Dali Llama humbly suggest that after reading the following story, honorable forum members respond to Mr. Anderson at e-mail address listed at end of article.
Looking for a safe place to live? Try Baghdad
By Mark W. Anderson
Managing Editor
WhatÂ’s the difference between Baghdad and almost any community in the United States?
Parts of downtown Baghdad may be safer.
ThatÂ’s because, while most of Iraq may be going through what could safely be described as an insurgency designed to throw off the shackles of an occupying army, the countryÂ’s people have yet to embrace the kind of ideology that equates freedom with the right to kill their fellow citizens with guns. Roadside bombs are aimed at passing American Humvees, but few school shootings, workplace rampages or father-and-son highway snipers are reported.
Between the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, few marital disputes are settled with bullets, drug deals ending in gunfire or judgeÂ’s families being murdered by deranged gunmen. Out in Mosul or Tikrit, itÂ’s probably hard to find the friendly hunting trip gone terribly wrong or drive-by gang shootings. And in the slums of Sadr City or in the heart of the heavily armed Sunni Triangle, there are few 12-year-old children who accidentally end up shooting themselves in the head.
Or quiet church services that end in bloodbaths.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the United States.
The depressing litany of handgun and firearm-related deaths in this country has become such a relentless assault that we are immune to them.
From Brookfield, Wis., where an upset parishioner shot and killed seven fellow church-goers on March 12; to Red Lake, Minn., where a teen gunman killed nine people at a school on March 21; to Canton, Texas, where the father of a high school football player shot and wounded the teamÂ’s coach with an assault rifle on April 7, stories of Americans killing each other with guns come at us at a frightening pace.
What do all of these stories have in common? Only this: The behavior of assailants and those who owned the guns was celebrated in this country—if not by law, then by custom—right up to the moment they pulled the trigger.
No single issue in this country is as couched in lies, half-truths, mythology and organized propaganda as the question of gun control and the “right” for citizens to bear arms.
Gun advocates have succeeded in formulating the debate in terms of the “right” of gun owners to exercise their “freedom” versus the “danger” of federal or state laws to remove that freedom. Firearm owners are portrayed by organizations like the National Rifle Association as hardy individualists, carrying on the pioneer spirit that made this country great while protecting their homes and families.
Such an image, however, ignores the 30,000 or so deaths from illegal guns, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, that occur each year in this country. Nor does it face up to the question about whose freedom is more important, that of the “handgun enthusiast” or that of a child going to school on any given day.
In fact, the terms of the debate have become so distorted that a number of states are looking to ease the already loose restrictions on carrying a concealed weapon in public.
The state senate in Arizona, for example, has recently approved a bill that allows people to carry guns into bars and restaurants, as long as theyÂ’re not drinking.
In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush said he will soon sign into law the so-called “Castle Doctrine” bill, giving Floridians more discretion to legally shoot would-be attackers in their homes, vehicles and public places.
In fact, a ratio of more than four out of five states across the country already allow citizens to carry concealed weapons in public, and many more are considering relaxing restrictions further.
For those who are opposed to any kind of gun control, the kinds of stories listed above are a small price to pay for the freedom we enjoy as Americans. Not to mention the freedoms we are trying to export to Iraq.
But one further fact may prove useful.
According to Handgun-Free America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to banning private gun ownership in the United States, 8,123 Americans have already died this year from guns. ThatÂ’s 6,500 more than the 1,543 Americans who have died on the battlefields and back streets of Iraq in the two years we have been at war in that country.
Which, when you look at it, can only mean one thing: It must be safer in Baghdad.
Email Mark W. Anderson email
manderson@chroniclemail.com
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