Dan Carpenter
Armed for trouble
Recent weeks have seen an all-out rhetorical assault against violence in Indianapolis, with the prosecutor flogging a new video to scare kids away from guns and experts offering explanations for our horrifying upsurge in robbery and homicide.
You teach and learn personal responsibility at an early age to head off tragedy, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi says.
We need more jail space to fight the mayhem we now face, he and other law enforcement officials cry. Longer prison sentences. More cops. A merger between city police and the Sheriff's Department. A delay in the merger.
Oh, and don't forget the social factors, other informed voices chime in. Drugs. Unemployment. Failure in school. Single mothers. Erosion of old-fashioned values.
Everything's there, in these columns and columns of ink devoted to the prosecutor's Educating Kids About Gun Violence (EKG) program, the rash of murders and the 18 percent rise in armed holdups in this city while crime is declining nationally.
Everything, that is, except availability of guns.
When Brizzi was asked, during an interview launching EKG, whether guns themselves, and gun laws, might be culprits in the crime plague, he gave a surprised look and a resigned answer: "Guns are everywhere." He wasn't even current on the gun show situation around here.
Yet the so-called gun show loophole, which allows handgun purchases without background checks, is just one feature of a state with few peers when it comes to ease of obtaining and carrying lethal firepower.
No assault weapons ban. No one-handgun-a-month limit to curb straw purchases for criminals. No restrictions on Saturday Night Specials. No requirement that guns be sold with child-safety locks.
On and on. No wonder the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gives Indiana a D grade for protection of its citizens from bullets. No wonder the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation said in a 2003 report drawn from federal records that guns bought in Indiana were used in more gun crimes than those obtained anywhere else in America, Wild West of the Western world.
While she cannot comment on the laws, U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks of Indiana's Southern District agrees guns are too easy to get. Like Brizzi, she's giving talks at schools; and kids themselves confirm her knowledge from their experience, regaling her with accounts of weapons being retailed at discount out of the trunks of cars.
Despite education campaigns and rewards for tips, "I am concerned we're not making enough of an effort at going after those who are illegally selling guns, especially to young people," Brooks said. "But we need information."
In the view of state Rep. David Orentlicher, D-Indianapolis, "The bully pulpit is important, but it's only half of it." He proposed bills in this year's session of the Indiana General Assembly to close the gun show loophole and limit handgun sales to one a month. Both went down in a hail of predictability. Orentlicher, an attorney and physician who's well acquainted with the kind of damage shown on those EKG videos, agrees guns are everywhere but disagrees that they have to be.
"Sure, we're awash in guns. Unless we do something, we'll always be awash in guns. The cops say they need these (gun control) laws to protect themselves and to protect you. That ought to be enough. It's not."
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051120/COLUMNISTS06/511200312/1002/OPINION
Armed for trouble
Recent weeks have seen an all-out rhetorical assault against violence in Indianapolis, with the prosecutor flogging a new video to scare kids away from guns and experts offering explanations for our horrifying upsurge in robbery and homicide.
You teach and learn personal responsibility at an early age to head off tragedy, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi says.
We need more jail space to fight the mayhem we now face, he and other law enforcement officials cry. Longer prison sentences. More cops. A merger between city police and the Sheriff's Department. A delay in the merger.
Oh, and don't forget the social factors, other informed voices chime in. Drugs. Unemployment. Failure in school. Single mothers. Erosion of old-fashioned values.
Everything's there, in these columns and columns of ink devoted to the prosecutor's Educating Kids About Gun Violence (EKG) program, the rash of murders and the 18 percent rise in armed holdups in this city while crime is declining nationally.
Everything, that is, except availability of guns.
When Brizzi was asked, during an interview launching EKG, whether guns themselves, and gun laws, might be culprits in the crime plague, he gave a surprised look and a resigned answer: "Guns are everywhere." He wasn't even current on the gun show situation around here.
Yet the so-called gun show loophole, which allows handgun purchases without background checks, is just one feature of a state with few peers when it comes to ease of obtaining and carrying lethal firepower.
No assault weapons ban. No one-handgun-a-month limit to curb straw purchases for criminals. No restrictions on Saturday Night Specials. No requirement that guns be sold with child-safety locks.
On and on. No wonder the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gives Indiana a D grade for protection of its citizens from bullets. No wonder the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation said in a 2003 report drawn from federal records that guns bought in Indiana were used in more gun crimes than those obtained anywhere else in America, Wild West of the Western world.
While she cannot comment on the laws, U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks of Indiana's Southern District agrees guns are too easy to get. Like Brizzi, she's giving talks at schools; and kids themselves confirm her knowledge from their experience, regaling her with accounts of weapons being retailed at discount out of the trunks of cars.
Despite education campaigns and rewards for tips, "I am concerned we're not making enough of an effort at going after those who are illegally selling guns, especially to young people," Brooks said. "But we need information."
In the view of state Rep. David Orentlicher, D-Indianapolis, "The bully pulpit is important, but it's only half of it." He proposed bills in this year's session of the Indiana General Assembly to close the gun show loophole and limit handgun sales to one a month. Both went down in a hail of predictability. Orentlicher, an attorney and physician who's well acquainted with the kind of damage shown on those EKG videos, agrees guns are everywhere but disagrees that they have to be.
"Sure, we're awash in guns. Unless we do something, we'll always be awash in guns. The cops say they need these (gun control) laws to protect themselves and to protect you. That ought to be enough. It's not."
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051120/COLUMNISTS06/511200312/1002/OPINION
