Doctors target gun violence as a social disease
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol? Yes say public health experts, who in the wake of recent mass shootings are calling for a fresh look at gun violence as a social disease.
What we need, they say, is a public health approach to the problem, like the highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws that slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago, even as the number of vehicles on the road rose.
One example: Guardrails are now curved to the ground instead of having sharp metal ends that stick out and pose a hazard in a crash.
"People used to spear themselves and we blamed the drivers for that," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine professor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.
It wasn't enough back then to curb deaths just by trying to make people better drivers, and it isn't enough now to tackle gun violence by focusing solely on the people doing the shooting, he and other doctors say.
They want a science-based, pragmatic approach based on the reality that we live in a society saturated with guns and need better ways of preventing harm from them.
The need for a new approach crystallized last Sunday for one of the nation's leading gun violence experts, Dr. Stephen Hargarten. He found himself treating victims of the Sikh temple shootings at the emergency department he heads in Milwaukee. Seven people were killed, including the gunman, and three were seriously injured.
It happened two weeks after the shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 at a movie theater in Colorado, and two days before a man pleaded guilty to killing six people and wounding 13, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson, Ariz., last year.
"What I'm struggling with is, is this the new social norm? This is what we're going to have to live with if we have more personal access to firearms," said Hargarten, emergency medicine chief at Froedtert Hospital and director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "We have a public health issue to discuss. Do we wait for the next outbreak or is there something we can do to prevent it?"
About 260 million to 300 million firearms are owned by civilians in the United States; about one-third of American homes have one. Guns are used in two-thirds of homicides, according to the FBI. About 9 percent of all violent crimes involve a gun - roughly 338,000 cases each year.
Mass shootings don't seem to be on the rise, but not all police agencies report details like the number of victims per shooting and reporting lags by more than a year, so recent trends are not known.
"The greater toll is not from these clusters but from endemic violence, the stuff that occurs every day and doesn't make the headlines," said Wintemute, the California researcher.
More than 73,000 emergency room visits in 2010 were for firearm-related injuries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.
Dr. David Satcher tried to make gun violence a public health issue when he became CDC director in 1993. Four years later, laws that allow the carrying of concealed weapons drew attention when two women were shot at an Indianapolis restaurant after a patron's gun fell out of his pocket and accidentally fired. Ironically, the victims were health educators in town for an American Public Health Association convention.
That same year, Hargarten won a federal grant to establish the nation's first Firearm Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
"Unlike almost all other consumer products, there is no national product safety oversight of firearms," he wrote in the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
That's just one aspect of a public health approach. Other elements:
-"Host" factors: What makes someone more likely to shoot, or someone more likely to be a victim. One recent study found firearm owners were more likely than those with no firearms at home to binge drink or to drink and drive, and other research has tied alcohol and gun violence. That suggests that people with driving under the influence convictions should be barred from buying a gun, Wintemute said.
-Product features: Which firearms are most dangerous and why. Manufacturers could be pressured to fix design defects that let guns go off accidentally, and to add technology that allows only the owner of the gun to fire it (many police officers and others are shot with their own weapons). Bans on assault weapons and multiple magazines that allow rapid and repeat firing are other possible steps.
-"Environmental" risk factors: What conditions allow or contribute to shootings. Gun shops must do background checks and refuse to sell firearms to people convicted of felonies or domestic violence misdemeanors, but those convicted of other violent misdemeanors can buy whatever they want. The rules also don't apply to private sales, which one study estimates as 40 percent of the market.
-Disease patterns, observing how a problem spreads. Gun ownership - a precursor to gun violence - can spread "much like an infectious disease circulates," said Daniel Webster, a health policy expert and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
"There's sort of a contagion phenomenon" after a shooting, where people feel they need to have a gun for protection or retaliation, he said.
That's already evident in the wake of the Colorado movie-theater shootings. Last week, reports popped up around the nation of people bringing guns to "Batman" movies. Some of them said they did so for protection.
