Gary Horton seems to have gone on a rampage recently against private gun ownership, as exemplified by his most recent column on the subject, (Aug. 28), “Did America Want to Go This Far Out on Guns?”
Here’s a sample of his histrionics: “Over a decade, America has lost 360,000 people to gun deaths. By comparison, we’ve lost some 3,100 to terror attacks. Gun deaths are 116 times greater than terror-related deaths. That’s 11,600%!”
Well, it’s undeniable that so many deaths are tragic, but why don’t we look at another number, since we’re comparing different manners of people dying?
During that same period, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 355,429 traffic accident fatalities, making them every bit as dangerous as those e-e-e-e-vil guns, 116 times greater than terror-related deaths.
Well, what’s to be done about all this mayhem? In this particular column Horton doesn’t say, as it’s pretty much an orgy of hand-wringing. But judging from the totality of his columns on the topic I suppose he’d like to wave a magic wand and make all the privately owned guns in the country vanish. The only thing standing in his way – other than the lack of that wand – is that pesky and “grossly contorted interpretation of a Second Amendment.”
But there is no Second Amendment equivalent when it comes to cars. They can be regulated to any degree. So, if we want to save a boatload of lives, why not mandate breathalyzer/ignition interlock devices on all cars, and speed governors that prevent them from going any faster than 20 mph? That would probably eliminate at least 90% of traffic fatalities since drunk driving is one major factor, and it’s hard for an accident to be fatal at such low speeds. Maybe even eliminate private car ownership altogether, and mandate that everyone use public transportation! How about that? Everyone has to ride the bus!
We don’t do that because as a society we accept the fact that liberty – freedom of choice and action – sometimes has a cost in human life, a sad and harsh reality.
Horton also tries to peddle the clichéd trope that the Second Amendment only applies to “well-organized state militias.” I will very kindly label that statement as “misguided.” In fact U.S. Code Title 10 § 246 defines the militia as having two components: the “organized militia,” which is the National Guard (Horton’s organized state militias); and the “unorganized militia,” which is all other law-abiding adults in who are, or who have applied to be, citizens.
Of course, Horton indulges in the demonization of the semi-auto AR-15, the most popular rifle in this country, calling them “mass killing machines.” Interestingly enough, in Switzerland, members of their militia – which is all males of military age, as they have universal conscription – are allowed to keep their issued weapons at home, including full-auto guns. You’d think their streets should be awash in blood, wouldn’t you? But no…
I think there’s one more issue to address, and I think it’s pretty important. Horton claims 360,000 gun deaths over a 10-year period, so about 36,000 per year on average. However, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2017, the last year for which data are available, there were 10,982 homicides in which firearms were used, and only 403 of those were rifles of any kind. If you average out the number of gun homicides covered by the five years of that report you get 9,733 per year. Multiply that by 10 and you get 97,333 for 10 years, a far cry from that 360,000 Horton so freely bandies about.
In 2017, rifles – of which the AR-15 type is a variant – were used 403 times, and averaged 316 times per year over the five years covered by the UCR, for a 10-year averaged total of 3,160. That means that rifles of all kinds, NOT just AR-15s, were used in only 3% of gun-related homicides. Not exactly an epidemic, is it?
I have no idea where Horton got his 360,000 number, and frankly don’t care. No matter how you slice it, that number doesn’t represent gun use in homicides in this country, as the real data clearly show.
Horton’s column is a clear illustration of the hyperbolic scare tactics used by those who’d deprive law-abiding people of their gun rights, full of misrepresentations, over-the-top rhetoric and demagoguery.
Don’t fall for it.
Brian Baker
Saugus
