When I started my petition to ban assault rifles five days ago, I thought I would be lucky to get several hundred signatures. As of this morning, with no publicity whatsoever, we have gathered more than 1,660 names along with more than $1,000 in donations, the latter basically covering the costs incurred by Change.org for administering the petition and sending it around.
Here’s the link: https://www.change.org/Ban_Assault_Rifles_Now.
So, all of a sudden, what started out as just a little effort on my behalf to send a message to my friends, has become a serious affair. And yes, I am going to do everything I can to make this petition seen and supported by everyone who would like to see gun violence come to an end.
Yes – there will be a website. Yes – there will be a Facebook page. Yes – there will be more promotions like the one running right now which gives you a free Kindle copy of my new book on assault guns. And yes, I do happen to own a 501c3 which at some point I will begin to use as an organizational venue and ask you all to join.
If my little petition to ban assault rifles had gathered a couple of hundred names over the last five days, I wouldn’t be making any plans to move this issue forward at all. But the petition happens to be registering more than 300 signatories every day! So, something’s going on out there and I need to respond to whatever that something happens to be.
On the other hand, let me make it clear that I am not (read: not) trying to undercut or undermine the honest efforts of any advocacy group which has developed and is promoting a different agenda to reduce the violence caused by guns. I donate monthly to Brady and Everytown, and I have no intention of cutting those payments back. Reducing gun violence shouldn’t be a competition – we all want to do the same thing.
That being said, I still believe, and if someone wants to argue this point with me, I’m always willing to give them some space on my blog, that banning the guns which are used to commit gun violence is the only way to reduce gun injuries to a point where such events are no longer considered to be a public health issue at all.
For all the talk about approach gun violence as a public health issue, you don’t clean up the dirty water in Flint by making it a little less dirty. You don’t prevent the risk of tobacco by telling smokers to smoke less. You don’t prevent the spread of a virus like Covid-19 by saying that you only need to wear a mask when you go out some of the time.
Either you have a preventive approach to medical risk, or you don’t. And such a strategy won’t work if you promote a strategy which allows people to decide for themselves how much they want to behave in a certain way. If we took that approach with car accidents, then why bother with speed limits or seat belts?
You think the guy who stops at the gun mill and gets loaded on his way home from work doesn’t know that he’s doing something he shouldn’t do? Of course, he knows. But he does it anyway. I mean, what the Hell. What’s wrong with glass of beer. Or two? Or three?
We’re human beings. We all do stupid and careless things. And you’re not going to make an appreciable difference in gun violence rates if you allow people to buy and own guns that are designed only for the purpose of committing gun violence, no matter how responsible the owners of those types of guns behave.
You can’t make an AR-15 rifle ‘safe.’ You can’t make a Glock 17 ‘safe.’ Neither the AR-15, nor the Glock 17 is a ‘sporting’ gun. And anyone who says otherwise is either lying or doesn’t know anything about guns.
So, I’m going to continue my little project to get rid of non-sporting guns. I hope you’ll join me.
https://www.change.org/Ban_Assault_Rifles_Now.
Get it Free: Amazon.com: What Is An Assault Rifle? eBook: Weisser, Michael: Kindle Store
Mar 31, 2021 @ 10:53:30
Thank you for your ideas and work, Mike. You are taking an approach that we need to hear more people promoting and discussing.
Mar 31, 2021 @ 11:10:11
“…strategy won’t work if you promote a strategy which allows people to decide for themselves how much they want to behave in a certain way.”
You are correct, we can’t have people deciding for themselves. We are subjects not citizens.
And for the one, two, three glasses of beer, let’s stop the sale of alcohol as well. People just can’t “decide for themselves.”
