win). Well, at least you have the choice to stay away.
Only in America: Guns fights come your children ... who are defenseless.
And our Supreme Court grotesquely says: More guns in more places!
5
Not that it will do any good in moving our nation to do something effective to regulate guns, but here's another way to look at "the gun deaths stats":
Because of the 2nd amendment, more than 2 million Americans have died from Americans killing Americans. The Civil War was Americans killing Americans - 525K to 725K dead depending on how you score the stats. Plus the nearly 1.5 million Americans killed by Americans just since 1970.
I've read where the addition of "the 2nd" was an appeasement to the slave states. Again, that's 2 million Americans dead by guns from their fellow Americans. I really don't believe that's what the "Founding Fathers" had in mind. They'd be appalled to see what their work has done. I am beyond appalled.
Why aren't Republicans and the NRA?
5
We have been listening to these arguments, discussions and pleas for many years now, and what do we have to show for it?
More people killed than ever before....in school, places of worship and business...and we continue to do nothing about it. Our elected officials are beholden to the NRA, and we worship the 2nd amendment as if it were scripture. It is merely a money making device for gunmakers to profit off the killing of innocent victims. I am beyond disgusted at my country. When presidents and presidential hopefuls can be assassinated as well as children at school and it's still business as usual....nothing is going to change so we might as well just accept the new normal....and hope and pray we and those nearest and dearest to us are never in the path of some mad person's guns. And let's stop with the "thoughts and prayers".....empty platitudes from those who could care less about changing anything.
4
Thank you for not mentioning the name of the gun owners who perpetrated the recent shootings. No fame for those who seek it in violence.
2
They banned alcohol. That didn’t work. They banned drugs. That didn’t work. They banned abortion. That didn’t work. They banned drunk driving. That didn’t work. So now banning guns is going to work? Unfortunately, every place where people gather has to have armed guards. We especially should not expect students to protect themselves. It is negligent.
2
Banning guns actually does work. Ask the rest of the world.
182
@Joseph Falconejoe
Actually, MAAD and zero tolerance did and does work.
Banning weapons has worked in dozens of countries. The evidence is clear and solid.
2
What a world we live in that we lose these heroes while cowards who betray our country and the public's safety, like Mitch McConnell, cower in the highest places of our government to protect gun interests.
10
No....it is not time, it is way past time...way, way, way, way, way past time.
8
This issue of lack of political will around simple, sane, responsible gun control laws is (or should be) the moral tipping point for anyone still considering voting for any -- and I mean ANY -- Republican candidate for office (with the lone exception of William Weld for obvious reasons).
If you are a moral, ethical, thinking person who cares about the future of our nation, about our nation's children; who cares about peace and the future of the planet you should not vote for any candidate in what is clearly now Trump's republican party.
The GOP has abandoned honor, abandoned responsibility, abandoned accountability, abandoned simple human decency and abandoned love and compassion. The GOP does not deserve your vote. So don't give it to them.
8
We have 2 dead young heroes because the adults in this country have failed our young people.
Another sad day in America.
9
Twenty years have come and gone since the Columbine tragedy and what have we learned? Absolutely nothing.
7
Why does Congress not act on any meaningful gun control?
See ; https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/nra-political-money-clout/index.html
Mario Rubio, Florida senator and a Republican, took $3 million from the NRA in his last election run. He received more than $1 million just "because", like so many members of Congress. Does anyone actually expect him, even after Parkland (17 killed, 17 injured, most of them teenagers) or the Pulse nightclub shooting (49 killed, 53 injured) to change his stance on guns?
Both those shootings happened in Florida, to Rubio's constituents. Doesn't matter.
7
Escalating anger and hate. Mental illness. Limited access to mental health resources. No healthcare reform. Easy access to guns. No new safety precautions in schools. Soft targets everywhere. Rampant illegal drug availability. Increased suicides.
No action. No plan.
What doesn’t our government understand about this? The inertia is killling people. Do something. Quit talking and fighting and do something.
8
What is the point of making the toddlers in the picture hold their hands on their heads as if THEY are criminals, or at least suspects? Fade that photo to black & white and all that's missing is a Star Of David armband. Welcome to the American Police State.
8
Stop abridging the First and Second Amendments. If you do not like the Constitution then change it. If you do not have two-thirds then you have to live with it.
The real problem: People are not killing people because there are guns. Focus on the causes and correct them.
2
People always say 'It's time to stand up' to guns, to the gun lobby, to the NRA, to the Republican enablers of the gun atrocity in this country, etc, every single time there is another mass shooting. It's
been time' for many years - it's way past time. When is it going to happen?
4
These are deranged times, but one can at least dream of the most sane remedy for this most tragic madness: enact a 28th amendment to the Constitution which is a repeal of the 2nd.
3
@Brian that would invoke a civil war. You will wish that you hadn't tried.
Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell are heroes. How much better it would be for them and their families if they were still alive, doing the things people their age do, with none of us knowing their names or lauding their actions.
Know who's not heroes? The members of congress who turn a blind eye to the sacrifice these two fine young men made in their last moments, because they're too busy prostrating and prostituting themselves to the NRA.
Here are two organizations promoting sanity on gun issues.
giffords.org
everytown.org
7
Another pious, hand-wringing lament that ignores the obvious. Americans are the the most violent, murderous people in the advanced industrial democracies. (See https://ourworldindata.org/homicides) The people who like guns and killing have guns and killing. The people in industrial democracies who don't want guns and killing don't have it. Americans don't mind guns and frequent mass killing. New Zealanders mind it. After the recent mass killing in New Zealand, the government took immediate action to help prevent assault rifles from being used in killings. The first step in addressing any issue in life begins with honesty. Let's be honest. Killing is an acceptable American experience that doesn't trouble enough people to do anything about it. By the way, you're all in my thoughts and prayers. Now let's move on.
6
What can be said of a nation that stands by and does nothing while their children are slaughtered in their classrooms?
5
Brave kids risking their lives for adult failures.
2
New Zealand bans guns overnight after a deadly shooting . Here, no such luck. The reason why ? NRA lobbyists control congress and the president .
10
My high school is conducting tourniquet training for teachers on our next inservice day...hey, we could be next, gotta be prepared.
2
‘The U.S. is the world’s most dangerous industrialized country.
Of all the civilian murders in developed countries, 86 percent are Americans, 87 percent are American children.’ Source: “Beating Guns” by Claiborne, Martin (2019).
Candidate Trump bragged he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
I want a person in the Oval Office who would never have such a thought, let alone make that statement.
Think of the pain that comment caused all the families of past victims of gun violence.
5
Sorry Nick—our representatives don't care. The death mongers own them. Corporations are people my friend and corporations own all the branches of government now. Death makes them money and ask they care about is there bottom line.
3
So instead of good guys with a gun, what really happens is a brave young kid sacrifices his own life to save his schoolmates from gun shooting maniacs, because a lobbying group experts so much influence in at least two branches of government. We loose 1500 kids in ICE concentration camps in 1 year, but outlaw abortions. I’m very confused...
7
Why can’t the government put a pause on all gun sales until we figure this situation out? They banned several Muslim countries from entering the U.S., yet more American citizens are dying at the hands of other American citizens, not foreign terrorists. So why not declare a national emergency and stop all gun sales?
