Historical April 1994 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
There are some things in life that you just don’t understand, no matter how many times you hear or read about them. 1 just don’t comprehend the National Rifle Association.
I certainly know how powerful they arc.
They defeated Sen. Tydings in Maryland in 1968.
They have a tremendous amount of money and they have a huge membership that they activate into letter writing and other lobbying at the drop of a hat.
I know they have many members who are hunters. But, 1 don’t understand why they stymie every effort to stop the bloodletting in our nation’s central cities–where very few of their membership live.
When our nation was founded, people had weapons as part of the militia. Those who lived on the frontier, away from neighbors, had guns to protect themselves from marauders. And, many have been hunters, given the plentiful wildlife across the U.S., first for food and then for sport.
There has always been crime in central cities.
It is positively associated with the number of males aged 18-25 who are unemployed.
There were always crimes with guns. But, they weren’t semiautomatic assault rifles which belong, I suppose, with armies–not with teenagers.
They are too powerful to use in hunting; they destroy the prey.
They destroy humans too.
My students ask me if gun control could really affect the incidence of homicide and other crimes in St. Louis.
My answer is only gradually over time.
The goal is to stem the flow of weapons in and to gct rid of some already there.
It is not a panacea that will change the statistics over night. But, eventually it will have an impact. People in central cities understand the need for gun control.
They hear shots every evening and know at least one person who has been felled. Mayor Bosley, Mayor Cleaver of Kansas City, and Governor Carnahan all recognize that our urban areas are not the frontier.
They require special measures to limit weaponry that is taking children’s lives. Yet, in a recent rally at Forest Park Community College, supporters of the National Rifle Association screamed at the speakers advocating gun control and tried to prevent them from being heard.
If you limit ownership of one kind of weapon anywhere, even an Uzi, it is a threat to their ownership of weapons.
This all or nothing reasoning is not helping us in St. Louis.
We don’t care if people have hunting rifles in Moberly or Potosi.
We do care about the firearms everywhere around us in St. Louis.
As a speaker at the rally said, go home to your communities.
We need to change things here. Going up against the National Rifle Association has usually been foolhardy. Their power has seemed undaunted. Look how long it took to get the Brady Bill and all it calls for is a waiting period before handgun purchase.
There are many legislators in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. who are afraid to de& the NRA even though they recognize that the time has come to take some action about guns.
The recent vote in Missouri which denied St. Louis and Kansas City the power to set more rigid gun control standards within their borders is an NRA victory and a loss for our city and its residents.
The NRA’s slogan used to be “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But, if no gun was present, how many killings would in fact take place? Perhaps St. Louisans have to become more organized lobbyists: Write your legislator and write many other legislators.
The time has come to end the killing fields here at home.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1994.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1994_04.pdf, printed page(s) 2, 6; PDF page(s) 2, 6.
Commentary
Editor’s Notebook — Gun Control
April 1994
Historical April 1994 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
There are some things in life that you just don’t understand, no matter how many times you hear or read about them. 1 just don’t comprehend the National Rifle Association.
I certainly know how powerful they arc.
They defeated Sen. Tydings in Maryland in 1968.
They have a tremendous amount of money and they have a huge membership that they activate into letter writing and other lobbying at the drop of a hat.
I know they have many members who are hunters. But, 1 don’t understand why they stymie every effort to stop the bloodletting in our nation’s central cities–where very few of their membership live.
When our nation was founded, people had weapons as part of the militia. Those who lived on the frontier, away from neighbors, had guns to protect themselves from marauders. And, many have been hunters, given the plentiful wildlife across the U.S., first for food and then for sport.
There has always been crime in central cities.
It is positively associated with the number of males aged 18-25 who are unemployed.
There were always crimes with guns. But, they weren’t semiautomatic assault rifles which belong, I suppose, with armies–not with teenagers.
They are too powerful to use in hunting; they destroy the prey.
They destroy humans too.
My students ask me if gun control could really affect the incidence of homicide and other crimes in St. Louis.
My answer is only gradually over time.
The goal is to stem the flow of weapons in and to gct rid of some already there.
It is not a panacea that will change the statistics over night. But, eventually it will have an impact. People in central cities understand the need for gun control.
They hear shots every evening and know at least one person who has been felled. Mayor Bosley, Mayor Cleaver of Kansas City, and Governor Carnahan all recognize that our urban areas are not the frontier.
They require special measures to limit weaponry that is taking children’s lives. Yet, in a recent rally at Forest Park Community College, supporters of the National Rifle Association screamed at the speakers advocating gun control and tried to prevent them from being heard.
If you limit ownership of one kind of weapon anywhere, even an Uzi, it is a threat to their ownership of weapons.
This all or nothing reasoning is not helping us in St. Louis.
We don’t care if people have hunting rifles in Moberly or Potosi.
We do care about the firearms everywhere around us in St. Louis.
As a speaker at the rally said, go home to your communities.
We need to change things here. Going up against the National Rifle Association has usually been foolhardy. Their power has seemed undaunted. Look how long it took to get the Brady Bill and all it calls for is a waiting period before handgun purchase.
There are many legislators in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. who are afraid to de& the NRA even though they recognize that the time has come to take some action about guns.
The recent vote in Missouri which denied St. Louis and Kansas City the power to set more rigid gun control standards within their borders is an NRA victory and a loss for our city and its residents.
The NRA’s slogan used to be “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But, if no gun was present, how many killings would in fact take place? Perhaps St. Louisans have to become more organized lobbyists: Write your legislator and write many other legislators.
The time has come to end the killing fields here at home.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1994.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1994_04.pdf, printed page(s) 2, 6; PDF page(s) 2, 6.
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