Back in 2021, you may recall that the Biden-Harris Administration announced a ‘comprehensive strategy’ to reduce violent crime, which is more or less a euphemism for gun violence. They took some dough out of the $1.9 trillion Covid Rescue Plan and set it aside to give various jurisdictions money to expand community policing and ATF enforcement activities, along with investing in ‘proven Community Violence Intervention Programs.’
A good friend has just sent me an email from a group, CT Against Gun Violence (CAGV), alerting everyone to a new funding program from the CT Department of Public Health, which will cover costs of community violence intervention programs for one to three years.
CAGV started its efforts in 2020, and this new initiative, which I suspect is using monies set aside from the Rescue Plan, is proof that CAGV’s work is “beginning to pay off.” You can learn more about CAGV’s history and efforts right here.
Let me make it clear that what I am about to say does not represent some back-door method to spike the efforts of any group which promotes a program for effective gun control. Notwithstanding the fact that I am a Lifetime Patriot Benefactor Member of the NRA (which means I give them enough money so they can’t throw me out) I am foursquare in favor of controlling the ownership of guns which are used to commit 120,000+ intentional fatal and non-fatal gun assaults every year.
On the other hand, I am also foursquare against gun-control programs which are designed to reduce the interpersonal violence caused by guns but avoid or ignore the principal reason why such violence occurs, which happens to be the manufacture, sale, and possession of certain kinds of guns.
The United States is the only country in the entire world that grants law-abiding residents’ legal access to guns which are designed to be used only for the purpose of ending someone else’s life besides the life of the person with access to that gun.
Note I am not talking here about suicides, which are also a form of violence according to the World Health Organization. But individuals who suffer mental anguish to the point of wanting to end their lives will, for the most part, find a way to do it even if they can’t get their hands on a gun.
Sweden’s basically an unarmed population but has a suicide rate higher than the suicide rate in the United States – ditto Japan, Norway, and Belarus.
Thirty years ago, two brilliant researchers, Art Kellerman and Fred Rivara, published research which definitively linked guns in the home to the medical risk of homicide. This research did not qualify guns as being safely or not safely stored.
The response of the gun industry to this research was to prohibit the CDC from supporting gun violence research for nearly the next three decades. Frankly, I couldn’t blame the gun companies for finding a willing Congressional toady – Congressman Jay Dickey – who sponsored the bill which kept the CDC from giving out the kind of research monies which had been used by Kellerman and Rivara to do their research.
After all, if you manufactured a product that has been around for 150 years and now you were told that the product was too dangerous to be sold, wouldn’t you try to find some sponsor in the government to bail out your ass and the asses of all the people working for you?
The CDC re-opened the gun research spigot two years ago, so the groups and organizations which support such work have now come up with a narrative which is used not only to justify figuring out what to do about gun violence but is an approach which neatly sidesteps all that messy talk about gun ‘rights’ and 2nd-Amendment ‘guarantees.’ After all, the word ‘intervention’ can mean all kinds of things, but the one thing it doesn’t mean is taking away the guns.
Unfortunately, to paraphrase the original 2021 announcement out of the White House about using monies from the Rescue Plan to reduce gun violence – ready? – THE ONLY PROVEN WAY TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE IS TO GET RID OF THE GODDAMN GUNS. Now I understand why Trump uses all caps for his tweets or his truths, or whatever he calls his daily/nightly rants.
I once asked the head of a community intervention program whether his staff would report that someone who had just agreed to step back from a violent, street-corner interaction was walking away with a gun in his pocket and here was his response:
“Oh no. Our people would never tell the police that someone who had responded positively to their request to refrain from violence had a gun. If our folks were identified as working with the cops, nobody would listen to them at all.”
If someone can show me a more serious threat to community health than a teenager walking down the street with a Glock in the seat of his pants, I’m all ears.
