Guns, schools and myths
All of us, pro-gun and anti-gun advocates, were overwhelmed with sorrow and unbearable sadness with the loss of so many innocent people at the hands of young men wielding high-powered guns. We know the statistics of gun violence here in the US. We witness, year after year, day after day, the wounding and murdering of a growing number of our fellow citizens, yet the number of casualties and murders mount incessantly. Everyone, even ardent gun owners, knows what needs to be done; unfortunately, several GOP leaders will have none of it. Thankfully, Congress recently passed a woefully inadequate gun control bill for the first time since the Brady Bill in 1993.
These same leaders and many good-faith gun owners have proposed several answers to the gun crisis. The primary ones are best classified as myths.
Myth #1: Arm teachers with guns: if teachers are ‘well trained,’ schools will be better prepared to take down a shooter. Response — Survey after survey reports that teachers want to teach, not carry guns. The Defense Gun Use in a crisis moment requires far more rigorous training than can be offered to a teacher or that teachers want. Survey research report: teachers, parents, resource officers, principals, and school boards DO NOT want teachers to possess a gun in the classroom. Why? Very few are prepared to adequately respond to an active shooter incident due to the complex nature of the situation. Reports and analyses of mass shootings consistently show communication errors, narrowly avoided friendly-fire incidents, and a lack of coordination during responses to active shooter incidents. Uvalde is a tragic example. Introducing a new variable, armed teachers, into this equation would only further complicate law enforcement’s response to active shooter incidents.
Myth #2: Mental Illness is the Cause of Gun Violence. Response — The conservative commentator, Anne Coulter provocatively once said: “Guns don’t kill people – the mentally ill do.’ While there may well be instances where mentally impaired individuals are responsible for gun violence, the available research – and we need much more of it – indicates this is not true. Most of the homicides in the country are the result of arguments, occurring in moments of rage. Many of these arguments are altercations over matters of love and domestic problems involving acquaintances, neighbors, and family members. In too many cases, the assailants and the victims had been drinking.
1) Myth #3: “A good guy with a gun.” Response — This mantra, given to us by the disgraced NRA executive, Wayne LaPierre, has resulted in the idea that more guns make us safe. Instead, this myth has placed more money in the hands of gun manufacturers. Since 2012, the five leading gun manufacturers have amassed a whopping $1.7 billion in sales. It has placed more guns in the hands of American citizens; in fact, more guns than citizens, more guns per person than any other country in the world save Yemen. Meanwhile, the sale of AR-15s continues, and gun violence is now the number one cause of children’s death. How is it possible for a society to massacre its future citizens, its children?
Myths can be essential vehicles for the transmission of cultural values. However, myths are often just fairy tales, fanciful stories of magic and sorcerers. In his address to graduating students at Yale University in 1962, President J. F. Kennedy reminded us of the real enemy of truth. “For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often, we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
The gun violence crisis is, first and foremost, a public health problem. When we witnessed mounting auto deaths, we required seat belts. When we recorded a growing number of cancer deaths, we put warnings on cigarette packages and aired public service announcements. Yet because some believe the personal right to a gun is sacrosanct, any qualification of ownership is a slippery slope on which gun owners can never recover. If we took a public health approach to gun violence instead of a political one, we would ask the question: what are the risk factors engaged in gun violence; how can we lessen them? Additionally, we would search for research-based information that provides proven ways to reduce the dangers of gun violence instead of relying upon myths.
Tony McNevin is a member of the Democracy for America Education Task Force. He resides in Gettysburg. The opinions are his own.
This post originally appeared in the Gettysburg Times.
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