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.
What we need, they say, is a public health approach to the problem, like the highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws that slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago, even as the number of vehicles on the road rose.
One example: Guardrails are now curved to the ground instead of having sharp metal ends that stick out and pose a hazard in a crash.
"People used to spear themselves and we blamed the drivers for that," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine professor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.
It wasn't enough back then to curb deaths just by trying to make people better drivers, and it isn't enough now to tackle gun violence by focusing solely on the people doing the shooting, he and other doctors say.
They want a science-based, pragmatic approach based on the reality that we live in a society saturated with guns and need better ways of preventing harm from them.
The need for a new approach crystallized last Sunday for one of the nation's leading gun violence experts, Dr. Stephen Hargarten. He found himself treating victims of the Sikh temple shootings at the emergency department he heads in Milwaukee. Seven people were killed, including the gunman, and three were seriously injured.
It happened two weeks after the shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 at a movie theater in Colorado, and two days before a man pleaded guilty to killing six people and wounding 13, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson, Ariz., last year.
"What I'm struggling with is, is this the new social norm? This is what we're going to have to live with if we have more personal access to firearms," said Hargarten, emergency medicine chief at Froedtert Hospital and director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "We have a public health issue to discuss. Do we wait for the next outbreak or is there something we can do to prevent it?"
About 260 million to 300 million firearms are owned by civilians in the United States; about one-third of American homes have one. Guns are used in two-thirds of homicides, according to the FBI. About 9 percent of all violent crimes involve a gun - roughly 338,000 cases each year.
Mass shootings don't seem to be on the rise, but not all police agencies report details like the number of victims per shooting and reporting lags by more than a year, so recent trends are not known.
"The greater toll is not from these clusters but from endemic violence, the stuff that occurs every day and doesn't make the headlines," said Wintemute, the California researcher.
More than 73,000 emergency room visits in 2010 were for firearm-related injuries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.
Dr. David Satcher tried to make gun violence a public health issue when he became CDC director in 1993. Four years later, laws that allow the carrying of concealed weapons drew attention when two women were shot at an Indianapolis restaurant after a patron's gun fell out of his pocket and accidentally fired. Ironically, the victims were health educators in town for an American Public Health Association convention.
That same year, Hargarten won a federal grant to establish the nation's first Firearm Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
"Unlike almost all other consumer products, there is no national product safety oversight of firearms," he wrote in the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
That's just one aspect of a public health approach. Other elements:
-"Host" factors: What makes someone more likely to shoot, or someone more likely to be a victim. One recent study found firearm owners were more likely than those with no firearms at home to binge drink or to drink and drive, and other research has tied alcohol and gun violence. That suggests that people with driving under the influence convictions should be barred from buying a gun, Wintemute said.
-Product features: Which firearms are most dangerous and why. Manufacturers could be pressured to fix design defects that let guns go off accidentally, and to add technology that allows only the owner of the gun to fire it (many police officers and others are shot with their own weapons). Bans on assault weapons and multiple magazines that allow rapid and repeat firing are other possible steps.
-"Environmental" risk factors: What conditions allow or contribute to shootings. Gun shops must do background checks and refuse to sell firearms to people convicted of felonies or domestic violence misdemeanors, but those convicted of other violent misdemeanors can buy whatever they want. The rules also don't apply to private sales, which one study estimates as 40 percent of the market.
-Disease patterns, observing how a problem spreads. Gun ownership - a precursor to gun violence - can spread "much like an infectious disease circulates," said Daniel Webster, a health policy expert and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
"There's sort of a contagion phenomenon" after a shooting, where people feel they need to have a gun for protection or retaliation, he said.
That's already evident in the wake of the Colorado movie-theater shootings. Last week, reports popped up around the nation of people bringing guns to "Batman" movies. Some of them said they did so for protection.
___
Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.
