Guns and kids: the youngest casualties of America's infatuation with firearms

[Robb]

A bus bearing some of the names of over 6,000 people killed by gun violence in the sixth months since the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

There is only a shuddering half-step between between the general availability of firearms, their lax regulation, and the death of children. States with background checks have 16% lower gun fatality rates. Child access prevention laws reduce accidental shootings by as much as 23%. Australia passed a strict assault weapons ban and mandatory buy-back program (the US law once on the books had no such program) in 1996 – and hasn't had a single mass shooting since.

I'm not even sure the CDF believed this report would change that many minds: to anyone disinclined to believe that strict gun laws work, the report is just a recitation of bad things happening because of bad guys (even if a lot of those "bad guys" are other children). Perhaps the point of the report was more modest: just to let people know what is happening, what violence is going on beneath surface, as politicians and lobbyists posture. Though, who knows: Missouri has the fourth most gun deaths in the nation, the sixth most deaths by firearm for children under 18 and is a favorite transit point for gun-traffickers (in a July raid that may be deemed illegal next week, federal agents seized 267 illegal weapons) and look what's happening there.

We're beyond the point of "what will it take" when it comes to sane gun laws. The tragedies that should spur protests and marches and petitions happen quietly every day.

Read More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/10/guns-kids-casualties-america

[DanTex]

1. IBTGT

I beat the the gungeon trolls.

[madamesilverspurs]

2. No child

should ever have to know that they are of less value than their neighbors' guns. Sadly, in Colorado's senate districts 3 and 11, children are already learning that sad lesson.