I just stumbled across Parts One and Two of this series, which is very thought-provoking ~ I'll post Part Two next and will keep watching for more ~ Sooz

Gun Violence – Part One – The Deadly Year In Review
2012/12/18
By McAllister

Since Sandy Hook there has been a flurry of discussions across the country about guns, gun violence, gun culture and gun control. Many of the comments have come from anger, shock and, most significantly, from the two very polarized sides of the debate on guns and gun control.

Those with an Internet GED in Constitutional Law have stepped up on both sides of the debate…defining, parsing, obfuscating the meaning of the 2nd Amendment to the point that it is not always possible to believe that they are all looking at the same 27 words. And that brings up the need to look at just what the conversation is all about.

First, we as a nation are not looking at ONE gun issue. Though many of the debates center around the same basic elements, the path to any solutions will have to accommodate the disparate issues that exist.

The December 14th, 2012 killings brought to the surface a tide of frustration and anger that has been building all year. Here is a quick review of the year, of the triggers of a national frustration and anger.

In February of this year violence erupted at Chardon High School in Ohio. Three died, three more wounded in the attack that used a Ruger 22 handgun. Also in February four people [plus the shooter] were killed at a spa in Norcross, GA.

In March the violence moved to Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center…one killed [plus the shooter] and seven wounded by a Beretta 9mm.

In April gunfire erupted at Oikos University in Oakland, killing seven and injuring three more.

May brought the violence to Seattle and the Cafe Racer, a cafe where four were killed before the shooter killed himself.

A June summer pool party at Auburn, Alabama ended with the death of three and then injuring of three more. The shooter surrendered.

July began six weeks of shooting that started with the Copper Top bar, in Tuscaloosa, AL. Seventeen people were injured. That incident was quickly overshadowed by the Aurora, CO assault at the Century 16 movie theater where the shooter killed 12 and injured 58 with an AR-15, shotgun and .40 caliber Glock.

August continued adding to the butcher’s bill with a shooting at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Six [plus the shooter] were killed. To end August a Pathmark Super Mart in New Jersey was the scene of a worker killing two and then himself. Further a man killed three members of his family in Maryland before turning the gun on himself. Then in New York City one was killed [plus the shooter] and eight wounded in a shootout on the streets of New York, near the Empire State Building with a 45 Caliber handgun. In Texas, on the Texas A&M campus three were killed [including the shooter] and four injured.

In September Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis was the scene of six deaths [plus the shooter] with a Glock 9mm.

October brought the gun violence to Azana Day Spa, in Brookfield, WS killing three [plus the shooter] and injuring four others with a .40 Caliber handgun.

December has brought us shooting at the Clackamas Town Center in Oregon where two were killed with an AR-15 before he killed himself. And we hopefully end the violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut where a shooter killed 26 children and their teachers before killing himself with his AR-15, Glock 10mm and Sig Sauer 9mm. In the same weekend at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, AL three were wounded before the gunman was killed. And east of Birmingham, AL yet another shooter killed three with an AK-47 before being killed by the police.

First, let’s look at the pattern, the drumbeat of repeated mass violence…only January and November are missing from this list, and it is by no means comprehensive, not focusing on the many families that were killed by the father who would then commit suicide…all on fears of “eminent economic collapse.”

The Butcher’s Bill: 96 killed and 112 injured in just 18 incidences. The fear and traumatic stress for those “only” injured and for the many witnesses, friends and family is beyond measure.

This type of mass murder serves as only one example of the violence by firearms. To that we add gang violence in our largest cities and drug pipelines. Further we have to look at, as a separate category, the families killed by their own by overwhelming fear of doomsday.

Then we have the very senseless violence of children killing and being killed by guns they find laying around the house, improperly stowed. Society looks at this violence differently in that, too many times the sole reason for the violence, that the adults did not properly care for their weapons while children were present are looked at as victims, their children taken from them in “accidents.”

Mass shootings, gang violence, families in panic, children killed by “friendly” guns; four separate problems…they will demand separate solutions.