Gun violence is a social disease... stupid people should be sterilized so that they don't infect the world with their equally stupid offspring. Guns don't fire themselves, stupid people do, and it's no coincidence that many of those come from the lower end of society. The fast food industry isn't exactly turning away rocket scientists, now is it?
Who are these "Doctors" that KOMO talks about? What about the doctors that believe the opposite of the headline? This is not a balanced news report.
Let me get this straight the Doctors worry about gun violence are the same one that let NUT CASES run the streets and buy guns because they one did not lock up these nut cases and did nothing to stop them from buying a gun. Case in point âThe allegation that Dr. Lynne Fenton warned authorities about Holmes' potential to harm others -- reported by ABC News -- is the second time she told others he was possibly dangerous. Fenton, a member of the university's threat assessment team, reportedly told other committee members that Holmes, a Ph.D neuroscience student potentially jeopardized campus safety. â These are the same whack jobs that want to take everybodyâs gun away so they do not have to take the blame for UNSTABLE people running the streets.
BREAKING NEWS: both the Upjohn Corporation and Monsanto are working on competing  cures for this Gun Disease. Both Preventative and Booster shots, will be available early next year, trials to begin soon. Legislation is in the works to make preventative shots mandatory for school children.
Drunk drivers kill more people per day,,than any person with a gun does..But we know drinking has already been labeled a "social disease" but yet..we don't see the government stepping in and trying to ban drinking and booze ..now do we?
Poor people having kids they can't afford, and relying on the government to exist is a social disease.Â
"Gun ownership is a precursor to gun violence."
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Really? Â I thought being a sociopath was a precursor to violence. Â What care the weapon?
 @ETSubmarinerÂ
Let's see there are approximately 250 firearms in the U.S. in civilian hands, spread between 100 million owners. Let's assume for just one moment this includes the ones in criminal possession.
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In 2009 according to the CDC 11,500 homicide by firearm.
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This a a rate of 0.00115%
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I think the AMA skip stats in college.
@JCM1776 @ETSubmariner There are so many issues with this idea. From the story "About 9 percent of all violent crimes involve a gun - roughly 338,000 cases each year. " So they want to address something that is involved in 9% of violent crime. OK. What about the other 91%? I don't hear them talking about dealing with the greatest majority of violent crime only that involving guns. Why? Because they are reacting on an emotional level instead of a rational level. Its easy to assign the gun as being a boogyman but its hard to actually come up with a solution to violent crime that will actually make us safer.
Just toss all these mentally ill pieces of crap into the oven and be done with it. Â
I think TV shouldn't glamorize guns. Every major movie seems to glorify them. They ban cigarette commercials, edit language but blam blam blam and we still glorify beer in television adds. TV and movies, games especialy are shoot em up kill everyone scenarios. My son has an xbox and I see the game section rarely offers anything that isn't a shoot em up.Â
Oh..so that's why every time I look at one of my guns I get the urge to binge drink. I never knew.
Guns are a social disease. And this comes from the very government that spends its timing perpetuating every possible war than can muster. Nice try but the people are on to you!  The only real cancer this society has right now is Government.Â
 @snow surfer Or maybe the Doc should try to explain how medical errors make it the third leading cause of death in this country
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http://www.cancure.org/medical_errors.htm
Yep - another group acting like we are kids. Stupids - it is not the guns - the problem is that we coddle the criminals! Then there are the drugs - and on and on....
Gun Violence a social disease?  Are you kidding?
 @S_Hunter That's what I thought. I call it something else but can't say it here.Â
Which would you rather have the death toll of an armed society able to defend itself or the death toll of unarmed society dependent on the "good will" of its masters to protect them?
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The answer is quite clear if you understand history.
Tyranny kills far more unarmed civilians than our armed society.
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Choose and choose wisely.
 @JCM1776 Yes, because those are the only two choices.
