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Register guns to take aim at urban crisis
By C.W. GUSEWELLE
The Kansas City Star
As last year drew to its close, a story in The New York Times reported a bit of encouraging news. In what is by far the largest U.S. city, population nearly 8,364,000, the total of 466 homicides in 2009 was the fewest in any year since 1963.
Doing the math — dividing the number of people by the number of murders — it meant that one New Yorker out of every 18,000 was at risk of being slain.
It piqued my interest, so I decided to run the numbers for some other major American cities.
In Chicago, with 3 million people and 509 homicides, it turns out that one person in 5,894 was murdered.
In Los Angeles, population just over 4 million, the 742 victims amounted to one in every 5,480 residents.
Lastly, I did the computation for our city, Kansas City, this sweet and civil Midwestern place we celebrate as the Heart of America, with a population of 475,800 and a 2009 murder count of 110.
It came to one person killed for every 4,326 people who live here.
No way! I thought. I did the calculation again. Then a third time. The numbers don’t lie. Statistically, the risk of being a homicide victim in Kansas City is 21 percent greater than in Los Angeles, 27 percent greater than in Chicago, and — try to get your mind around this — more than four times greater than in New York.
In short, this community we call home is an uncommonly dangerous place.
How to account for that? Maybe a trained demographer could come up with an explanation. I certainly can’t, and neither can our local police.
In our town, as around the country, there were some circumstances in common. Firearms, predominantly handguns, were by far the perpetrators’ weapons of choice — used in 94 of the 110 killings here — with the greatest numbers of victims between the ages of 16 and 34.
Families are shattered. Promising young lives are cut short. Whole neighborhoods become virtual prisons, where leaving home after dark, or even sitting on one’s own porch, may be an act of recklessness.
By one means or another, it must be stopped!
Will someone please tell me when the last time was that a well-intended protest march or a street corner prayer session prevented yet another senseless gun death?
I don’t ask that just to be provocative. My uninformed guess is that the actual life-saving effect of these public displays of anger and sorrow amounts to exactly zero.
The victims are buried. Their loved ones grieve. And the rattle of gunfire continues uninterrupted.
I’ve heard the slogan, “Guns don’t kill people. People do.” True enough. But guns are the killers’ preferred tools. It’s clear that unregulated firearms are key contributors to this crisis in American urban life.
I speak as someone who has hunted for more than a half-century, from my 20s onward. My days afield with friends, and often with dogs, have been a cherished part of my life.
As a matter of preference, I own no handguns. But even guns meant for sport can be misused in criminal ways. And for that reason I would welcome, and vigorously support, the mandatory registration of all firearms, including hunting guns like mine.
I would be altogether happy to provide authorities with a description, by make and model, place of origin, gauge or caliber, and serial number.
But in calls to my local police department and sheriff’s headquarters, I determined there presently was no provision for receiving and storing such information.
In fact, any talk of meaningful gun regulation in this country is all but meaningless.
What do you think?
By C.W. GUSEWELLE
The Kansas City Star
As last year drew to its close, a story in The New York Times reported a bit of encouraging news. In what is by far the largest U.S. city, population nearly 8,364,000, the total of 466 homicides in 2009 was the fewest in any year since 1963.
Doing the math — dividing the number of people by the number of murders — it meant that one New Yorker out of every 18,000 was at risk of being slain.
It piqued my interest, so I decided to run the numbers for some other major American cities.
In Chicago, with 3 million people and 509 homicides, it turns out that one person in 5,894 was murdered.
In Los Angeles, population just over 4 million, the 742 victims amounted to one in every 5,480 residents.
Lastly, I did the computation for our city, Kansas City, this sweet and civil Midwestern place we celebrate as the Heart of America, with a population of 475,800 and a 2009 murder count of 110.
It came to one person killed for every 4,326 people who live here.
No way! I thought. I did the calculation again. Then a third time. The numbers don’t lie. Statistically, the risk of being a homicide victim in Kansas City is 21 percent greater than in Los Angeles, 27 percent greater than in Chicago, and — try to get your mind around this — more than four times greater than in New York.
In short, this community we call home is an uncommonly dangerous place.
How to account for that? Maybe a trained demographer could come up with an explanation. I certainly can’t, and neither can our local police.
In our town, as around the country, there were some circumstances in common. Firearms, predominantly handguns, were by far the perpetrators’ weapons of choice — used in 94 of the 110 killings here — with the greatest numbers of victims between the ages of 16 and 34.
Families are shattered. Promising young lives are cut short. Whole neighborhoods become virtual prisons, where leaving home after dark, or even sitting on one’s own porch, may be an act of recklessness.
By one means or another, it must be stopped!
Will someone please tell me when the last time was that a well-intended protest march or a street corner prayer session prevented yet another senseless gun death?
I don’t ask that just to be provocative. My uninformed guess is that the actual life-saving effect of these public displays of anger and sorrow amounts to exactly zero.
The victims are buried. Their loved ones grieve. And the rattle of gunfire continues uninterrupted.
I’ve heard the slogan, “Guns don’t kill people. People do.” True enough. But guns are the killers’ preferred tools. It’s clear that unregulated firearms are key contributors to this crisis in American urban life.
I speak as someone who has hunted for more than a half-century, from my 20s onward. My days afield with friends, and often with dogs, have been a cherished part of my life.
As a matter of preference, I own no handguns. But even guns meant for sport can be misused in criminal ways. And for that reason I would welcome, and vigorously support, the mandatory registration of all firearms, including hunting guns like mine.
I would be altogether happy to provide authorities with a description, by make and model, place of origin, gauge or caliber, and serial number.
But in calls to my local police department and sheriff’s headquarters, I determined there presently was no provision for receiving and storing such information.
In fact, any talk of meaningful gun regulation in this country is all but meaningless.
What do you think?