1
@David because nobody would comply. Unconstitutional orders are to be disregarded.
This country needs to stop blaming its' mental health problems on inanimate objects (guns) and start blaming things like prescription meds and the lack of quality mental health care. People are going to kill regardless of the type of weapon available to them. What happens when you ban guns and just end up starting a whole new generation of Timothy McVeighys? People seem to forget that before the days of mass shootings there were bombings that killed 10x more people in each event. Taking guns away doesn't solve anything, a social media background check and psych exam before purchasing a gun would have stopped most recent mass shootings from happening...
1
I am no expert regarding firearms, but ...
We can modify the amount of explosive contained within ammunition rounds.
Pistol ammo is much less dangerous than NATO rounds because the latter have more explosive forcing the projectile toward the target.
Some AR-15s use pistol ammo, even .22 calibre bullets shorter than a fingernail that most of us have seen and used.
I'm a bit surprised that states are not aware of this huge difference and recommending pistol ammo over NATO-type rounds.
As much as a two-hand weapon is needed for women and the elderly over any pistol, I'd much rather see reduced bullet energy and more rounds allowed over the use of the most modern military rounds.
@The Observer that would violate the second amendment. Hunting rifles use the same cartridges that military rifles and carbines use.
The reason we are helpless to protect ourselves from gun violence is, of course the Second Amendment, which is a legacy of slavery. Patrick Henry did not want Virginia to ratify the U.S. constitution because he feared the U.S. government would be reluctant to suppress slave revolts. (Half the states were in the process of abolishing slavery.) The Second Amendment guaranteed local control of the militia (i.e., slave patrols).
No other nation has this peculiar history conflating racism, manhood, and the private ownership of military weapons. It doesn't explain each shooting incident, but it does explain the availability of the weapons.
4
Every single American should be ashamed of themselves. A civilization is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable, and the most vulnerable in any society are its children, let alone its poor and destitute. America has let its most vulnerable down, to a degree few other rich and prosperous societies have in all of history. Shame.
5
@ Yasser Timina, I would argue that even in light of these crimes/tragedies, Americans have a great deal more to be proud of than to be ashamed of. Your continued presence would suggest you agree, despite your superficial rhetoric. America, love it or leave it!
1
There are no acts of gun violence that will change the minds of 'gun rights supporters.' We knew that after
2
Another question: why is the media publishing/showing names and photos of school shooters? By doing this, potential school shooters are provided with another incentive—they will be famous.
1
The NYT published a graph a while ago showing gun ownership per population around the world. It was jaw-dropping startling to see every other country on the planet hovering close to the X axis of the graph and the United States of America shooting upward towards the stratosphere.
Something must change.
4
Mr Kristof,
As pessimistic as I may sound, the truth is this current generation of politicians are all for the lack of a better word, lily-livered!
Cringeworthy...
We did nothing when sandy hook happened, we did nothing good when parkland happened, we won’t do anything now!
Are lawmakers, and the president not going to take action unless this violence hits their own children... that’s what we are waiting for?
I think this coming generation who already have shown such genuine altruistic courage— knowing your going to get shot and still lunged at the shooter without even a thought.
=> This generation will repeal the second amendment!
We have already seen, there is no consensus on what to ban or what not.
Malevolence hosing behind deliberate, willful ignorance...
The thing is a 0.38 revolver in hands of a good shot, can still take down six lives in a matter of minutes. You don’t need an assault rifle.
2
@Ash. There's no reconciling an absolute "right to bear arms" with "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for all. It's a dead end for a civilization to live out a fundamental contradiction like this to the bitter end. Something on either side of this contradiction must give. For now, it's the loss of life for the victims, the loss of the liberty due to fear for many parents, and the resulting impossibility of happiness for most of us.
4
Schools contribute greatly to school shootings by emotionally abusing boys in school, to whit 1) suspensions and expulsions of boys, having no positive effect that anyone can tell; and 2) gender discrimination in grading against boys, leaving them with no college, no good jobs, just "despair," a leading cause of death today according to the CDC.
Schools simply have to stop discriminating against boys. It's the law, called Title IX.
A picture is worth... what? Little innocent children with their hands above their heads as if playing a game. Sadly its no game, its America friends and neighbors, Pathetic and heart wrenching to now see the day where our nation's youth go off to school every day with some of them never to come home again. Unconscionable and criminal that teachers, parents, average citizens, all of us live with the threat of some deranged madman venting his wrath on innocents. Criminal that we don't have stronger gun laws because of feckless legislators who worry about offending and not being supported by their constituents who wail about their right to protect themselves and have the right to bear arms. Maybe the right to own a rifle or a handgun but not an assault weapon, an automatic ticket for slaughter and mayhem. Criminal that the NRA has a cowardly platform and propaganda spiel that spins the message that guns don't kill, only people do - that guns save lives. Drivel and lies. Criminal that we have a president who cares more about placating this disgusting organization and its Rambo imitating base than in speaking out against the epidemic of violence directly related to the ability to easily purchase automatic assault weaponry. Criminal that children now have to protect their peers and give up their lives. Please tell me why this country can't follow the lead of New Zealand or Australia with their incisive actions which would go a long, long way in making America safe again.
3
The only place where we DON'T hear about gun attacks are at airport gates, waiting for a flight. Why? Because guns are exceptionally rare in those public places. For all the GOP carping over TSA, this is one proof point that less guns, yes, actually translates into an American's freedom to not be shot.
Next, we will hear cowards in the GOP offer thoughts and prayers, and do nothing, the party of 'life'. Hypocrites.
3
@Jack so the answer is to make school security as layered as air ports. Guns are not rare in air ports, people travel with them in their checked luggage every day. It's legal.
Had the teachers been trained and armed perhaps no students would have been shot other than the perpetrators. Think about it.
3
Appeals to emotion and your statements are devoid of the whole body of facts.
Fact: 500,000-1,000,000 cases of defensive firearm use annually
Fact: All firearm crime has been on a multi-decade decline despite firearm manufacturing and commerce increasing steadily
Fact: Banning firearms will not stop suicides; Australia immediately saw an increase in hangings when handguns were made more difficult to use
Fact: Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and DC contribute the overwhelming majority of all firearm criminal homicide; when factoring out LEO, DGU, accidental discharges, suicide, and the four major cities where gun crime occurs, you're left with an average of 100 annually for all 50 states (generously rounding up).
Fact: The "mass shooting tracker" is loaded garbage that includes DGU's and even bb-gun shootings, it is entirely political, and not based on accurately reporting so-called "mass shootings."
Fact: Less than 1% of US schools have experienced shootings.
Fact: You're more concerned with achieving political brownie points than solving any real issues. If you did care, you'd be propagating the return of Prohibition, seeing as there are several times over more alcohol related deaths than firearm deaths.
It all boils down to this. More people are saved every year with a firearm than there are all combined criminal actions with firearms. This is indisputable, and you're disgusting for proselytizing on the graves of dead kids.
2
Simple: repeal the 2nd amendment. Don’t like that idea? Hope a loved one of yours is not a victim of gun violence.
1
How?
There are hundreds of millions of guns, mostly uncontrollable and untraceable, out there.
The only thing we can hope to do is to change the culture, so that shooting random strangers or schoolmates is not one of the ideas that pop into crazy heads.
