In a report on child welfare from 2008, we learn that in 2005, 69 preschoolers were killed by firearms compared to 53 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
On an average day in 2011 in America, 8 children or teens are killed by firearms, according to the Children Defense Fund. (This stat is based on calculations per school day — 180 days of seven hours each.)
In the Key Data section of the CDF report, they report, “(B)etween 2004 and 2005, total firearm deaths of children and teens increased by 181, the first annual increase since 1994.” What is not mentioned in the report is the fact that 2004 is the year the assault weapons ban expired, and 1994 is the year we passed the assault weapons ban. Thus, while not proven to be causal, we have a relationship showing an increase in total firearm deaths of children after the assault weapon ban expired, for the first time since the assault weapon ban was passed.
Furthermore, in 2005, we had more preschoolers killed by firearms than law enforcement in the line of duty. “In 2005, 3,006 children and teens were killed by firearms, the equivalent of 120 public school classrooms of 25 students each. More than half of these deaths were of White children and teens… Sixty-nine preschoolers were killed by firearms compared to 53 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Another 16,000 children and teens suffered non-fatal firearm injuries.”
According to the CDF report, “children in America lag behind almost all industrialized nations on key child indicators. The United States has the unwanted distinction of being the worst among industrialized nations in relative child poverty, in the gap between rich and poor, in teen birth rates, and in child gun violence, and first in the number of incarcerated persons.”
Our problem with gun violence is larger than gun laws. We have spent years with defunded mental health policies (something Obamacare addresses and will go into effect in 2014). We have great economic disparity, which studies show equates with violence. We have a gun culture. We suffer from an inability to name the problem because certain people’s outrage serves to silence the facts. But our gun laws are a part of the problem. They certainly aren’t helping, they’re not sane, they’re not reasonable, and they’re not working.
NRA/Republicans will say that it was a fluke that one year more children died at the hands of guns than law enforcement officers died in the line of duty. Perhaps. It’s tough to negate such charges when research is years behind events, but then, this also means that they can’t prove it’s a fluke.
Fluke or not, this year will no doubt be even uglier when the final tallies are taken. And it’s simply not acceptable.
Image: A “Let us Live” drawing submitted by 9-year-old Sia LimayeCourtesy Neha Pallod Limaye to President Obama
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Floyd M. Orr
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:13 am
This article written by a columnist in Newtown should be read by every American.
http://newtown.patch.com/articles/lambs-to-the-slaughter-723d9aa8
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Reynardine
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:36 am
I bookmarked that article, and I am e-mailing it to my senator.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:49 am
I’m sure the response will be, ALEC says no
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Paws
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:29 am
I keep reading comments from people saying that gun violence in Switzerland is non-existent because almost every household has a weapon. What they fail to mention is the fact that Switzerland does not have a standing army; males between 20 and 30 have to do military-type service and training to be part of a well-regulated militia. The weapons they are issued are part of their service so yes, most households in Switzerland have a firearm. What they also fail to mention, however, is that as of 2007, the militia members were not issued ammunition and they had to turn in the ammunition they have. Only the rapid response force and the military police have ammunition for their weapons in their homes. When a person’s service is done, they can keep their automatic weapon if they choose, but they have to turn it in so it can be sent to a factory so the automatic part of the weapon (not sure what that’s called) can be removed.
This is what a well-regulated militia looks like. I imagine this is similar to what the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote the 2nd Amendment.
I support a person’s right to have a weapon for hunting or personal protection in their home. I do not support and will never support the idea that people can arm themselves to the teeth with weapons that exist for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill as many people as possible in the least amount of time.
Surely the Founders never intended that.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:48 am
you are absolutely correct. You can hardly compare Switzerland to America. Switzerland has a far older culture and its people are not embedded in a gun culture. You don’t see the people in Switzerland running around bragging about their right to have guns. They understand what owning guns means while here in America a gun is used to bolster our own self-images.