Mar 31, 2021 @ 11:20:39
“…If we took that approach with car accidents, then why bother with speed limits or seat belts?…”
Strange analogy. We don’t round up Urban Assault Vehicles (pickup trucks, big SUVs, etc) even though we know from the data that they pose a bigger risk to pedestrians and people in small cars. We also know most people buy them for desire rather than requirement. You don’t need a stretch Suburban to pick up the dog food. We count on administrative rules, i.e., that people will follow rules. Kinda like gun laws. Maybe if we treated ARs like we treat an eighteen wheeler (stricter licensing and more qualifications to own or operate) we could also put a dent in this. Stricter licensing does two things. One, it dissuades the lazy from bothering. Two, it demonstrates those who jump through the hoop are serious.
I’m not sure how one defines sporting use. The M1 Garand that the CMP sells to the public is not a sporting gun in what you seem to define a sporting gun. Its a military battle rifle. But it is rarely, if ever, used in crimes. Its used in range competitions or held by collectors. So the problem seems to be plastic guns, not traditional ones? The problem with the AR is not only holding more ammo, but holding more mystique since once it becomes the weapon of choice for crazies, the game is on. All the crazies want one.
We are not all malleable people who will go off the rails at the local gin mill. Trouble is with guns or cars, the bar is set low enough that there are too many opportunities for too many people to go off the rails. I had one car totalled out from under me by a distracted driver, suffered a serious TBI when an absentee motorist knocked me over the hood while I was biking to the university, and had a drunk NYS conservation officer hit me head on once. My brother in law almost shot me deer hunting once too. Fortunately, he only shot my tree stand.
I continue to argue that rather than a mandatory buy back, we treat more firearms like we do Thompson submachine guns. You want one? Jump through the NFA hoops. Or, sell it back to Joe and Kammie or trade it to Joe for one of his fine shotguns. Sure, the gun business will suffer because their biggest products are Glocks and ARs. So what? Is that a good idea? Do I want everyone barrelling down the road in a Kenworth while texting pictures of their dick to their girlfriend? Hell no!
Thanks for doing this, Mike, even though we disagree on the “OK, Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them in”. As you say, we need to do something to change the culture.
Mar 31, 2021 @ 11:49:41
“…we need to do something to change the culture.”
How about starting with Hollywood. Television and movies make guns glamorous. Children and adults copy what the see happen on television.
Mar 31, 2021 @ 12:16:34
I watched TV in the sixties and most of what I watched was WW II shoot em ups or police shows. But I grew up immersed in a gun culture and drew a clear distinction between what was on TV and what was in the gun case. I think today, that is largely lacking. As is personal restraint.
The other day I was riding my bicycle on the Santa Fe Rail Trail. Two women burdened with some sort of documents walking towards me and four youths on bicycles riding the other way. One kid brushed a lady and knocked papers out of her hands. The kids laughed and rode off. The lady told them they were acting like asses. The kids responded with the single digit salute and “F you”. Two days ago someone in a >100k Mercedes ran a stop and almost hit me and then got mad when I hit the horn. I told him he was the one who ran the stop sign and he had the same F response. Rich white middle age guy, not a little kid.
That’s the future. Heck, its the present. Add guns and stir.
Mar 31, 2021 @ 14:14:47
Khal, I was with you until you brought in race. “…white male” has nothing to do with your point. If you want to talk about race, lets talk about what race is doing most of the attacks on American Asian. It’s blacks. However, this is not the point, it appears the Asian community is be attack and the race of those doing the attacks have nothing to do with it.
Again race has nothing to do with the issue you are describing.
Mar 31, 2021 @ 14:57:54
You are just another leftist who wants to ban a huge amount of firearms. And you call yourself a gun guy. You are as antigun as they come. There could be a Vegas style shooting every day and I wouldn’t give up my guns.
Apr 05, 2021 @ 23:22:54
There isn’t a single gun law that’s effective, or even that makes common sense. Neither the Glock or AR-15 will ever kill more people than the common flu. Gun laws aren’t shown to have any chance in deaths. I will never support gun control, and I will die before your fascist ideology of seizing Innocent people’s guns takes over.
Gun control is based in Racism, it’s rooted in sexism, and no one can ever be free unless they are armed.