3
It's going to have to get a lot worse before the political will develops to do what must be done. And when the political will finally emerges you can count on gun purists to threaten civil war. Sad.
4
We are past the goodness of words and must move forth to the fight. Good sense is out armed and has been losing the battle for a very long time now, with what should be intolerably horrific consequences. Are we going to accept this reality in which children have to sacrifice their lives to save other children because the adults in their society will not do what is needed to protect them? Those school drills are a nauseating aspect of our current situation and I do not want to believe that I will spend the later years of my live constantly feeling sick because I live in a sick society. These heroes are tragic heroes. They are gone before their lives had a chance to get going, their chance at life taken from them as a result of adult stupidity, adult greed, the country they learned to pledge allegiance to unworthy of their love because it could not love them enough to do what was necessary to save them from violent death. We are sick.
Mr. Kristof, you neglected to mention a policy that would have prevented the Colorado shooting: universal background checks should be required for all gun thieves before they steal a gun.
3
It was time to stand up to guns 20 years ago. We have a Congress (many members) who value the NRA above human life. Unconscionable.
Why submit to reason when our feelings can dictate that guns are the problem? Let’s just look at the numbers that clearly show guns are not the problem.
- There are about 30k firearm-related deaths in the US annually, out of a population of 325m.
- Of the 30k, 65% are suicides, 15% are police “justified shootings”, 17% are criminal/gang/drug-related, and 3% are accidental discharge.
- Criminal/gang/drug-related “Preventable gun violence” brings us to 5.1k deaths.
- 25% of preventable gun violence deaths are from Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, & Washington DC, which liberally “lean in” to gun control legislation.
5.1k deaths is, of course, more than we want. But...
- 36k people die from the flu each year.
- More than 40k people die from drug overdose each year.
- 34k people die form traffic fatalities each year.
Based on the statistics, clearly we should make drugs illegal and ban cars.
But haven’t we made drugs illegal already? Why are people still dying from them? Bans don’t work? People will find a way to do what they want?
And if gun control advocates were so genuinely passionate about saving lives, why have they not advocated for a ban on cars? If gun violence is an epidemic, then “car violence” is a pandemic.
Gun control isn’t about saving lives. It’s about control. In the only nation that acknowledges the implicit right to bear arms as a means to defend against tyranny, some wish we were just like every other country.
3
Nate, I could agree with you; but then we’d both be wrong...
3
Anyone that can look at that young child with her hands over her head, knowing what happened at her school, what happened at Sandy Hook, what happened at Stoneman Douglas, and not have a tear in their eyes lacks human empathy.
And anyone that says that now is not the time to talk about rational gun control lacks a moral compass.
5
Not content with the homegrown slaughter, American arms manufacturers then persuade their politicians to spread conflict and sell arms to people like the Saudis - so the children of Yemen can face the same fate.
5
Being American should come with a health warning from the surgeon-general: absurd risk of death from a madman with a semi-automatic.
US life expectancy and murder rate are 26th and 4th of the 35 countries in the OECD respectively. This is appalling.
1
I quite sadly decided after Sandy Hook that this nation values guns more than its young people. Nothing has changed, again sadly.
6
For once in his pitiful life, Trump could do something to end these man-made tragedies. But he's a coward placating to a minority because he thinks that base will save him. In the meantime, American kids have to grow up quickly and be more of a man, more courageous, than Trump ever has been, or ever will be.
The world is stunned by these repeated atrocities. America doesn't seem to be; insanity is fast becoming normal in this country.
2
Ban guns period. NO GUNS. The "right to bear arms" meant the right to have a military, not to kill our civilians.
3
@Margaret
"The "right to bear arms" meant the right to have a military…"
So wrong. The Founders feared a standing army. That's why they provided for militias in the Constitution, and protected the right of the people to keep and bear arms with the 2nd Amendment.
"…not to kill our civilians."
No one's arguing for that.
2
@Margaret
Don't see the word War Department or Pentagon in the Bill of Rights. Wrong country?
2
Maybe the gun rights activists think it’s OK when only a small proportion of the total population is killed by guns every year, and probably only a few hundred students are slaughtered: an acceptable (sic) human sacrifice, so they can have their gun collections, and so that fellow gun aficionados can have practically any gun, at any time, under any conditions, and of course as many guns as they like. It’s worth the sacrifice of a few lives, to enjoy their second amendment rights to the fullest, no?
I thought human sacrifice was something we weren’t supposed to do.
1
it's time. way past time. if we had pursued this years, decades ago, these kids would be alive, all of these kids would be alive. columbine, sandy hook, stoney douglas, all these children would be alive. but the republicans stonewalled every single attempt. the blood of all these children are on their hands. and i despise all of these "representatives."
@buskat
Think of all the young people who have died at the hands of texting while driving--that's a bunch more. Need to really go after this risk-free life in utopia, right?
1
The Republican Party and the NRA must be defeated resoundingly. It’s the only way. Parkland kids all understand this, everyone else must too. House/Senate/President. Like health care and any issue of substance, full power obtained is clearly the only path.
1
The problem is, a lot of Americans like their guns more than the safety of their families.
5
Like all else, this is a generational problem. As the bloody Boomers (the core of NRA support) die off faster and faster, and are replaced by Millennials and younger who hate the NRA, we'll get sane gun laws at last, and finally return sanity to our country--just as the once gun-crazy Australia did. As Trump showed us, the voters can get whatever they want. They just have to vote for it. Change the voters, and you change everything. The Boomer gun-slingers are going fast. Thank God!
The time to stand up to guns was twenty years ago, after Columbine. We did nothing.
Then Sandy Hook. Little children slaughtered. We did nothing.
Then Vegas. Nearly a thousand casualties from one gunman. We did nothing.
All along, hundreds of smaller scale shootings.
Recently at UNC Charlotte, a witness was quoted that they couldn't believe it was happening. I don't know what bubble she's been living in.
I hope every day that these acts stop, but I will not be surprised when it happens to me it someone I know.
This pathetic fear that keeps guns embedded so deeply in our culture must be erased.
1
Mr. Kristoff: You know that nobody will change the guns culture of this country.
2
Has anyone asked why these shootings either rarely or never happen in private schools?
1
If only the Donald had been there he would have run in unarmed and put an end to the shooting. Based on his own words about Parkland. Who amongst us can say that?
1
The GOP and Trump cultist will call for arming teachers and students over 18. Their thinking is like living the Wild West Dream; which perhaps worked in Dodge City and Tombstone with a very different population in the US.
Many these high schoolers will be able to vote in 2020. My guess is they want gun control not gun proliferation.
1
We can talk about which policies we’d like to see enacted, but what we really need to do is vote the republicans out of office at the state and federal levels. I’ve been a gun violence prevention advocate since we founded Gays Against Guns after the Pulse nightclub massacre, and I’ve been putting my body on the line ever since to try to change the laws. When the NRA tells its members to show up in D.C. to protest, they arrive by the thousands. On our side, we write strongly worded emails. We must do more and we must push harder.
Every single day we are assaulted by the headlines. The damage being done to our government and our planet is disastrous, and sometimes it makes me feel completely overwhelmed. But constitutional crises and climate change means nothing to a corpse. I fight for change because the people who’ve been killed by gun can not. I will not allow my exhaustion and cynicism to win and neither should you.
