Guns

 The level of gun violence which plagues the U.S. at present is clearly the product of a corrupt, rightwing Supreme Court which abandoned 250 years of precedents with a preposterous interpretation that gave credence to the arguments of the gun lobby.

Two transgressions underlie the Second Amendment interpretation of the Court.  The first is the failure to recognize the conflict between the right to bear arms and the fundamental "unalienable Rights" spelled out in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

The second is the Court's failure to give due consideration to the likelihood of harm resulting from the prohibition of any regulation of gun ownership. The correlation between rates of gun ownership and gun violence is unequivocal, as shown by a simple comparison of gun ownership and gun violence rates among countries with economies similar to that of the U.S.

Country Gun ownership rate (per 100 people) Gun homicide rate (per 100,000 people)

United States     120.5                     6.7

Canada     34.7                     0.2

United Kingdom      5.0                     0.2

Germany      20.0                     0.1

The problem the country faces now is that there no clear way out of the dilemma which the Court has created.  The rate of gun ownership and the momentum which the Court has given to the radical right is such that changes in laws or the composition of the Court will not undo the harm. Those might be good first steps, but they will not negate the existence of a heavily armed minority willing to use violence to intimidate the majority of citizens who support gun controls.

In the News

 NM Political Report:

"On Thursday, Lujan Grisham issued an executive order declaring a public health emergency with regards to gun violence on Thursday. This was replaced by a more in-depth public health order released at Friday’s press conference.

The public health order restricts firearms in either open or concealed carry on public property for 30 days as a cooling off period, she said.

The change was made to open up more resources to help New Mexico get the gun violence issue under control, Lujan Grisham said.

“We need to use the power of a public health (order) in a state of emergency  to access different levels, different resources, and different opportunities to keep New Mexicans safe,” Lujan Grisham said. “So that’s what’s changed today and we’re gonna keep doing this work very closely until we see dramatic additional productive changes in the state.” 

* * * 

The responses from Republicans in and around the State were as predictable as they were cynical, mostly along the line that we need to lock up more people.

And then this from Colorado:

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KOB 4 News:

Dudley Brown, founder and president of the Colorado-based gun-rights group, called the governor’s action unconstitutional.

“She needs to be held accountable for stripping the God-given rights of millions away with the stroke of a pen,” he said in a statement announcing the lawsuit and request for a restraining order."

 * * * 

Lujan Grisham's order came right after the road rage murder near the UNM Sports Complex of an eleven-year-old and the serious injury of his aunt who was driving the car.  In August a five-year-old was killed lying in her bed during a drive-by shooting.  Hardly a day goes by in Albuquerque without the report of a shooting.  

* * * 

KOAT Action 7 News:

According to Albuquerque police, there have been 73 homicide cases opened, with a total of 77 victims in the city so far this year.

Update:

KOAT 4 News: 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – More than a hundred people openly carried their guns in Old Town as they protested Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s recent controversial move on firearms. 

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And for a preview of where all this is going see the Aljazeera interview of Arundhati Roy on the G20 get-together in Delhi. 

guns and politics

I got to the Albuquerque City Council chambers a half hour before the sign-up would start for comments on the proposal to urge a state law establishing the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Act.  There were already about twenty people ahead of me in the line, but I was still within the thirty commenter limit.  I didn't keep a tally of the speakers.  I think about two-thirds were NRA supporters, though I don't recall any stating that affiliation.

The first commenter was a heavily tattooed drama queen who held up a pocket copy of the Constitution and loudly demanded to know if any of the councilors had read it.  She slammed the booklet on the podium and made a series of derogatory statements about politicians.  That set the tone for many of the subsequent commenters, though none of the others delivered their message with such verve.

There were a lot of shade tree lawyers, along with a couple who professed expertise in police work and terrorism monitoring.  The common threads were claims about Red Flag laws violating various parts of the Bill of Rights and judgments that the proposed legislation would not obtain the desired results -- all the usual NRA talking points with no supporting evidence.

I decided to use my 1.5 minutes to highlight a couple well-established facts; that a substantial majority of Americans support Red Flag laws, and included in that group is a majority of gun owners who also support other common sense gun regulation.  I said I thought the ERPO Act resolution was a small step, but one in the right direction, and I urged the councilors to keep on with their initiative.

The proposal that the city urge passage of a state Red Flag law passed four to two.  One of the two against supporting the recommendation said about six times that she was for "reform", but then said she would not support the recommendation to the State legislature because there was no way to know exactly what the State law would say.  That same pathetic evasion was also cited by the other "no" voting councilor.  Three other councilors did not show their faces at the meeting.

So now New Mexicans will have to wait for 2020 to see what happens with the Red Flag law and other gun control measures.  As is always the case, a lot of momentum toward gun regulation has built up following the latest horrific massacres.  It remains to be seen how much of that momentum can be sustained long enough to force the law makers to take action.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of excellent articles appearing every day on the subject of gun violence and how it might be reduced:

A chill in the air: The problem of teen suicide (Searchlight New Mexico)

Can We Prevent Mass Shootings By Preventing Suicide? (FiveThirtyEight)

Why extreme risk protection orders can make a difference (The NM Political Report)