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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2013)
News Gun Violence: Our Turn to say ‘No More’ This is an important conversa- tion for our children, for our com- munities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult but I need to say something impor- tant. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do some- thing. It will be hard. But the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are count- ing on you. At the Jan. 30 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun vio- lence, former Rep. Gabrielle Gif- fords, the survivor of a gunshot to the head, gave us our marching orders. The United States stands alone in the world in our tolerance of gun violence but in the wake of the devastating Newtown, Conn. murders, a powerful outcry of ordinary Americans across the country is saying no more. This time we want our col- lective heartbreak and out- rage to be followed by real change. How have people in other countries responded after a gun massacre or mass shooting? Australia and Great Britain provide two exam- ples. In 1996, 35 people were killed and 23 others were wounded by a gunman at the Port Arthur tourist site in Tasmania, Australia, in one of the largest mas- sacres ever committed by a single shooter. Within 12 days of the shooting, spurred by strong public support, the Australian fed- eral and state governments agreed to the historic National Firearms Agree- ment (NFA), which banned semi-automatic and pump action rifles and shotguns and required registration of all firearms, strict standards for gun licenses, and a per- mit for each gun purchase subject to a 28-day waiting period. The NFA also pro- hibited private sales, regu- lated ammunition sales, and required licensees to receive firearm safety train- ing and to store firearms safely. To get banned rifles and shotguns off the streets, the federal government bought back or accepted turn-ins of more than 1 mil- lion guns which were then destroyed. The National Firearms Agreement was supported by a coalition of groups from across the political spectrum, including women’s organizations, seniors, religious leaders, police, parents, human rights organizations and schools, all demanding stronger gun violence laws in Australia. In the 18 years before the NFA there were 13 mass shootings in Aus- tralia. In the 16 years since, Australia has not had a sin- gle mass shooting. Rates of overall gun deaths, gun homicides, and gun sui- cides, which were declining prior to the NFA, started declining twice as fast after the reforms. Just weeks before the Port C HILD W ATCH Marian Wright Edelman Arthur massacre in Australia, 16 5- and 6-year-olds and their teacher were killed in a devastat- ing school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland. After those murders the public outcry in Great Britain was very similar to the one we are see- ing in the U.S. right now. The shooter owned his guns legally and the outrage over his crime started a public campaign for tighter gun control culminating in a petition being handed to the government with more than 700,000 signatures. A 1987 mass shooting by a man who killed 16 people and wounded 15 others had already led Great Britain to ban semi-automatic and pump action rifles and shotguns. This time, 11 months after the Dun- blane murders, Great Britain passed the Firearm (Amendment) Act of 1997 instituting tighter controls over handguns. Soon after, the country went a step fur- ther and prohibited all handguns in civilian hands. The government also instituted firearm amnesties across the country resulting in the surrender of thousands of firearms and rounds of ammunition. After Great Britain acted, gun- related crimes continued to rise for a while, following a trend that began earlier in the decade. Experts said it was inevitable that criminals were not going to sur- render their illegal handguns and it took time to reduce the pool of illegal handguns after the ban and see declines in gun-related crimes. But after peaking in 2003 and 2004, the total number of firearm offenses has fallen every year since. In 2009, nearly 67 percent of U.S. homicides were committed with guns while in Great Britain the number was only 6.6 percent. In 2010, 27 people were killed by gun homicide in the United King- dom, which includes both Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has a population of more than 62 million people. In California and Texas, with a similar combined population of 62 million people, there were 2,255 gun homicides. What a difference guns make. Some will argue that other fac- tors contribute to the lower gun violence rates in Australia, Great Britain, and similar countries beyond their strong gun control legislation. Others note that the United States is a very different place, with entrenched attitudes equating guns with personal free- dom, tens of millions more people, and tens of millions more guns, and we may never be able to expect the same success reducing the number of gun murders to near zero. These points may have some merit but are not reasons to dis- miss anything other countries may be getting right in favor of contin- uing to do nothing new here. February 6. 2013 The Portland Skanner Page 5