One thing the gays can teach everyone is the value of “coming out”. We come out as LGBTQ , but everyone can “come out” as gun violence prevention advocates. This can happen anywhere : I recently started a conversation about it in the freight elevator of the World Trade Center! COME OUT and have the difficult conversations. Join Gays Against Guns (we’re the only GVP group that meets regularly, by the way - which is telling in and of itself) or Moms Demand Action or Everytown for Gun Safety. Put your body on the line and demand change. You’ll be glad you did.
2
Where’s that well REGULATED militia to which the 2nd amendment refers?
4
Our eyes are full of tears, our bodies are shaking and our hands reach for the children, parents, teachers... over and over again. Uncle Sam has given in to the gun lobby as the people weep.
1
Simple solution the NRA and GOP will not allow; Register all guns with mandatory $100 registration fee and use the funds from that and $1,000 per gun fines for illegal sales without registration to pay for a security guard outside every classroom and in every place of worship. Seize all unregistered guns and provide federal minimum sentences of ten years for possession.Restrict sales to anyone under 21 without a full psychiatric evaluation.Tax all gun sales at 25% of price. Problem solved.
I was taught to close with and fight a gunman as soon as it is evident that they intend to use the gun. I have taught my children the same. I hope that we are never in this situation but they know that I would rather lose them from being shot in the face than in the back while curled up under a desk.
It is starting to look that we have found a way to dramatically reduce casualties from attempts at mass shootings: fighting back. If an entire room full of people attack a shooter immediately, the shooter will not likely achieve the objective of mass casualties which in turn may reduce the incentive for others to activate similar evil fantasies.
4
You would rather lose your child “...from being shot in the face than In the back while curled up under a desk.” What kind of twisted logic is this? If there are others sharing this bizarre view, we are lost.
@Afraid To Give Name
It is the logic of the few dozen father and sons who stood together at Lexington to block 5000 regular troops and set us on the road to freedom. Wherever free people live, it is dependent on some critical mass of this logic. Death is ultimately inevitable. Living in fear and submission is not.
2
Note the following on gun control around the world:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/worldwide-gun-control-policy/423711/
The US is flooded with firearms per capita and generally speaking, has a high rate of murder per capita, even if rates have dropped.
Part of the problem is that some restrictions are federal but each and every state has its own rules (and some have some restrictions) and municipalities have their own rules too, some more lenient and some not.
One would hope that the federal government would take the lead, but....
But then the federal government never has so, even when this might have been expected.
3
We're past the stage in history wherein anything meaningful can be done about controlling guns. We live in a sick society where much, much more is wrong than merely the NRA, its soulless greed and callous disregard for civilization. Where are these angry young men coming from? What is missing from their lives that leads to this madness? Perhaps there are no answers, but why aren't we even asking the right questions?
1
@gradyjerome I would say the anger comes from Trump as he, in many ways, has made anger and acting on that anger acceptable, particularly toward those he personally dislikes-gays, Muslims, Hispanics, Democrats, and, the press.
Only a perspective derived from the most hermetically sealed kind of suburban white privilege could advocate that poor and working people should be so absolutely outgunned by armies of criminals and criminalized youth with illegally derived weapons, increasingly militarized police forces, and enormous private armies wielded by men like Erik Prince...
...if you take anything from this comment, let it be that the "gun issue" isn't one monolithic issue in this country--it's two different conversations when considering it in America's cities versus in America's suburbs.
The saddest part of this column is the phrase "echoes last weeks bravery of Riley Howell". Last week. Next week, and the week after that.
When will it stop?
Do we really want to stop gun violence in America? In every electoral district in the country, tell your elected officials, either pass sensible gun laws or we vote you out. They need to be afraid of you not the NRA.
3
I've been watching cowboy movies since I was a kid (in the 50s.) Many towns and sheriffs depicted in these stories had the local law that you had to check your guns with the sheriff until you left town, and in real life this happened. In the 1800's. Even that long ago some Americans knew that gun control was the only way to stop the drunks, the crazies, the historically violent from shooting everything up. In the 1800's! It's 2019, we do nothing. Give me the sheriff with some hardline law. Today.
4
This is becoming a weekly and escalating occurrence,...these senseless, brutal killings at the hands of home-grown white men...not Central Americans, not Mexicans, not Middle Eastern immigrants. Time and time again I hear empty words of condolences particularly from DC. I listen to those hypocritical words, "Our prayers are with the victims and their families." They mean nothing without action. I often wonder how the misters Trump, McConnell and their colleagues would react if it were one of their children who were murdered or psychologically and physically scarred for life. And before Trump supporters throw stones at me for this comment, let me be clear: I do not want ANY child to fall victim to gun violence. We can say we should do this or that. But these downright assassinations will not stop until our leadership in both the Oval Office and the Senate changes. Until then, let us at least fight for gun control at the local level. What else can we do?
3
Yes, it is time to take giant steps in the direction of gun regulation. In a book review in the Times today, it is also important to note that "In America alone, more than half of all murdered women are killed by a current or former partner — 50 women every month. Domestic violence cuts across lines of class, race and religion; it is the leading cause of maternal mortality in cities including New York and Chicago, and the second leading cause of death for black women nationwide." We are literally killing ourselves.
1
You know who shoulders the most blame for the continuation of these shootings/tragedies/murders? MITCH MCCONNELL for not allowing the House gun safety bill be brought to a vote in the Senate. Why can't we name it for what it is? McConnell is complicit along with all the rest of the Republicans pandering to the NRA. They are killing our children by refusing to bring House bills to a vote.
2
I think it's time we started to regulate the "well-regulated militia".
2
With no disrespect meant to the victims, I'm really tired of hearing tear-jerking accounts of individual acts of heroism performed during mass shootings. These individuals were admirably courageous, but their individual heroism cannot overshadow our collective cowardice: our cowardice that has allowed for the unchecked proliferation of guns in our society, our cowardice that has set us up for the situations in which kids who can't even legally drink get to play hero/ martyr. No more of this kind of heroism, please. Societal and legislative courage, please.
3
Nick, sorry but the time to stand up to guns and the NRA was over 30 years ago, this changes nothing. It would be nice for the NYT to publish a list (front page) of all of the members of Congress that do not support gun control.
5
Yes, this could be the solution. If enough people are man enough to enough sacrifice themselves to stop shooters, the body count will be low enough that people won't have to be scared of losing their guns.
1
Guns should be banned. If not banned, tightly regulated and insurance required for their owners. I am so mad, tired, exasperated at all the senseless killing. Both singly and multiple killings of wonderful people. We are experiencing industrial terrorism instituted by gun manufacturers and the NRA. Not only does it affect the United States, but the mayhem extends down into Central and South America as well as our firearms flow to those countries.
1
Until we as a species evolve and adopt the 'Star Trek" ethos, which Gene Roddenberry based on a German philosopher of the early 1900's who name escapes me at present, nothing will change. In fact the hope that I had for this country as the new century started has evaporated with the 2016 election, the return to the baron robber ideology and adopting draconian laws like Georgia's heartbeat bill which is in place for just one reason. It gains votes and big donor $$$$$$$. Color me cynical, color be beyond angry, color be me no more "thoughts and prayers" because they ring hollow and carry absolutely no weight, true empathy or understanding. And gun owners - - no one it trying to take away your beloved weapons. But I agree with the poster that if sensible controls are not put into place then that might very well happen. But with a complicit, bought and paid for senate and corruption, lying, cheating and foul play the order of the day and the new normal. I'm not holding my breath. The slaughter will continue, more voices will be raised in useless protest and even more useless, fake platitudes. This US as we knew it is toast. Maybe it will survive, maybe not. But with the coming climate impact and more and more people scrambling for fewer resources, I'm expecting more violence, not less. Color me very sad, color me dead.