Next subjects…causes and solutions. They will come over time if there is an honest conversation and desire to look at 21st Century issues driven by 18th Century constraints.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/18/gun-violence-part-one-the-deadly-year-in-review/

The complexity is staggering ~ ~ Sooz

Gun Violence Part 2: Causes by the Numbers (VIDEO)
2012/12/20
By McAllister

In looking at the more comprehensive picture of gun violence this article will address causes and solutions, a follow-up to Gun Violence Part 1 The Deadly Year in Review. While Sandy Hook drew attention to the broader issue of gun violence, and mass murder in particular, reality shows us that it is not a singular issue and the solutions to it aren’t singular either. Besides mass murder, violence ripples through the nation in the form of gangs, families killed by murder/suicide to protect them from impending doom, and kids killed by guns that have not been properly stored. A single solution such as banning high-capacity magazines or “assault rifles” barely touches the other causes.

In reviewing my database of mass murders, I chose the past 30 years to analyze. I did that to glean long-term information, rather than concentrate on just the horrors of past year. First, a look at the raw numbers:

Killed: 586

Wounded: 573

Number of Incidences: 81

Number of Guns: 151

Of the guns, 25 were variants of the AK-47, AR-15, plus multiple Uzi, TEC-9, and MAC11s. Forty-nine were either 9mm or 40 cal handguns of various brands. On the other side, 10 were either .22 pistols or rifles, though in all but one case, they were from crimes that just barely made the threshold for Mass Murder [four killed].

The shooters ranged from 11 years old to 68 and all were men except one female postal worker. Of the shooters, 26 were arrested, 15 killed and 39 committed suicide at the scene. One, in Las Cruces, NM, in 1990, remains unsolved.

Causes By the Numbers
Three of the causes that are discussed as triggers of this violence are mental health issues, the contribution of television and movies and first person shooter games. After reviewing the raw data I would add job stress, bullying and domestic strife as three others. There are glaring examples of four of these causes in the data but the other two [TV/movies and video games] show no direct causal link. In other words, we can see instances where mental health breakdown led to events, we have examples of school and workplace bullying and we have examples of folks going off on their families and we have examples of workplace stress … one which gave us the phrase “Going Postal.” But, while the desensitization from TV/Movies and video games may exist, that link can’t be proven. Fifty-four of the shooters either killed themselves after their crime or were killed at the scene, making it difficult to glean data.

The only common denominator is the weapons they had to use. While many argue that “they would have just used something else,” the data doesn’t show that. Besides examples like Tim McVeigh and Oklahoma City or arson, most chose the most convenient and efficient tools for the job.

Of the Top 12 events (10 murders or more) the primary weapon of choice was the Handgun in five, the AR-15 and Uzi made up five more and the remaining were either a shotgun or a Colt .45 semi-automatic.

When talking about gun violence, the subject is not just about mass murder. That gets the headlines, but is only a small part of the story. In the 2000s, we averaged over 12,000 murders a year and we add to that over 50,000 deliberate and over 23,000 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries. The FBI says that two-thirds of those are firearms related.

Of those “other” deaths per year, gang violence is responsible for between 1,000-1,300 per year. Over 500 children under 12 are killed each year, mostly by a family member’s gun not properly stowed.

And then there are the families killed by the father who, for what ever reason believes that there is an impending doom – caldera, financial collapse, government tyranny, pandemic … the list goes on. To this last category, known contributing factors are media and the internet. Information shows that those who believe in these prophecies of doom get their data from the internet blogosphere — from talk show hosts who promote it as part of their fear, uncertainty and dread mantra against “those in power” (whoever happens to be in office at the time) and from the newest reality shows on TV, those focusing on doomsday preparation, protection from “them” and a drumbeat of a pending society “without rule of law” (WROL).

A former participant in Doomsday Preppers:



A review of what is causing this history of gun violence shows mental health issues, gang activity, paranoia of doom, improperly stowed weapons, domestic violence, job stresses, bullying and the one common denominator – guns. What this tells us is that the contributors are manifold, the “shooters” are diverse in experience and the solutions to solving this will be a very complex puzzle. The goals can never be 100 percent, because no solution will arrive at that goal, even if the Constitution was altered and gun ownership was eliminated. And what that means is that we cannot afford knee-jerk solutions, we cannot afford to walk over the rights of the many to band-aid a solution. BUT, we can look at all the variables, guns included, and determine what the best overall solutions are that address the issues that we, as a society, have in the 21st Century.

And that takes us to a look at SOLUTIONS in Part 3.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/20/gun-violence-part-2-causes-by-the-numbers-video/