This grant information was taken directly from the "curriculum vitae" of Stephen W. Hargarten MD,MPH dated 8-11-2012:Â
Title: Firearm Injury Reporting System" â Joyce II Source: Joyce Foundation PI: Stephen Hargarten, MD, MPH Dates: 1994 - 1995 Direct Funds: $79,997
Title: Firearm Injury Reporting Systemâ â Joyce 2 Source: Joyce Foundation PI: Stephen W. Hargarten, MD, MPH Dates: 1996 - 1998 Direct Funds: $194,538
Title: National Firearm Information Centerâ â Joyce 3 Source: Joyce Foundation PI: Stephen W. Hargarten, MD, MPH Dates: 1997 - 2000 Direct Funds: $391,581
Title: A Comprehensive Model for Firearm Injury Reporting, Analysis and Informationâ â Joyce 5 Source: Joyce Foundation PI: Stephen W. Hargarten, MD, MPH Dates: 1999 - 2002 Direct Funds: $771,924
Title: Building a National Firearm Injury Reporting System Source: Funderâs Collaborative for Gun Violence Prevention by Harvard School of Public Health National Violent Injury Statistics System (NVISS) PI: Stephen W. Hargarten, MD, MPH Dates: 10/2000 - 7/2001 Direct Funds: $50,000
Title: Preventing Firearm Suicides and Unintentional Deaths Source: Funderâs Collaborative for Gun Violence Prevention by Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy & Research PI: Stephen W. Hargarten, MD, MPH Dates: 2000 - 2001 Direct Funds: $60,000
  Taken from the NRA/ILA article "George Soros: Anti-Gunner Who Would Remake America" 11-19-03
"Soros has worked to combine with other wealthy activists and foundations to provide funding for numerous anti-gun projects. Soros and the Irene Diamond Foundation made equal $5 million contributions to form the Funders` Collaborative for Gun Violence Prevention. This organization has provided funding to the anti-gun Harvard Injury Control Center and has helped bankroll reckless lawsuits designed to cripple the firearms industry".Â
  Taken from Wikipedia about the Joyce Foundation "Since 2003, the Joyce Foundation has paid grants totaling over $12 million to gun control organizations."Â
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Foundation#Gun_violence_prevention_and_gun_control
  It would seem that Dr. Stephen W. Hargarten's research and opinion could be biased based on his considerable anti-gun lobby funding sources.
@MrRuger Thank you for the information. Good research. Unlike the Dr in the story...
This comment has been deleted
 @2nd Baseman Actually, people with guns kill people.  Think about it.  With out the gun, your next option is a knife (usually less lethal than guns) or fists (usually far less lethal than guns).  It's the availability of guns that kills people.  Ask Gabby Giffords or the Sikhs in Wisconsin or the movie goers in Colorado.
 @Cetus  @2nd Baseman It is always about people, crazy people, not their weapon of choice. Without the gun American history has plenty of mass murderers. Their other options have included everything from bare hands, knives, bombs, arson and airplanes. Thats not including 911. Ask the the people at the Happyland fire or the people in OKC or the passenders of EgyptAir 990. The only thing in common is insane people not the weapon.
 @Cetus Have we learned how to stop other types of mass murder? Are you telling me there will not be an other Gary Ridgeway, Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy just to name a few. Gasoline used in numerous mass murders will always be readily available. Charles Whitman used a bolt action hunting rifle to do most of his damage. He killed more than the Aurora shooter. That was 47 yrs ago.
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This will continue to happen by whatever means these psychos can dream up because we live in a free society. I dont want a knee jerk reaction to crazy chipping away at our rights. Whats hard to ignore are the facts from the FBI that with a steady increase in gun sales since 1980, murder by gun, suicide by gun and gun accidents have all steadily dropped per capita. Armor piercing ammo is not sold to private citizens, only law enforcement and military. With gangs being responsible for 50 to 90% of violent crime in this country and membership on the rise it seems like there is a self defense need for high capacity magazines. You want to stop gun violence go after the gangs not the constitution because that the only action that will make any real difference.