2
It must have been Tuesday in America; another mass shooting, this time once again upon another school. But wait! We have come to a point where mass shootings occur in this country on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Now, almost daily. We hardly bat an eyelash.
Teen-age heroes sacrifice their lives to protect their peers because their elected representatives hide under the black capes of callous donors and lobbyists. This is where we've come. This is where we have allowed our "leadership" to take us.
With the folks that we have pulling the strings of government and the shadowy forces behind them, we have turned the United States into one lethal shooting range uselessly assuaged by "thoughts and prayers" and crocodile tears.
The NRA, the Republican Party, the President of the United States, the enablers in his Administration, and all the water carriers for policies that promote the massive, unchecked proliferation of guns in this country are accessories to mass murder and grave injury, including the wanton slaughter of innocent children.
These people are war criminals, even in peacetime. They should be prosecuted and held fully to account as such. And we are accessories to this obscene carnage. We vote them into office.
5
Nicholas.. If Sandy Hook didn't send the definitive message then why would this?
4
On the hopeful side, groups like Giffords are taking advantage of the NRA’s current situation. They’ve reached out to the former and disillusioned NRA members and are starting a group for responsible gun owners. A lot of the people who left the NRA are in favor of gun control legislation.
1
This needs to be removed from an otherwise compelling piece:
"And tell me: Why do we bar people on the terrorism watch list from boarding planes while still allowing them to purchase guns?"
There is no due process for addition to the terrorism watch list, and you know it, Mr. Kristof. Why throw this red herring, something that will allow those who distrust you to write off the entire piece, when you know it is not valid?
If Sandy Hook did not inspire enough politicians to take meaningful steps towards gun control, I don’t know what will. Oh yeah, before I forget, I’m sending thoughts and prayers ...
2
I am 100% in favor of universal background checks. And I am a gun owner. Here in the USA, I would ban the sale to all who are NOT citizens. I would also teach morality, and the TEN Commandments in school, starting in Kindergarten. Ten Commandments too heavy? Too Religious? How about teaching that it is wrong to murder? EVERY religion in the world forbids MURDER!
At what age do we start teaching kids to love and not hate; to be kind and not cruel; to live and let live; to teach INDIVIDUAL responsibility; that personal actions have consequences, sometimes good and sometimes bad; etc.
We teach pre-pubescent children about sex and we ignore individual and group morality and behavior? Sure, parents are largely responsible for the upbringing of their offspring but truthfully, during the school year, teachers have more waking hours of contact with the kids than the parents. And children peer groups can have a tremendous effect for good and don't need to be mean or nasty. Morality can help with that as well.
Parents with guns in the home need to keep them locked up. And no child should have the combination or key to the locked container. And they too must pay attention to morality in the home; none of this rot about do as I say, not as I do. Examples of good must be ever present. And a willing heart and ear given to the children whenever they need one.
There's a pattern emerging that I sadly hope will finally bring about the sensible approaches to our gun-happy society we desperately need.
Put bluntly: to take a twist on the twisted thinking by the NRA it appears the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy, period (who's willing to sacrifice his life for others).
This is a pattern that should end....NOW.
1
The photo of the little girl evacuating her school with her hands over her head is so very sad. A part of her innocence was lost that day. Are the hearts of politicians who have little children like her so hardened that they cannot see this little girl and the victims of the school shootings as human beings with the right to life? Tragically there is little hope that anything will change and this little girl will grow into adulthood in the same culture of gun violence which has become a normal reality in this country. Her photo has been viewed around the world revealing a shameful view of who we are as a nation.
4
It’s ridiculous that it’s easier to legally own and discharge a firearm than it is to own and drive an automobile.
I learned how to use a shotgun for hunting in my youth. Back then the NRA represented hunters, not arms manufacturers. The emphasis then was on gun safety.
They argue against gun CONTROL. We need to propose gun SAFETY.
As another commenter noted: keep it simple.
Thoughts and prayers? I pray the US Congress sends us all to a better place, where people vote like their lives depend on it. Institute real gun control, and hold gun manufacturers and dealers responsible.
2
Please don't offer them your "thoughts and prayers," Mr. Kristof. They don't want them. They've said as much. They want their children back, their children safe in their schools, and sensible gun control measures. I often wonder who is crazier? The gunmen who enter these schools bent on violence and savagery, or the legislators who look into the faces of parents who lost their sons and daughters to gun violence, and then climb deeper into the pockets of the NRA. Who is responsible for more senseless killing?
4
I will definitely be voting D in 2020, but I will also be choosing Democratic candidates based on the strength of their commitment to this issue. Multiple crises have ballooned with the current White House/Senate team - environment, health care, international relations, income inequality, and public school education, which, if fortified, could make the difference in every other area. However, some candidates have decidedly prioritized/voted pro gun control, and others are more wishy-washy. I'll vote for the former.
3
The courage demonstrated, and sacrifice made, by these two young men to save the lives of others through confronting darkness is the embodiment of the best in our nature. We honor their actions, and mourn their loss, along with the loss of so many others.
While we regrettably cannot likely eliminate these types of tragedies from our society entirely, we certainly can take sensible actions to minimize them. Isn’t it well past time? How many more before it makes sense to act?
Godspeed, gentlemen, and thank you.
These kids are heroes, but our admiration for their courage should not make us forget the sheer horror and absurdity of the whole situation regarding guns in America.
I'm sure that a lot of us must have wondered: "would I have had the guts to do the same as these kids?", forgetting that in the vast majority of the world, nobody would ever have to entertain such a question.
(As for myself, the answer to that question is: "probably not")
2
Details of this incident remain sparse, but in general students who are school shooters use guns owned by adults that are brought from home. So we have two contradictory trends: school shootings have increased in recent years, while at the same time the percentage of households owning guns has decreased. This suggests that more than the simple availability of guns is involved; there are also human factors, such as vulnerability to the copycat effect.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the use of terrorist watch lists in the regulation of gun sales because such lists are "error-prone and unreliable."
I agree entirely with Mr. Kristof and all of his proposals are reasonable. I cried for these two young men who so courageously gave their lives to stop a school shooting. But, crying is not enough. I have also written to my congressman multiple times and donated money. When will our legislators take action? Only when an overwhelming number of us make it clear that this situation is intolerable. Only when our voices, our votes, and our campaign influence outweighs that of the NRA. Keep fighting!
4
For all of those that “take a stand”, are you prepared to speak with your wallets?
Are you willing to do the research?
Will you look at secondary and tertiary connections and defund them?
Look at everyone who donates to a Congress/Senate member (which also takes NRA money) and stop support for their business? Will you inform others as to options that don’t have associated blood money?
Will you stop supporting a business because it uses a credit card processor or bank that has ties to guns? Will you take the extra time to make a few phone calls, emails, or conversations with a manager to learn that reality and act upon it?
