I found McWhirter's and Elinson's "American Gun: The Trues Story of the AR-15" to be a gripping, informing and mind-opening, mind-chilling study of the development of this killing machine in this country. It is enlivened by the authors’ embedding the statistics and facts of the many massacres (Sandy Hook; Parkland; Las Vegas casino; etc., etc.) in personal stories.
The authors provide meaningful international context for the out-of-bounds growth of guns and particularly the AR-15 in our country. It tracks the futile legislative efforts to control the damage being done.
Many new insights emerged:
· Every time there was even the threat of gun legislation being passed, sales of the AR-15 catapulted.
· The 1994 gun control legislation, which had been so strongly fought for, was supposed to stop all manufacture and sales of the AR-15s in the United States. Nineteen different guns were identified and magazines of over ten shells prohibited. It didn’t work. It was easy to get around the definition that had been provided of automatic weapons. The definition had been characterized by military features which manufacturers quickly changed. Instead of controlling gun sales, it created a sustained unprecedented demand for civilian versions of the rifle which had never caught on with the buying public before. More than 62,000 AR-15s were built for sale in the U.S. in 1993, double the previous year, and in the next year, that number climbed to 103,000.
· The sales of the AR-15 took another jump forward as private equity moved in, bought up a lot of manufacturers and figured out how to market it. They created a “Buckmaster Man Card.” Advertised it in Maxim, a very popular magazine for young males 18-34. This came at a time when the male physique had been deteriorating. The average weight of the male in 1960 was 166 lbs. By 2010, it had increased to 196 lbs. The “Mancard" became a badge of masculinity. They cynically described the AR-15 as a “modern sporting rifle.”
· The Parkland shootings did result in meaningful state legislation, thanks to aggressive work by young people and organizations like "Moms Against Guns". Twenty-four states across the country enacted new gun control laws. Many passed red-flag laws. New Jersey and Vermont passed restrictions on high-capacity magazines.
· Research conducted by several reputed professors have found two policies in particular showed promise. First, laws requiring a permit to purchase or possess a gun could reduce the number of mass shootings. The second policy that showed promise was restricting large-capacity magazines. That didn’t reduce the number of mass shootings, but it reduced the number of people killed.
There are obvious solutions to this continued carnage that sadly won’t be touched with a ten-foot pole. For example, regulations for years have required anyone acquiring a machine gun to register it, be fingerprinted, etc. There have been no mass shootings with machine guns. In Japan, anyone getting a gun must have a doctor certificate and register it. Similar controls are in place in Australia and New Zealand. They acted at the same time as we were passing the ineffectual gun control legislation in the mid-1990s.
There is no question we are a country of guns. It is estimated that there are now close to 25 million AR-15's in circulation. We have to be practical in seeking control and there are practical answers. Fingerprints to activate the gun only primed by the owner (just like a cell phone). Registration of all automatic weapons. Limit to magazine sizes. Full background checks, including gun shows. The majority of American people would agree to all of these provisions. What’s lacking is the political will to make them happen. Those organizations like Moms against Guns must keep up the fight. And they will. We’re not going to limit the disasters that exist simply because of the already omni-presence of guns. But we can limit the disaster for the future for our grandchildren and their grandchildren if we act on what is right and we know to be true. That is our responsibility.
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