Today I saw this post on Facebook:
"Give up your car because others drive drunk? No.
Then why give up your gun because others commit crimes with them?"
I felt annoyed when I read this. The main reason is because this is what is known as a false equivalency, a kind of logical fallacy where one implies that two things are the same, when they really are not.
I don't give up my car, because I need my car to get around. I use it most every day, often several times a day. Most people who own guns for self-defense probably use them rarely, if ever. The purpose of a car is to provide transportation, whereas the purpose of a gun is to cause harm. Etc., etc.
However, I also felt annoyed because on some emotional level this false comparison rings true. The pain we feel when someone dies in a car accident is very much like the pain of losing someone in a gun accident or at the hands of a criminal with a gun. We think, "If only...." If only she had taken a different road. If only he hadn't tried to answer that text. If only the gun had been unloaded, or out of reach, or in the locked case.
After thinking about this comparison, I did some quick research. (How DID we ever get along without the internet?!?)
Tomorrow I will post some interesting statistics and some ideas on how comparing gun violence to motor vehicle fatalities might actually provide some useful strategies for reducing gun deaths.
Showing posts with label gun violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gun violence. Show all posts
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Time to Start
Like many people, I cried over the course of that sunny day this past December as the news unfolded about the children gunned down in their 1st grade classroom. Like many gun control advocates, I posted comments on Facebook about the senseless nature of it all. And like many Americans, I said to friends and thought to myself, "Okay, this is it. No more excuses. Time to take a stand." And then I sat. And did nothing.
Well, maybe not completely nothing. I did take a stand, at least on Facebook, deciding not to let fear of non-supportive comments from FB friends who don't share my views on guns and gun ownership keep me from expressing those views. I sent an email to a journalist whose article on the topic inspired me. I read the personal-sounding email from Joe Biden that showed up in my in-box, telling me that now is the time to take a stand. But still I sat.
This morning on the radio I heard the story of a woman in Chicago who buried her fourth and last child this week; all four of them, over the years, killed by gun violence. Then over breakfast I read the article about the U.S. army sniper who was shot and killed while trying to help a fellow soldier recover from PTSD. Just below that was an article about the man who shot and killed a school bus driver, kidnapped a 5-year-old and held him (with a gun) in an underground bunker for days. The boy was saved; the man was not.
A few minutes later, after the credits rolled on "Sponge Bob", Nickelodeon ran a public service announcement where a spunky teenager paid credit to Rosa Parks. My 10-year-old son looked up from tying his shoes and said, "Mom, Rosa Parks!" We listened together to this poem*:
A poem for Rosa Parks
You stood up for your rights with your own two feet
Sat down at the front of the bus when they told you take the back seat
Rosa, Rosa
Your memory lives forever through girls like me
We will always stand up for ourselves and remember
To keep the peace
"Do you know her story?" I asked. He said he did. "Why was she supposed to sit in the back of the bus?" I asked.
"Because the white people had more power than the black people," he said.
"And they weren't nice to them, were they?" I asked. He agreed they were not.
"In our family we're nice to them," he said.
"We're nice to all people, aren't we?" I suggested. He smiled and agreed and went off to school.
So this is for Rosa, and for my son, and my daughter, to show them that I care about people and principles. To show that I have the courage to take a stand, in a public way; that I am willing to do something instead of just thinking about it.
I firmly believe that we should have fewer guns in our society, and that fewer guns will mean less pain. Through this blog I hope to communicate this idea and support it with facts, statistics, and solid examples. I hope to inspire those who already agree with me to take some action to help effect change. And I hope, perhaps against the odds, to even change the minds of some people who don't currently agree.
Please check back often; there is plenty more to come. But now is the time to start. Let's go.
* Poem attributed to Urban Word; video at this website: http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/nick-voices-black-history-month-cymphonique-miller-rosa-parks-2-TB1284-01.html
Well, maybe not completely nothing. I did take a stand, at least on Facebook, deciding not to let fear of non-supportive comments from FB friends who don't share my views on guns and gun ownership keep me from expressing those views. I sent an email to a journalist whose article on the topic inspired me. I read the personal-sounding email from Joe Biden that showed up in my in-box, telling me that now is the time to take a stand. But still I sat.
This morning on the radio I heard the story of a woman in Chicago who buried her fourth and last child this week; all four of them, over the years, killed by gun violence. Then over breakfast I read the article about the U.S. army sniper who was shot and killed while trying to help a fellow soldier recover from PTSD. Just below that was an article about the man who shot and killed a school bus driver, kidnapped a 5-year-old and held him (with a gun) in an underground bunker for days. The boy was saved; the man was not.
A few minutes later, after the credits rolled on "Sponge Bob", Nickelodeon ran a public service announcement where a spunky teenager paid credit to Rosa Parks. My 10-year-old son looked up from tying his shoes and said, "Mom, Rosa Parks!" We listened together to this poem*:
A poem for Rosa Parks
You stood up for your rights with your own two feet
Sat down at the front of the bus when they told you take the back seat
Rosa, Rosa
Your memory lives forever through girls like me
We will always stand up for ourselves and remember
To keep the peace
"Do you know her story?" I asked. He said he did. "Why was she supposed to sit in the back of the bus?" I asked.
"Because the white people had more power than the black people," he said.
"And they weren't nice to them, were they?" I asked. He agreed they were not.
"In our family we're nice to them," he said.
"We're nice to all people, aren't we?" I suggested. He smiled and agreed and went off to school.
So this is for Rosa, and for my son, and my daughter, to show them that I care about people and principles. To show that I have the courage to take a stand, in a public way; that I am willing to do something instead of just thinking about it.
I firmly believe that we should have fewer guns in our society, and that fewer guns will mean less pain. Through this blog I hope to communicate this idea and support it with facts, statistics, and solid examples. I hope to inspire those who already agree with me to take some action to help effect change. And I hope, perhaps against the odds, to even change the minds of some people who don't currently agree.
Please check back often; there is plenty more to come. But now is the time to start. Let's go.
* Poem attributed to Urban Word; video at this website: http://www.nick.com/videos/clip/nick-voices-black-history-month-cymphonique-miller-rosa-parks-2-TB1284-01.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)