Are you looking at advertisers on gun related websites, magazines, etc. and their connections?
How deep will you go to make these individuals hear your message in the only language they speak - money.
10
Those boys are heroes.
A mass shooting a week. The right to bear arms was added in order to protect us, and here arms are making us more unsafe in our schools, our places of worship, our streets, our places of entertainment. This right is killing us and is no longer working for the common good.
Here are a few preventive ideas that I haven't heard mentioned or discussed.
As in Germany, require regular inspection in the home for safe storage of firearms. We require car inspections, so why not for gun storage? Charge fees for the inspections, creating jobs and generating additional revenue for towns, added safety for children and everyone. Eventually require retrofitted safety triggers. If you own a gun, it has to be stored someplace.
What is the situation with insurance for gun owners? One would think the premiums should be pretty high, especially for owners of assault weapons and guns most often used to kill people. Very high premiums might be dissuasive. Throw in a tax for a victim compensation fund - perhaps not as moving as thoughts and prayers, but might also bring home the message to shoot responsibly.
I haven't heard much about the liability of people associated with shooters. But it seems to me that if the parents of a shooter failed to secure the weapon properly, they should be held liable. That could get very expensive. That might in turn make other parents and spouses more attentive to responsible weapon storage. Lawyers would love it.
7
The Second Amendment was written at a much different time in U.S. history. Because of what the colonial people had endured in their struggles with England, they had reason to be distrustful of government and reserve the right to rise up through armed militias.
Now, that's no longer the case. America's government is now, essentially, untouchable. We've seen what happens to militia groups with anti-government leanings, and it's not a pretty sight. (But at least they had their guns when they died, right?)
Back in the 18th century, when the Bill of Rights was written, it was understood that gun ownership needed to be responsible gun ownership. It was also a time of more primitive technology, muskets and handguns.
Now, you've got "weapons of mass destruction"-level technology in a single shooter's rifle, and owners have gone hunting other humans for sport.
Times have changed. The NRA and its pocketed politicians must stop hiding behind their Second Amendment shield and understand that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are even more fundamental American rights than the Second Amendment. When shooters are able to snuff out life and happiness in an instant, and liberty is compromised by the fear of deadly violence in what should be safe, sacred places, it's time to make changes.
6
@Jeff so when the time comes for us to rise up, we should just lay down and die? No chance. I will remain armed and the government will remain on notice. I don't care if it's a losing battle. I will die standing before I live on my knees like you.
Mr. Kristof I read your articles. They provide no insight for me. You once lived in Oregon and participated in a rural life, but you have moved so far away. I do agree with you that the best way to honor Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell is to make heroics less necessary. The laws you propose offer little promise - they will only make exercising a right so much more difficult for many lawful Americans and not curtail or eliminate school shootings. We need to focus on the problem and build resilient schools with effective counter-violence action teams. Messrs. Castillo and Howell showed me by their heroic ultimate sacrifice that effective direct action is the answer. Our tactics must be improved so heroism with young lives lost is not necessary but that will take some work, mostly locally, with substantial federal funding support. To be effective and not divide our country further, gun reform must be local not federal.
3
@John There is a flaw in your reasoning. A background check establishes whether or not the potential buyer is lawful. A person who passes a background check can then be deemed lawful. Acquiring a weapon that is solely designed to kill humans effectively from safe distances should not be easy because of an antiquated document from the late 18th Century, before the advent of handguns and automatic/semi-auto mechanism.
So long as persons are not checked at states borders for firearms, laws must be federal, so that guns from loosely regulated states do not continue to flood states with stricter regulations.
6
@Bullmoose Thank you for the honor of reply. I read statistical analyses which state that background checks and the other measures reduce gun homicides. I have regularly run Pearsons r on gun homicides (not "gun deaths") in states and and indices of effective gun legislation from gun control organizations. The result has been from negative to weak (r2 = .17). In many instances shooters have passed background checks and in the case of Sutherland Springs the USAF just dropped the ball. Big federal bureaucratic systems offer slight promise for consistent beneficial results. The only result will be amassing data to use for what they want in the future. Now the greatest portion of all legal firearm purchases have background checks. About 90% of the public wants them and I am fine, but it should be a state measure enforced by local authority. If so, it will work, otherwise it will fail. If we want to address the matter we need local action and local organization to be effective. BTW, some of those 1770 squirrel rifles were pretty accurate and devastating as the Brits learned in their march from Lexington.
1
Regulation of sale of ammunition is part of the solution. Ammunition is only good for 2 or 3 years, unlike the guns themselves.
4
@MN
Ammunition is good for decades.
The Republican Party has been bought and paid for by the NRA. Thanks to it's generous campaign contributions, the NRA has in effect bought itself a political party as far as gun policy is concerned. Nothing will change until this 'party' is voted out of office, from the local level through the state level and up to the federal level. And don't even get me started on Mitch McConnell, as unamerican as they come.
3
Americans feign sympathy and compassion publicly, but in the voting booth they vote for legislators who make no secret of their gun-rights bonafides.
Sadly, these kids will be forgotten by the end of the week, and another dozen will be dead because Americans are tolerant of and indifferent to firearm deaths.
It is baffling and entirely predictable that after the Columbine and Aurora shootings, an 18 year old from out of state can buy a shotgun and Colorado does not require permits, licenses or registration for firearms.
5
I HAVE demanded change from my lawmakers and nothing is being done. I donate, I volunteer, I march. I simply do not know what else to do and would love a call to action with some tangible guidelines for regular people.
9
I happened to be reading the Gettysburg Address today with my students and was struck by how Abraham Lincoln’s words feel particularly resonant to this situation:
“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...”
Much unfinished work to do, fellow Americans. No more young people dying in vain because adults couldn’t stop talking past one another. No wonder our kids are anxious and depressed.
9
Remember: A vote for almost any Republican is a vote for the NRA and against sensible gun safety legislation and regulation.
Keep your kids and the kids of your neighbors safe.
Vote Democratic.
11
We clearly have inadequate gun-control regulations in the US, and these weapons are not properly safeguarded in our homes (minors can get their parents' weapons). People who have no business possessing guns can too readily obtain them.
Kids wear ID badges around their necks all day at school. They go through training drills. Yet these guns get into the schools. Do we need more metal detectors? More school safety officers on patrol?
We know what the real problem is: too many guns and not enough restrictions on them.
At the foundation, we cannot seem to control the NRA. Wayne LaPierre is still running the show, after all these years, after all these tragedies.
But the really deep problem is that we are the experimental subjects in a desensitization campaign. We are exposed to rampant violence on TV and in the movies. Now, we export these things to other countries, and these other countries do not have anywhere near the gun violence we have in the US. So maybe by coupling violent imagery to our lack of gun regulations, we Americans have created a perfect storm of violence for ourselves? We are then exposed to these gun massacres over and over again in the news, reinforcing the feeling that we are absolutely helpless to stop them.
Now that is an insidious campaign by the NRA.
4
Big Tobacco was successfully sued for false advertising in the promotion of a lethal product. What can’t big (NRA) guns?
6
We lost another hero today but somehow this is a referendum on guns. I never hear anyone talking about the sickness infecting our society that is causing so many disenfranchised young men to commit mass murder suicide with no other motivation except infamy.
