Photo: Steve Morgan
Following the mass murder at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater
during a violent batman movie, I wrote an article about the need to set up a
blue ribbon panel to figure out what’s causing so many mass murders and do
something to stop them.
It was extremely discouraging to do the research for the
article. One commentator said mass murders are going to continue until
something is done about gun control and how mental illness is handled.
With two people murdered yesterday at a shopping mall, the
Clackamas Town Center, in Portland, Ore., it’s time to look at this
problem again.
Since I wrote the article in August, it's good to see that
some interest and action is occurring on gun control:
- President Obama is expected to push gun control in his
second term.
- A new study by the Center for American Progress and Mayors
Against Illegal Guns shows that the public is resoundingly in favor of
common-sense gun control measures. The groups also found the mythic power of
the National Rifle Association to punish any elected official who dares to
stray from the no-gun-control-ever line is exaggerated.
- NBC’s Bob Costas brought up gun control during half time of
a Sunday Night Football broadcast after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan
Belcher, who police say murdered his girlfriend at their home before driving to
the Chiefs’ practice facility and shooting himself in front of the team’s coach
and general manager. Costas talked about the role guns, and the nation’s lax
gun laws, played in the tragedy. After a brief introduction, Costas quoted
Kansas City-based columnist Jason Whitlock, who wrote yesterday that he
believed both Belcher and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, would be alive today
were
it not for Belcher’s possession of a gun.
- New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman won a court victory in
defense of the state’s gun safety laws in November. The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit rejected a constitutional challenge to New York's
handgun licensing statute, ruling that the law requiring individuals to
demonstrate “proper cause” to obtain a license to carry concealed handguns in
public doesn’t violate the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
- Following an undercover investigation, two New York gun show operators
agreed in November to carry out new procedures at their gun shows throughout the state. The
operators – Niagara Frontier Collectors Inc. and NEACA Inc. – agreed to
established procedures that go beyond state law, including a process that
ensures all guns brought into the gun show by private sellers are tagged so
that, when consumers exit, the operator can determine if guns were sold and
that a proper background check was performed.
- Last month, a coalition of 10 state attorneys general urged the U.S.
Senate to reject two laws that would force states, such as New York and nine
other states, to allow out-of-state visitors to carry concealed firearms based
on their home state's less safe laws rather than those of the state they are
entering.
My heart goes out to the families whose loved ones died
Tuesday.
In addition to gun control and mental illness programs, I
think American leaders need to investigate hate mongering in the media, violent
images aimed at children, the lack of programs to help trouble youth, job
related triggers, and other factors that may contribute to mass murders.
Where’s the blue ribbon panel on stopping mass murders?
If government officials won’t set one up, organizations need
to take the lead then get officials to take action.
