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Health & Fitness

Common Sense Solutions to Gun Violence

Following the December 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, Vice President Biden and the NRA both advanced plans to minimize the threat posed by individuals intending to commit mass carnage at schools. 

Vice President Biden advocated for prohibiting magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, prohibiting "assault weapons," requiring a background check on all firearm transfers, and prohibiting armor piercing ammunition.  The NRA proposed placing school resource officers (i.e., armed guards) at schools, based upon the "simplistic" premise that the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Vice President Biden's proposals were lauded as common sense gun laws.  The NRA's proposal was "widely criticized" as "bizarrely counter-intuitive" and "off target."

Last Friday, another young man walked into a school armed with a pump action shotgun, a machete, and several Molotov cocktails.  His shooting spree, which left Claire Davis fighting for her life, would not have been prevented by any of Vice President Biden's proposed laws.  On the other hand, the shooter's rampage lasted only 80 seconds because the shooter killed himself when a school resource officer, James Englert, confronted him.  Because of Officer Englert's actions, we are in the enviable position of not knowing how many students the shooter wanted to hurt. 

The fact that good guys with guns can, and do, save lies should come as no surprise: two studies (2004 and 2013) commissioned by the United States that have examined the issue have concluded that good guys with guns stop more crimes than bad guys commit with guns.  If we cannot prevent bad guys from using guns (and we cannot), then it is only common sense to allow good guys to bear the most useful tool to stop bad guys.

Photo by Oleg Volk

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