Tom on Maine Massacre and Guns

 

The tale of the Maine shooting this week continues to grow longer, especially now that the shooter has been found dead and we can focus on cause and effect, rather than public safety and apprehension. The inevitable calls for increased regulation of the type of gun used in the Maine shootings...an AR-15 military style rifle...has become a topic of discussion in the Pine Tree State. Maine is a rural state and, along with her sister Northern New England states, has high rates of gun ownership., (Vermont-51%, Maine-47%, and New Hampshire-41%.   These figures represent the percentage of adults who live in gun-owning households according to a study conducted by the RAND Corporation). At the same time, these 3 states seem to have reasonably low per capita gun death rates, (Maine-12.6 per 100,000, Vermon-11.8 per 100,000, and New Hampshire, 8.3 per 100,000.  By contrast Mississippi and Louisiana, the national leaders in this category, have per capita death rates of 33.9 and 29.6, respectively). The takeaway from these numbers is that Northern New England, while having high gun ownership rates, have somewhat moderate gun death rates, indicating that gun owners in these states are reasonably responsible gun owners. 

Yesterday, Jared Golden, who represents Maine's 2nd CD, and whose hometown is Lewiston, announced that he had changed his long held opposition to banning assault weapons.  Mr. Golden is a conservative democrat who has sometimes broken with the Democratic Party on issues like gun regulation.  This puts the spotlight on Maine's two US Senators, Angus King, an Independent who is up for reelection in 2024, and Susan Collins, a Republican.  Neither seem inclined to do much of anything to address a problem that continues to convulse the nation.  Sen. Collins dithers but, in the end, toes the NRA's line; More guns for everyone.  Sen. King actually signed on to an amendment that would prevent the Dept. of Veterans Affairs from informing the folks that do background checks of any veteran who has been deemed unfit to manage their own benefits.  It sounds to me that Sen.King believes that the wholesale slaughter of civilians is the price that we must pay so that veterans such as Mr. Card, who hear voices and have heads full of snakes, should not be proscribed from owning military grade weaponry, even though the VA has determined that they're not capable of managing their own affairs.  What could go wrong?  We found out what could go wrong on Wednesday evening.  18 people won't be celebrating Halloween this year.

There's nothing anti-American about reasonable gun regulation.  Nobody needs an AR-15 for home protection unless they're drug dealers or members of a criminal organization.  Perhaps it's time for clergymen to denounce politicians who oppose any reasonable gun regulation from their pulpits in apocalyptic terms, especially when they're present in the congregation.  It's Saturday and I have to wonder who's life will be sacrificed before Sunday dawns because we're too weak to denounce the merchants of death...