Will the Slaughter of the Innocents in Newtown Lead to Gun Law Reform in U.S.?

                                                                 (Scott Harris)
Makeshift memorial in Newtown, CT

By Scott Harris and Anna Manzo

We produce Between The Lines every week about 25 minutes south of Newtown, Conn., and like people around the world, were shocked and sickened to hear about the unspeakable slaughter of 20 innocent children and 6 adults that took place Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.  


Many of you share the widespread frustration and anger about our nation's lax gun laws that seem impervious to public outrage after countless incidents of gun violence – whether in the wealthy suburbs of Connecticut, or in our nation's inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago, Detroit or Los Angeles. 

Most Americans know some of the details of the bloodletting regularly featured in corporate news media: last week's killing of 2 people at a shopping mall near Portland, Ore.; the massacre in Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting that claimed 12 lives; the Arizona shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that killed 6; the Virginia Tech slaughter that took 32 lives and the infamous Columbine High School rampage that killed 12 students - just to mention only a few of America's recurring bloody, senseless massacres.

                                                                   Scott Harris
A Wisconsin woman and friend from Aurora, Ill. drove
 Saturday to Newtown for the weekend with these crosses bearing
names of the victims. The crosses were at Ice Cream Heaven.

In the wake of the tragic loss of life in Newtown, we've heard from a parade of spineless politicians who cower at the very mention of the National Rifle Association: "Now is not the time to debate gun control laws."  But millions of Americans disagree. If now is not the time to seriously debate and address these issues, when is the right time?

People all over the world are dumbfounded over why the U.S. values the freedom of gun owners over the security and very lives of our children. 

A vigil in Pakistan for Connecticut schoolchildren

As Nicholas Kristof said in his recent New York Times op-ed, "Do we have the courage to stop this?":

"There's an epic contrast between the heroism of teachers facing a gunman and the fecklessness of politicians who won't stand up to N.R.A." 

Ironically, The New Republic pointed out that the second most powerful gun lobby is in Newtown, just three miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The gun lobby is hard at work around the country: A day before the Newtown massacre, the Michigan legislature passed a bill allowing guns in classrooms, according to ThinkProgress.  Earlier this year, Arizona's legislature passed a second bill allowing guns on parts of college campuses and outside K-12 schools, but it was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer,  according to The Republic (Phoenix, Ariz.).

Yet, undaunted, gun advocates have responded to the Connecticut shooting by calling for more guns in schools, according to Think Progress. Pushing the envelope further,
Rep. Louie Gohmert, (R-Texas), even stated on FoxNews that the teachers should have been armed with assault rifles.

However, is simply responding with more guns in school similar to fighting fire with fire?

In a Common Dreams article, Children Defense Fund's Marian Wright Edelman asked: 
"How young do the victims have to be and how many children need to die before we stop the proliferation of guns in our nation and the killing of innocents?" She noted that 119,079 children and teens have been killed by gun violence since 1979, more than the number of Americans killed in any of the 20th century's largest wars.  

For those who want to see more specific citations, here's the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence's interactive map on Huffington Post:  "Mass shootings in the United States since 2005."

The U.S. has disproportionately more shooting deaths than other developed nations, as seen in this interactive map of school shootings around the world, according to Canada.com:

Professor Juan Cole notes, for example, there are 39 murders by gun annually in Britain; 9,000 in U.S.   In 1996, Britain banned handguns after the Dunblane massacre in Scotland, where 16 schoolchildren between the ages of 5 and 6 and their teacher were shot and killed by a former Scoutmaster.

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein's "Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States" provides excellent analysis of the link between gun laws and shootings. As illustrated in the chart below, the U.S. has more deaths by assault weapons than other OECD countries, even though they've declined from a high in the mid-1970s. 

Rachel Maddow points out the "Echoes of past tragedies offer lessons for prevention" in this video:

 

Writes New York Times' Kristof:

"Other countries offer a road map. In Australia in 1996, a mass killing of 35 people galvanized the nation’s conservative prime minister to ban certain rapid-fire long guns. The 'national firearms agreement,' as it was known, led to the buyback of 650,000 guns and to tighter rules for licensing and safe storage of those remaining in public hands.

"The law did not end gun ownership in Australia. It reduced the number of firearms in private hands by one-fifth, and they were the kinds most likely to be used in mass shootings.

"In the 18 years before the law, Australia suffered 13 mass shootings — but not one in the 14 years after the law took full effect. The murder rate with firearms has dropped by more than 40 percent, according to data compiled by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and the suicide rate with firearms has dropped by more than half."

Stephen Bartow of Southbury, Conn., the town neighboring Newtown, survived 25 shotgun pellets to his face and upper torso in the Aurora, Colo. movie theater massacre. He wonders in an Hartford Courant opinion piece: "How Much Worse Does It Have to Get?" Thirty-four Americans die daily on average from gunshot wounds, and he notes that unless concrete action is taken, Obama's well-intentioned "sentiment will also be of little value to the estimated 48,000 Americans who will be murdered by guns during" the president's second term.

Gregory Gibson, father of a victim killed in 1992 during a shooting rampage in Simon's Rock College in Massachusetts, has long suggested that gun crime be viewed as a public health issue, but found that politicians viewed the topic as a "third rail." 

Lucinda Marshall, founder and director of the Feminist Peace Network, writes in her article "A Culture that Condones The Killing Of Children And Teaches Children To Kill," that a new value system is needed.
 

Do hunters really need military grade weapons to shoot deer? After Sandy Hook, perhaps the real question now is: Did a mother really need to die at the hands of her own disturbed son, bearing the legally permitted guns she bought and taught him to use? 

Moreover, did a classroom of helpless first-graders each need to be shot between 3-11 times by a $1,040 Bushmaster assault rifle as reported by ABCNews? 

One of the few positive things that could come from the carnage in Newtown is widespread outrage that would trigger an effective and sustained grassroots movement to challenge and defeat the NRA's insane and blood-stained political agenda of lobbying for more lax gun laws. 

Does 21st century society still need to be "armed" to the hilt as in generations past?

Such were the thoughts of one of our colleagues, sent to us in an email he titled: "My Friend in Sandy Hook," whose life was touched by the tragedy in Newtown.

Noah Pozner, 6, one of the victims in the Sandy Hook
Elementary School shooting, Dec. 14, 2012

One only has to look into the eyes of a child to realize the only "arms" that are needed are the loving ones of our own.

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UPDATED:

• Veronique Pozner's moving eulogy to her son, Noah, Huffington Post, Dec. 17, 2012 
• Connecticut School Shooting: First 2 Funerals Held for Jack Pinto and Noah Pozner, ABC News, Dec. 17, 2012 
• Related blog post: "I Wanted The Last Thing For Them to Hear Was That They Were Loved" 
• "Open Coffins: On Noah Pozner and Emmett Till," Common Dreams, Feb. 5, 2013
• "Why Newtown Victim Noah Pozner had an open casket," The Star, Feb. 22, 2013