In response to this thread, http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=324915, I wrote the following letter. Please critique it. Not quite thrilled with the way I closed it. Please let me know before I send it on to the newspapers here in Nebraska. Thanks!
I’d like to begin by expressing my deepest sympathies for the victims of the Westroads Mall atrocity.
During a recent report on Channel 6 News, WOWT-TV, several uninformed, ignorant statements were made by Dr. Joseph Strothert of the Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Strothert stated that, “The faster the bullet is going the more damage it does.” That statement, while not inherently false, disregards several aspects of terminal ballistics. The speed of a bullet is not the sole factor in determining how a bullet performs when it hits its target. Bullet weight, diameter, and construction are all just as important as velocity when determining the effects of a bullet on tissue.
Such blanket statements threaten and condemn several venerable hunting cartridges such as the .223 Remington, .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, and .30-06 Springfield which expel bullets from their cases at speeds much higher than the 7.62x39mm cartridge used by the Von Maur killer. Conversely, many popular handgun cartridges such as the 9mm Luger, .45 ACP, .38 Special, and .357 Magnum propel bullets much more slowly than the killer’s. However, no one would contest the lethality of those rounds, or those fired from any gun. It is also unlikely that the events at Von Maur would have been less tragic if the killer was using a firearm chambered for a slower cartridge. Velocity is only part of the equation: a bowling ball can cause severe damage to human beings even at speeds relatively slow compared to bullets.
The point is that Dr. Strothert is unethically and immorally preying on the ignorance of the public. The general public is not expected to fully understand bullet velocity, caliber, and expansion but Dr. Strothert, through a lie by omission, has sought to confuse the public and place misinformation in their heads.
The good doctor then goes on to say, “These are very high velocity weapons that are only meant to destroy tissue and kill people." He apparently sees no difference in using a firearm to take a life in cold blood and using a firearm to protect human life from an aggressor. In the event of a home invasion, a rifle might be an appropriate choice to protect one’s family and Dr. Strothert is in no position to dictate how the public may or may not defend their loved ones from those that wish to cause harm to them. His above statement also shows complete disregard for athletes and competitors who participate in various forms of shooting sports such as silhouette and bullseye competition. Viewed another way, a firearm is just a tool. It may be used for protection, aggression, recreation, or putting food on the table. In that way, a rifle is no different than a hammer, a knife, or a baseball bat. While I am sure that Dr. Strothert is an intelligent man and capable physician, his area of expertise is medicine, not criminal justice or ballistics. He should stick to healing people rather than spreading half-truths.
In the same report, Omaha Senator Brad Ashford proceeded to call for more gun laws. Senator Ashford seems to be operating under the assumption that criminals obey laws. By definition, a criminal does not obey the law; that is what makes them a criminal. The Von Maur killer broke several laws on that fateful day: murder, attempted murder, assault, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, theft by unlawful taking, unlawful discharge of a firearm, and disturbing the peace. Would more laws have stopped him?
Sen. Ashford called for a ban on assault weapons at the federal level like the 10-year ban that expired in 2004. He said, "They're involved in many cases with that horrible, horrible, horrible destruction and death, from Columbine to Westroads. I don't know how much more we need to know." Sen. Ashford should know that the Columbine Massacre occurred in 1999, right in the middle of the ineffective ban. The killers in that attack also broke other federal laws including the National Firearms Act of 1934 and The Gun Control Act of 1968. The senator also said, “A bigger issue is, should we be selling assault weapons without background checks.” The Von Maur killer stole the weapon: Is the Senator proposing a background check on thieves before they steal firearms?
Sen. Ashford has apparently drawn up bills to "Ensure that firearms are safely stored in the home, that the weapons that are stolen from the home are reported to police officers." How does the Senator plan on enforcing these laws? Does he intend to violate the Fourth Amendment and have police engage in warrantless searches of homes looking for improperly stored weapons? Both laws would only come into play after the fact, after an attack has occurred. Perhaps the Senator should work on a bill making it illegal to shoot people in a crowded mall. Because more laws means we’re all safer, even if criminals break laws.
Let us digress into fantasy for just a moment. Imagine a world exactly the same as ours but with one difference: no guns. No one has a gun at all. There are still good guys and bad guys, but neither of them has a firearm. However, people will still die:
- May 18, 1927: Andrew Kehoe killed 45 people and injured 58, most of them children, after he bombed the local school in Bath, Michigan.
- 1933 – 1945: Approximately 11 million Jews and others deemed “undesirable” were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Most died in gas chambers while others were subject to Nazi experiments or died from various diseases.
- April 6, 1976 – December 12, 1978: John Wayne Gacy confesses to 33 murders of young men and boys in the Chicago, IL area that he choked with a rope or board while he sexually assaulted them.
- July 7, 1986: Juan Gonzalez attacked passengers on the Staten Island Ferry in New York City with a machete. Two were killed and nine were injured.
- March 20, 1995: Members of Aum Shinrikyo killed twelve, severely injured fifty, and caused temporary vision problems for nearly a thousand people after they unleashed Sarin gas in the Tokyo, Japan subway.
- April 19, 1995: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK was destroyed by a bomb planted by Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, resulting in 168 deaths and 800 injuries.
- July 27, 1996: Two people died and 111 were injured when a bomb was detonated in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, GA by Eric Robert Rudolph.
This small sample serves to show that deplorable acts of violence can and do occur without firearms.
I do not proclaim to have all of the answers. Everyone is looking for someone to blame in the wake of this atrocity while it seems the person to blame was the perpetrator of this vicious act. The police, his family, the mayor, the state legislature, Congress, the mall, the store… none of them were at fault. You cannot prevent these things unless you want to trample the rights of all citizens. The Second Amendment was never about hunting and never will be. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