Jun 28, 2023 @ 17:14:16
AS I KEEP SAYING, “IT’S THE GUNS STUPID, IT’S THE GUNS”
Jun 28, 2023 @ 18:17:34
The fine print in Art Kellerman’s paper showed that illicit drug use in the home carried more than twice the risk of homicide as having a gun in the home ((adjusted odds ratio of homicide compared to a “control” of 5.7 for drugs vs 2.7 for a gun in the home). And living in a rental or fighting in the home also carried much higher risks (4.4, 4.4).
I suspect all of these are proxies for a higher than normal risk lifestyle. Illicit drug use and fighting are obvious. Rentals? Is that a proxy for poverty, instability, a bad neighborhood, or something else?
As someone commented elsewhere,
“The control group in Kellermann’s study was completely different than the case group. The case group had exceptionally high incidence of social dysfunction and instability. For example, 52.7% of case subjects had a history of a household member being arrested, 24.8% had alcohol-related problems, 31.3% had a household history of illicit drug abuse, 31.8% had a household member hit or hurt in a family fight, 17.3% had a family member hurt so severely in a family fight that medical attention was required. Now compare the cases to the control group: 23.4%, 5.7%, 6.0%, 5.7%, 2.1%. ”
Living a high risk lifestyle whether with anger, drugs, or guns, has its problems. Put them all together and you have the perfect storm. Of course, getting shot has some rather..potentially fatal…problems.
Jun 28, 2023 @ 18:53:10
Ok, how about a teenager walking down the street selling illicit fentanyl out of the seat of his pants?
Jun 29, 2023 @ 23:46:39
How many negligent discharges has Mikethegunguy admitted to?
A gun owner that has a horrible failing to control his own guns wants gun control. What are you smoking?
Form 4473 asks if you are the user of prohibited substances. You do realize that lying on that form is a felony, right? Are you Biden’s second favorite son? That would explain a lot, actually.
There was never a ban or firearms research. There was a ban on research that promoted gun control.
Kellerman’s gold standard of research is heavily flawed and everybody knows it.
You still won’t define what ‘military grade’ ammo is.
And, many other countries feature laws that allow for the purchase of firearms and legal use.
Do you actually write this drivel or did Brady Campaign lend you a Karen or two.
Jul 02, 2023 @ 16:14:05
Do you have anything to add to the conversation beyond a few insults and misstatements about what I allegedly said?
Jul 03, 2023 @ 11:37:35
Here is something that is not a misstatement of what Mike has allegedly said. “I remember the first time I ever shot off a gun by accident. I was sitting in my living room in South Carolina, playing around with my Colt 45 pistol and the damn thing just went off.”
Mikethegunguy March 14, 2022
Emphasis on “…first time…” This was the first of at least seven negligent discharges.
Jul 01, 2023 @ 10:47:00
I don’t think there is anyone who is honest who believes that had the 2nd amendment never existed, we’d have many fewer gun deaths today. The problem is that ship sailed years ago. With 400 million guns in circulation, a populace that opposes a total ban on handguns and a culture (and court system) that believes owning guns is a right, the goals of “gun control nation” need to be pragmatic. Strong background checks, robust red flag laws, safe storage, mandatory training for CCW holders and restrictions on magazine capacity might not bring us down to the death rate in the U.K. but it would be lower than it is now.
Jul 03, 2023 @ 11:10:51
I think Khal sums up the issues with the ‘brilliant’ (your words) Kellerman’s work.
You have admitted to how many negligent discharges of a firearm? I’ve had ONE and it was so horrifying to me that I double and triple check my firearms every time I pick one up.
You contend that the USA is the only country that allows citizens legal access to guns whose only purpose is that of ‘ending someone’s life’.
You are completely ignorant on this subject and I can recommend looking at Switzerland. How about the Czech Republic? Serbia? Youtube is flush with people that showcase the firearms culture in these three countries alone.
And, you keep complaining that civilians have access to ‘military grade’ ammo. Can you explain to the non firearms ‘experts’ out there what those bullets are and how they differ from civilian varieties?
Maybe you can explain the odd situation where you owned and operated a gun store and didn’t actually sell guns. On its face that seems ridiculous and maybe you can correct any misconceptions I might have.