You don’t see the people in Switzerland meeting in the town square carrying assault rifles over their shoulders to make up for the size of their genitals. Anyone who uses Switzerland as an example has no idea of the culture and what countries in Europe have seen in their history. Comparing America to Switzerland is to show a blatant ignorance of reality
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Reynardine
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:57 am
The only person in Switzerland whom I know to have believed in shooting at children was Governor Gessler, and his name is not in good odor there. William Tell was quite picky about what he shot.
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Anne
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:46 am
Since police work on the streets is an especially dangerous occupation, it’s expected that there will be a significant number of casualties in that line of work. Even in that capacity, it’s important to enact policies and directives that minimize that particular carnage. But in the case of children, it makes absolutely no sense at all that the laws don’t go far enough, and that the attitudes of some Americans about guns actually endanger all children. Something is horribly wrong when there are folks in high places in denial about the role of issues like mental illness, lack of common sense among some gun owners, and the pervasiveness of the Wild West mentality among some of us in 2012 that contribute to this problem. Mike Huckabee is a prime example of this kind of thinking. Then there are others whose “solutions” would make a bad situation much worse like the Congressman who suggested that those kids in Connecticut and the teachers should also have been armed. Still others, like Ann Coulter and Victoria Jackson, run their mouths and say stupid things that add nothing to what should be a serious national discussion. There was someone last night on MSNBC who talked about how he grew up among people who handled guns all the time. However, they were sensible, responsible folks who took precautions and were not criminally inclined. More people like that need to speak up publicly and separate themselves from the loons who are part of the problem and not the solution.
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itstimeforchange
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:56 am
Don’t think I can trust any info coming from any child welfare organization. They are notorious for twisting data and destroying families.
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Reynardine
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 8:59 am
WTF?
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Tom
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 9:04 am
Yeah ‘cuz the kids lie too. /s These people ^ are SICK.
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Laurie Mann
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 10:08 am
That kind of bitterness generally comes from a person who had their kids removed from a household due to abuse issues. Kids rarely like about these sort of things (and medical exams generally don’t like about abuse issues either), but almost every child abuser never acknowledges that they are abusers.
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Rick Tucker
Dec. 18th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
There are some instances where child services has dropped the ball. I had a friend targeted and it ripped his family apart and I understand his attitude, especially when he was cleared by both a child services psychologist, an official investigation and his own daughter who was alleged to be a victim (they’re still very tight in spite of what happened which was entirely a witch hunt from the get go regardless of the best intentions). Regardless, the family was put through the ringer.
But here’s the rub. Child welfare services are often dealing with the worst of the worst and they are also routinely understaffed, often by crusaders who take their job very seriously but they are also underpaid and in a high stress environment. Then there’s the fact that due to shame and utter denial of many truly bad parents they are routinely painted in a bad light. When they do screw up they make headlines but they rarely make headlines when they do good despite their handicaps of poor funding and understaffing issues. It’s odd but when cops “accidentally” kill innocent people they are not as pilloried in the press as the occasional child welfare worker who acted a little over zealous. And when a kid dies in their care due to limited resources or bad foster parenting (as hard as a person scrutinizes a parents background it’s hard to find the creeps because they are cagey) again come the headlines, and only rarely is their pittance of an operating budget addressed as the leading cause of those issues. Lets compare this to the 9-11 attacks- the day before those attacks the secretary of state reveals 2.3 trillion tax dollars disappeared into the black hole that is our DoD and Pentagon. The attack occurs and all is forgiven while an increase is made in funding this Dept, regardless of the fact that they dropped the ball. Child welfare screws up, or is accused of screwing up and they get their budget cut and more scrutiny- the exact opposite of what happened to the DoD.
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garyd552
Dec. 19th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Children do fib at times, but obituaries are what they are. I had to give up my smoking rights everywhere, but understood why, these gun nuts are the first to vote for taking rights like smoking and stiffening dui laws when 1 child dies (which I agree with) but they act like they are being persecuted when you want to take arms that are designed to kill loads of people quickly. I own guns and love guns, but I don’t have assault weapons for my protection and don’t need them.
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