“Handguns do not enhance our safety, they exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.”
With those words during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” halftime show, sportscaster Bob Costas re-opened the national debate on gun control by quoting columnist Jason Whitlock’s response to a shocking murder-suicide. On Saturday, Kansas City Chiefs lineback Jovan Belcher had shot and killed his girlfriend and then shot himself.
On one side of the debate are those who argue that guns should be strictly regulated or kept out of the hands of civilians. On the other side are supporters of gun ownership, who largely base their view on the Second Amendment to the Constitution. It says, “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Tom King is the president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, which advocates for gun owners and promotes firearm safety and education. He rejects the argument that guns should be controlled to control crime. The number of crimes committed by gun owners, he says, is “statistically insignificant.”
The debate is fueled by high-profile shootings and other statistics. Among them:
- Nationally, 8,583 people died in shootings in 2011, according to the FBI. In New York state, 445 people died in shootings last year. Of those shootings, 394 were by handguns, five by rifles and 16 by shotguns.
- On July 20, 2012, James Holmes, the alleged shooter, entered a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo., and open fired on the audience. Twelve people were killed and almost 60 injured.
- In 2011, Jared Lee Loughner shot 18 people in Tucson, Ariz., including then- U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Loughner was diagnosed with schizophrenia following the shooting.
- On the campus of Virginia Tech in 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 15 people before killing himself
Federal, state and local governments have repeatedly enacted restrictions on gun ownership. New York has some of the strictest gun-control measures. No permit is required for the purchase of a rifle or shotgun, except in New York City. But a license and clean background check are required to purchase a handgun. In addition the state of New York gives its local governments authority to further regulate firearms and ammunition. New York does not honor any other states permits or licenses.
“New York already has the strictest pistol policy in the United States, what more can they do?” said King of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. He argues that the problem with guns in this country is with the enforcement.
“What makes you or anyone else think that passing any new or additional laws is going to make the criminals obey?” he asked. “If you’re talking about wanting to stop the violence in the street, what we should be talking about is enforcement of the current laws rather than the new laws.”
But advocates against gun violence call for stricter regulation of guns and gun ownership. Jackie Hilly is the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. As a former prosecutor in Manhattan, she saw firsthand the emotional and societal costs that illegal guns can have. Many of the people she works with at New Yorkers Against Gun Violence have been victims of gun violence, she said.
One of their main goals is to re-instate the ban on assault weapons. “One common denominator in all the mass shootings is they’ve all used assault weapons,” Hilly said.
She urges more federal intervention in controlling guns. “If there was a federal background check on every sale of every gun no matter where it happened,” said Hilly, “it would dramatically cut down on the number of illegal guns available to criminals in New York.”
(Allison Nachman is a graduate student of broadcast and digital journalism.)
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