CNN publishes a "not anti-gun" editorial

[terraformer]

It's a must read. And I say it is not anti gun as opposed to being progun. But it is a start.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/02/okun.guns.chicago/index.html

'That's how a lot of these shootings happen ... over nothing'
By Will Okun, Special to CNN
July 2, 2010 2:56 p.m. EDT

Editor's note: Will Okun taught high school on the West Side of Chicago for nine years and is writing a novel for young adults.
(CNN) -- Chicago's longstanding ban on handguns, which the Supreme Court this week ruled as unconstitutional, was a complete failure.

Two years ago, every student in my first-period English class on the West Side of Chicago claimed to have easy access to a handgun -- even the goody-two-shoes Honors student in the front row. When I doubted her, she looked at me as if I were a fool. "I could get you one from my uncle tonight," she informed me with a quizzical look. "He might ask me why I needed it, might not."

Guns were so abundant that there was only, maybe, one big fight a year among the males in our school building because it was understood that the simplest of physical confrontations too quickly could escalate into deadly shootings. "You have to walk away from a lot," observed one former student of mine who has lost several friends and relatives to gun violence. "For instance, dude deserves to be beat and I know I could beat his ass, but then what? No one is just going to take an ass-beating, they're going to want to do something about it."

And he added, "Then you got to worry about him and his guys jumping on you. Or more than likely, he's going to get a gun to show that he's not a punk. That's how a lot of these shootings happen, it's over nothing."

Violence was so omnipresent that when I returned to school a few days after being shot in the arm with a .22 (I'd rather not discuss), a staggering number of students lifted their shirts to show their bullet wounds. "What you going to do?" they seemed to say with a shrug, as if this were everyday life.

In a city where an average of four people are shot every day, the random shooting death a few years ago of an amazing, beautiful person, Alto Brown, a friend of mine, was reduced to a single line in a three-paragraph newspaper story coldly tallying weekend homicides. "Everything happens for a reason," the pastor said at his funeral. "He's now in a better place."

As gangs and their illegal guns held whole communities hostage, it seemed as if the only people prevented from possessing firearms were citizens like Keith Thomas, who was raised on the West Side and now works as a mentor to at-risk youth for an alternatives schools program in Chicago "I don't think anybody in their right mind would argue that more guns are a good thing," said Thomas, who has the scar from a bullet wound on his right wrist. "But I think the Supreme Court made the right decision. I think right now, at this point, the ban is not helping to serve any real purpose."

Thomas does not believe that the court's decision will result in significantly more or less violence, but he does hope that the ruling will force political leaders to seek community improvements beyond just strict gun control.

"It's not enough to just say we need more gun control. That's not what's causing all these problems out here, the guns are the result," he explained. "If we want to stop violence, we need to make real changes. That's a lot harder and requires a lot more money than just saying no guns."

In too many low-income communities of Chicago, the schools are in shambles, quality after-school programs are scarce, well-paying jobs are almost nonexistent, and the family structure is in full crisis. It is an easy notion to disregard, but many of these children are struggling daily to thrive in an environment that fosters failure.

"We have to get them early, before they start getting lost," Thomas said of the youth he advises, get them redirected with organizations like his and other successful mentoring interventions like the Youth Advocates Programs. "Once they start believing there's nothing else, that they have nothing to lose, they're the ones most likely to do the shooting."

After a recent weekend in which 10 people were killed and 60 wounded by gunfire, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley continued to argue the necessity of a citywide gun ban. "Look at all the guns that shot people this weekend. Where did they come from? That is the issue."

But one must ask, truly, is it?

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Will Okun.

 

[MisterHappy]

Wow....acknowledging that there's not quick fix to a bog problem.....that's different.....

 

[Rate_of_Twist]

good article...

 

[glockstones]

The problem is that people like Chigagos Mayor wont listen they ask all of us to just listen to thier side of the conversation but they refuse to try and listen to us.

 

[Fixxah]

Are we still living? Hard to believe someone actually realizes that guns don't kill people by themselves. Except for Daley of course.

 

[fubar]

Are we still living? Hard to believe someone actually realizes that guns don't kill people by themselves. Except for Daley of course.

Every person i consider a friend , most of my family , half of my acquaintances , have/use/collect/carry/shoot guns. We're all not afraid of them or each other. Aren't we supposed to be shooting up the town every time we have a beer or argue with someone ?

 

[dixidawg]

Send that article to Deval. Every letter that you write in opposition to 4102 that you send to a politician should also include some of the salient points.

 

[cekim]

Guns were so abundant that there was only, maybe, one big fight a year among the males in our school building because it was understood that the simplest of physical confrontations too quickly could escalate into deadly shootings. "You have to walk away from a lot,"

"An armed society is a polite society"

 

[dwarven1]

Every person i consider a friend , most of my family , half of my acquaintances , have/use/collect/carry/shoot guns. We're all not afraid of them or each other. Aren't we supposed to be shooting up the town every time we have a beer or argue with someone ?

How many open-carried guns are there at every NES shoot? I still don't understand why no one gets shot!

"An armed society is a polite society"

Beat me to it, complete with the exact same text quoted.

From Heinlein's "Beyond This Horizon", the original source of the quote.

"How can there be any progress if we don't break customs?"

"Don't break them—avoid them. Take them into your considerations, examine how they work, and make them serve you. You don't need to disarm yourself to stay out of fights. If you did you would get into fights—I know you!—the way Smith did. An armed man need not fight. I haven't drawn my gun for more years than I can remember."

"Come to think about it, I haven't pulled mine in four years or more."

"That's the idea. But don't assume that the custom of going armed is useless. Customs always have a reason behind them, sometimes good, sometimes bad. This is a good one."

"Why do you say that? I used to think so, but I have my doubts now."

"Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That's a personal evaluation only. But gun-fighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It's a good thing.

"Of course," he continued, "our combativeness has to do with our ancestry and our history." Hamilton nodded; he knew that Mordan referred to the Second Genetic War. "But we have preserved that inheritance intentionally. The Planners would not stop the wearing of arms if they could."

"Maybe so," Felix answered slowly, "but it does seem like there ought to be a better way to do it. This way is pretty sloppy. Sometimes the bystanders get burned."

"The alert ones don't," Mordan pointed out. "But don't expect human institutions to be efficient. They never have been; it is a mistake to think that they can be made so this millennium, or the next."

"Why not?"

"Because we are sloppy, individually—and therefore collectively. Look at a cageful of monkeys, at your next opportunity. Watch how they do things and listen to them chatter. You'll find it instructive. You'll understand humans better."

 

[cekim]

How many open-carried guns are there at every NES shoot? I still don't understand why no one gets shot!

Particularly as the gun-to-person ratio is often 4,8,20:1

You'd think they would be a blood bath with all those guns around...



Hmmm, maybe it isn't the guns after all?

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

The writer's comments are neither anti-gun nor pro-gun. They are rooted in what is sorely missing in most conversations about guns (and most everything else): reality.

 

[economist]

The argument presented is almost entirely pragmatic. It's a poor substitute for principle, but it's a start. The idea that resources spent fighting legal gun ownership are wasted, and that the effort is a distraction from the solution of real problems is almost certainly true. It's also beside the point. The natural right to defend one's life is superior to any sort of empiricism.

 

[theGringo]

... and the family structure is in full crisis.

There's the problem, right there.

 

[FreeWillie]

There's the problem, right there.

You can say that again....