All of the guns used have been legally obtained. Many of the recent events did not involve assault rifles. None the same old talking points would have prevented these events and the 2nd amendment is not getting repealed. Blaming the gun(other than assault weapons that should be banned)is pointless and will solve nothing.
Chris, we are not talking about banning most common rifles and handguns. You sound complacent about the millions that are dying. How do you explain all the 4 year olds getting killed? Hollywood and videogames have no impact on that. Irresponsible gun owners do.
I still don't understand why the headline "mass shooting" doesn't make people think about guns. You read about neighbors saying, "He (virtually always a "he") was kind of quiet" or family saying "he had some issues, we guess" but rarely ask, "why did this individual feel the need to have guns of this kind?"
I still remember being in a group of people at a bar when George Wallace was shot. The people around me were speculating, "What kind of person was it? White? Black? Politically motivated?" I said, "One thing is sure: it was someone with a gun."
3
It isn't America that has betrayed these heroes and the many before them; it is the Republican Party and groups like the NRA. Both are way past caring about ANYTHING or ANYONE that doesn't further their perverse and dangerous ideology, which pushes paranoia and the "need" for every American to have guns, no matter what the cost to our society. And the cost is enormous; the highest gun death rate in the world, an excessively macho and violent culture, the militarization of our police forces and the huge burden on our health care system, just to name a few.
No one should have to live in such a world. No one should have to tolerate it, either!
2
We should be ashamed. Kendrick and Riley were forced to act because we do nothing. We are now sacrificing our children to political partisanship. This is the national emergency, not the refugees at the border.
8
We can always count on Mr. Kristof to lay out the most recent facts and to provide ideas for sensible solutions on this intractable issue. It's sickening how many times he has had to opine on this.
While some of the kids are standing up to show courage in these most horrific "peacetime" tragedies on their campuses, the current Republicans continue sit back showing their cold-heartedness and/or cowardice.
If any pol can watch clips of those little kids lining up in fear and shock yesterday without being moved to meaningful action to protect and defend these young Americans, they should stop pretending to represent the people.
Perhaps it's time to ramp up the public shaming of these indecent Republicans since nothing else is effective. Anybody care to go in together and buy up some billboards nationwide to start plastering their ignominious mugs coupled with their poor voting records that resist common sense solutions?!
3
We should start with a national referendum on the second amendment. Let each side present its arguments. The NRA can try the “guns don’t kill, people kill” argument. The side that wants fewer gun deaths can present every other country in the world where tough gun laws result in fewer murders. Let the American voters decide.
2
It was time to stand up against guns and against the gun lobby 5 decades ago when the NRA started its sinister campaign gain a stranglehold on our elected officials and to promotion the lore of guns and gun ownership e guns in all to juice the sales and profits of gun manufacturers.
The NRA has not only aided and abetted all the mass murders in our society, it is complicated in undermining our democracy by manipulating our electoral and legislative processes.
Shame on the NRA, the GOP and their gun-loving and heatless base.
4
Incidents like these are the price the NRA and its supporters have been willing to inflict on their fellow citizens since the Reagan era to maintain their (misinterpreted) second amendment rights. It is way past time to just say no to guns.
4
Yes, it's long past time to get rid of guns, but why are so many young people killing each other? We want to say that the kids are alright but it is increasing clear they are not. For sure take their guns away, but my goodness there is clearly something else going on with quite a few of them. It seems like you've all raised quite a violent and mentally disturbed generation. What's up with that?
80
@Neildsmith
Maybe realizing that they are growing up in a society that does nothing to protect them from this mayhem has serious and lasting effects. It’s affecting me, for sure.
35
@Neildsmith Because they sense that the people in charge couldn't care less - but don't just focus on young people killing, there's plenty of mass shootings in America where almost ALL generations can get guns and kill large amounts of innocent people - the psycho in Las Vegas was 64 years old when he killed 58 people & wounded over 420. In fact, in the last 97 mass casualty shootings - the median age of perpetrators was 35 years. So maybe we focus on the GUNS and not the age of the killers.
30
@Neildsmith Yes, let’s blame the parents, or “family values” or poor education or anything but the system that we live in. We have a president who values “winning” and money over human life. We have citizens of this great country that are scraping by with little or no healthcare and barely enough income to feed their kids. Sure, let’s blame the parents for guns in schools. ...wake up.
23
There is no question that action needs to be taken on the guns front. But there is another factor, seldom mentioned. Thanks to relentless marketing, many of our young (and not so young) are on prescription drugs that carry a black box warning - they can cause the person taking them to have suicidal thoughts and to act on these thoughts - committing suicide or homicide as a result of the action of the drug itself. The SSRI/SNRI class of antidepressants are one such class of drugs. This effect needs to be added to the national conversation.
3
Do you think it would help if every federal, state, and local elected official had to attend EVERY ONE of these funerals? Of course, given the number of these multi victim murders, that might take all of their time, but it might make the carnage more human.
2
Yes, make gun ownership like car ownership --- with all the same requirements, costs and penalties. And yes, gun buy-backs with the big financial incentives possible. Money has to be a bigger tool in this fight.
My condolences to the Castillo and Howell families. Their sons are victims of our country's negligence and callousness.
5
Gun violence against innocent victims in this country will continue until the moment that the gun lobby, gun manufacturers and purveyors of the Second Amendment myth finally decide that their need for greed is satisfied.
Of course, that moment will never occur and we all know it. Death has always been about business, big business. Ditto tobacco and countless other immoral causes.
Vote.
Lesser voices are mentioning potential “root causes” for the gun violence at schools and other institutions and on the streets but the easiest focal point are the guns rather than the people pulling the trigger.
So as more students and other people die from people with guns and people continue to cry guns are the issue and nothing changes....hmmmh
Nick - don't you get it? No one cares as long as it wasn't their kid. All the kids who have been traumatized for life by having someone slaughtered in their school - they should be asking their parents why they are not doing everything in their power to stop it - parents vote, kids don't. Every parent in this country could make a real difference if they really wanted to.
2
This is not new information--"America now has more guns than people"--and has been true for more than a couple decades and probably true back in the 19th century. And it isn't politicians being "fearful of the National Rifle Association" that has brought about the fact that we have more guns every year.
It's citizens buying guns and believing in the Second Amendment. There's Kristof's nemesis, dragon to be slayed. Need to stop with the ad nauseam NRA piñata parties and get to the real issue--no guns in America, citizens without access to guns.
There's an idea for a revolution in America.
1
It is silly to work toward repealing the second amendment, or proposing confiscation of guns.
I have solutions worth consideration.
Proposal 1: People who use a firearm while committing any crime - if convicted - should serve mandatory life sentence (minimum 50 years in high security prisons, their assets jointly or singly owned confiscated by the Justice department).
Proposal 2. People under 26, who commit a crime using a firearm, if convicted - should also have parents, guardians and others who cover them in any way (rent, healthcare premiums, telephone bills) serve the same sentence (mandatory 50 years, assets confiscated etc.). If you are asking "why 26?" - please consult Obamacare coverage.
Proposal 3. If a gun registered to you is used in a crime, see proposal 1.
With rights to own guns, come responsibilities, and consequences. These proposals are not aimed at solving the problem entirely. Just making people think twice, and have a social environment in which people don't knowingly enable.
The NRA and gun lobby have skin in the game, so they fight valiantly. Good for them. Why interfere with anyone's rights?
