Dr. Fieseher: We should never accept 'another mass shooting'
If it wasn’t so serious a problem, we could almost say that mass shootings have become a way of life in the United States. Except they are the opposite.
Have we really reached the point in America where we accept mass shootings on a regular basis? The teenager who referenced and posted racist theories on social media before killing 10 people in Buffalo is just the latest in a string of mass shootings of unarmed bystanders. With racist rhetoric (such as “replacement theory”) and coded language for those theories becoming more widespread on social media, with poplar right-wing commentators such as Tucker Carlson, and with many Republican lawmakers, we can expect more gun violence and many more gun deaths to follow.
This latest mass shooting in Buffalo, gives gun ownership groups a renewed opportunity to defend the right of racists, violent criminals, and unsupervised teenagers to purchase and own guns – as many as they want and any type of gun they want. They consider all guns: semi-automatic firearms, guns with high-capacity magazines and guns with “enhancements” such as bump stocks as a right for anyone to own, regardless of personal history, intent, or reason. The interpretation of the Second Amendment for gun ownership groups results in allowing anyone the opportunity to own and operate a deadly firearm that could enable them to commit unspeakable crimes against Americans. They reason that by defending the right of unsupervised teens, criminals, and racists to own guns, they prevent the “slippery slope” of removing guns from the hands of responsible gun owners.
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Apparently gun lobby groups feel the Second Amendment is insufficient to protect responsible gun owners in comparison to automobile ownership, which is not a constitutional right. We have laws in place to take away the license of anyone who abuses their right to drive a motor vehicle such as with repeated DUI’s or vehicular homicide. Enforcement of those laws is always problematic due to the ginormous number of cars and drivers in the United States. Yet, no one is suggesting we take away everyone’s ability to drive the vehicle of their choice when the number of traffic-related fatalities rises. Instead, we tighten the restrictions and increase funding to the appropriate law enforcement officials to enforce those laws.
But gun owner groups don’t follow that logic despite having the security of a constitutional amendment. They have lobbied for years to decrease funding for federal and state law enforcement to make it even more difficult to track and remove guns from people who should not have them. Their interpretation of the Second Amendment won’t even allow doctors to screen their own patients in the privacy of their offices to ensure the patient, the patient’s family, and community that a person has the mental capacity to safely own and use a gun responsibly.
This last point is important since the number of gun-related deaths from suicide is even higher than mass shootings.
If past actions are any indication of the future, after this latest shooting, we can expect to see outcries from anti-violence groups to tighten restrictions on gun purchases and ownership. History suggests that this would be followed by more intense counter-lobbying from gun owner groups and another uptick in gun and ammunition purchases as the fear mongering intensifies. Republicans will find some bipartisan support to block federal legislation aimed at decreasing gun violence. Later, as the news cycle moves on to other concerns, Americans will settle down to accept the fact that we live in a country where our children, our law enforcement officials, members of racial and religious minorities, members of congress, doctors, or any gun owner who is seriously depressed will be the next victim of gun violence.
We need our political leaders to stand up to gun violence and protect the lives of the very people who elected them. If they don’t, then we should throw them out of office. The Second Amendment was never intended to protect the possession of firearms for criminals, violent racists, and other people who have or would abuse their right of ownership. Politicians can pass common-sense gun safety laws and defend the Second Amendment at the same time, and most Americans are smart enough to understand the difference. This includes increasing funding to the state and federal agencies equipped to enforce present and future legislation. Such actions should reaffirm responsible gun owners of their Second Amendment rights.
We should never accept “another mass shooting.”
James Fieseher, MD of Dover is a recently retired family physician.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dr. Fieseher: We should never accept 'another mass shooting'