These proposals, if they become laws, will not hurt anyone exercising their right under the second amendment and is law abiding. Buy as many guns as you want, just know that you are responsible for what happens if any of them are used to commit a crime.
My proposals target the dangerous irresponsible monsters that enable tragedies.
I’m tired of hearing the same pro- and anti-gun arguments being made time after time. I read this article thinking that it was about the young man who tackled a school shooter and died while doing so, only to find out that another student had died the same way. Children are being killed. Children are hiding in closets or racing down stairwells in hopes that they will live. Kindergartners are learning how to hide/escape from someone with a gun. Gun registration will not solve this problem. Better mental health care will not solve this problems. The only way to solve this problem is to eliminate all ownership of automatic and semiautomatic weapons. That is it. Everything else is just distraction.
423
@Madeleine McKenzie you can't ban semiautomatic firearms while the Second Amendment is still the law of the land. They are commonly owned and they are not machineguns.
10
@Abraham Collins The right of American children (and adults) to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness trumps the right to own such ridiculous weaponry.
91
@Madeleine McKenzie
I can understand your fear and frustration. We all want safe communities and schools. The problem lies in how to do that.
The challenge is that the disaffected sociopaths seek infamy by attacking high PR value soft targets. They have a wide variety of tools to use.
"Make the bad guns go away" is emotionally appealing, but, as we've seen in the last few years the evildoers simply switch attack methods (bombs, vehicles, knives, fire, etc.).
All of which is why the Secret Service, FBI, RAND, etc. studies discuss a variety of issues.
Peace
6
Every time someone comes on the announcements at my high school, my heart skips a beat. When a lockdown is announced, we rush to the corner of the room, looking at each other, eyes wide. Normally, surrounded by teenagers, someone makes a funny, unseemly comment to break the required silence. But in a real lockdown, it’s dead silent. All we can think about are previous school shootings, and we wonder if our school is next on the list.
Parkland, Sandy Hook, UNC Charlotte...How long does this list have to be until we recognize the need for change? Why don't you understand that young, innocent people are losing lives and there is NOTHING being done about it?
No, we don’t have to take away your precious guns, but how about universal background checks. I mean, come on! “A person wanting to adopt a rescue dog often undergoes a more thorough check than a person buying an assault rifle.” Background checks are just one example of what we should be doing to save America. As the article mentions, we could have safer gun storage, “smart gun” technologies, “red flag” laws... and the list goes on. There are so many options, but not one thing is being done about it.
All I want is to feel safe at school. How hard is that to ask?
457
@Ainsley Norr
Speedy trials for murderers would help. If a bad guy knows he will be tried, convicted and executed within a week or two when found guilty you would see a lot less shootings. American swift cowboy justice is needed........ our current system allows a killer to survive 30 years in prison so the whole crime/punishment deal does not phase them.
5
@Ainsley Norr Well-written. As a father of 2 daughters probably close to you in age, I urge you to keep your voice active, now and in college. And please, please vote as soon as you can.
37
@Ainsley Norr
Read the NYT article on "How they got their guns."
All guns sold in a store do have a required background check. A background check, however, only looks at past public behavior.
In some/many cases, the disaffected persons attack is their first overt act.
7
Guns continue to get into our schools. Do we need more metal detectors? More school safety officers on patrol?
We know what the real problem is: too many guns and not enough restrictions on them.
And we cannot control the NRA.
The really deep problem is that we are the experimental subjects in a desensitization campaign. We are exposed to these gun massacres over and over again in the news, reinforcing the feeling that we are absolutely helpless to stop them.
Now that is an insidious campaign by the NRA.
1
It was time to "take on" gun violence on December 14, 2012. Twenty first- and second-graders shredded by gunfire at their desks marked the moment the U.S. would do something. We didn't. The tragic deaths of Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell are merely footnotes in a seemingly endless chapter in the history of America's fetishistic obsession with guns. Nothing will change until the generation actually experiencing these shootings grows up, runs for office, and forces rational laws and change upon this nation's gun-demented psyche.
1
Next election I am going to ask candidates two questions:
what are you personally going to do about gun violence,
and why can't my family have the same health care options as the members of Congress and their staffs.
4
As a liberal myself, I'd like to remind fellow liberals and Mr Kristof that while all of these suggestions are good ideas that should have been implemented years ago, not every problem can be solved with laws and regulation. This is where a more systematic approach needs to be used. We need to address head-on this country's fascination with violence in all forms; video games, movies, the local news especially. Why is it the local news leads every night with 10 minutes of crime stories? Go out and commit a crime with a gun, and you are an instant celebrity - you'll be on the local news within the first couple of minutes after 5pm, and again at 6 p.m., and 11pm. Let's continue to talk about laws against assault weapons, laws against guns being made available to those under 21, and a whole slew of other good ideas like those, but let's talk even more about ways to repair the broken society in United States that leads to those high rates of suicide ( particularly in middle-aged working class white men) and gun violence. This is where the answer lies Mr Kristof.
When our representatives won’t pass gun legislation that most Americans want, it’s easy to feel hopeless.
176
@Galfrido-There's a lot we can and must do. Passing and enforcing sensible guns laws are essential. New Zealand showed it can be done in 26 days. Canada is proving teaching children how to connect with others so they don't grow up to feel alienated or become bullies and commit violence works. They educate young students very early with "Seeds of Empathy" and "Roots of Empathy" training. It's pass time for America to get on board and do what's proven to work in other countries.
8
@Ann Tell me when and where America has ever done "what's proven to work in other countries".
A few examples: health care and education, and those are only two. We've always been told that we have the best of every thing. We believe that, to our shame and disadvantage. Oops......we have no shame or disadvantage.
9
Vote the politicians who won’t regulate guns out of office. If we keep rewarding them by voting for them, nothing will change.
6
One might raise a different question: if the two young heroes were armed, would they have been the unnecessary and tragic victims?
Yes, absolutely! Everybody should be armed at all times to stop this!
How about bullet-proof vests for all students? Issue them with the textbooks on the first day of class.
All small, incremental steps to get us to where we need to end up - no guns available to people not associated with military or law enforcement.
Actually, we can do other things in the social arena to foster a herd mentality, like the measles vaccination provides herd protection.
We can try to start a movement in every corner of the country, which equates guns with death and evil and civil collapse, not liberty and god-given rights and armed (and so polite!) co-existence.
When people openly expose the perverted folk who just have to have those death machines handy, (because, well, others might have a gun and threaten them someday), and ridicule them mercilessly (I like Baby and Coward, personally), and we have campaigns like those for Litter and Forest Fires, and today's Me Too movement, we can change the attitudes that make guns OK and acceptable toys for anyone to use as they see fit.
Just as the market for Shackles and Ball and Chain fashions dried up after the repeal of slavery, just as the buggy whip eventually disappeared with the rise of combustion engines, just as Parachute Pants went away with MC Hammer - guns can one day be a curious relic of a violent and crazy period in our history.
We just have to have the courage to not be OK with guns and gun fetishists, period. Call the scaredy cats out, make fun of them, dare them to disarm and still go out in public. The great majority of US citizens can live, unafraid, without them or their toys.
It’s a shame that gun ownership advocates don’t have the courage of those two students that gave their lives to protect their fellow classmates.