 @jds_55 The difference, of course, is that we try to learn from other types of mass murders and take steps to prevent them.  But we are unable or unwilling to take steps to prevent gun violence.  From gutting the ATF, to allowing unrestricted sales at gun shows (in most states), to mega magazines, we just perpetuate gun violence.
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I'm not advocating taking guns away from responsible people, but why don't we require some sort of pre-purchase responsibility training (the NRA has a great safety training program)? Â What's wrong with requiring gun registration? Â Why should armor piercing ammo be sold to private citizens? Â Who needs a pistol with a 30 round magazine or a rifle with a 100 round magazine? Â Why is ammo, including things like grenades, available on the internet? Â It's insane. And until we get control of that kind of thing, gun massacres will continue to happen and continue to get the tsk-tsk reaction followed by absolutely no action.
 @2nd Baseman I agree, but I don't oppose a couple of the things I read here. Irresponsible people who drink and drive probably aren't responsible with guns either. And I see no problem with use of technology that would make it so only the owner of the gun could fire it. Nor do I think there is anything wrong with private sales having to follow the same law as the retail market.
@two loons @2nd Baseman The technology to make only the owner capable of firing it is unstable. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Additonally, while it may potentially eliminate someone undirable from firing it, it will also restrict some desireable. Its not a terribly good solution.
@two loons  Making repeat drunk driving convictions a felony might help. It might also keep the number alcohol related highway deaths down. Of course just making something illegal has never stopped people from doing stupid things. laws without consequences only work with honest people.
One of the slight drawbacks of living in a country that allows you to arm yourself is that other people sometimes go psycho and try/succeed at taking people with them.Â
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If it wasn't with a gun, it'd be a razor blade. How many carotid arteries you think could be opened up during a loud action sequence? Or a car down a crowded sidewalk. Or a fertilizer bomb (Hi Oklahoma!). Or a syringe stolen from an HIV positive heroin addict on a very crowded subway.Â
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You don't need a gun to massacre lives. Just imagination. Sleep well.
The mortality rate for gunshot wounds to the heart is 84%, compared to 30% for people who sustain stab wounds to the heart.[39]". Your comparisons are asinine. If your going to be a gun nut, at least try to be an honest one.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States
@super Bull. He wasn't attempting to discuss the effectiveness of a particular weapon only the fact that you don't need guns to kill only imagination. He even summarized it in his last sentence for crying out loud. You say his comparisons are asinine when they were actually quite good all the while not even talking about the same subject as he was. So if you are going to be an anti-gun nut at least try to be an honest one.
If Komo wants to post this as news, then here's my contribution:
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http://www.theonion.com/articles/just-illegalize-us-already-nations-assault-weapons,29081/
He may be a very intelligent doctor, but he's an idiot when it comes to guns and why people shoot others. And I agree that KOMO typically puts these ant-gun articles out as "news" when they are nothing more than anti-gun propaganda. But KOMO is on the anti-gun side so this sort of fluff piece is typical. You can bet that this doctor won't be in line for a "Schrammie"....
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I had to double check the "url." Thought I was reading the "Onion news network."
Physician, heal thyself. According to an Institute of Medicine study, preventable medical mistakes happen 15 million times a year and kill as many as 98,000 people every year. If the CDC were honest and included these in their list, it would be the 6th leading cause of death in the country.
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The article reads like a press release from a gun control group like Brady or VPC. Most of the "facts" and "solutions" sound like they were a cut-and-paste straight from their material. It should be labeled as an editorial or opinion piece. KOMO should be ashamed to publish such a blatant violation of the Journalist Code of Ethics (which requires opinion to be labeled as such).
Let's add potheads and alcoholism to the top of this list as they are definitely a social disease. Â
This to me is just another anti gun campaign. Millions of people own guns and never kill anyone. The problem is with those who use the guns for violence. Even if you get rid of all legal guns there will still be guns in the hands of those who commit the violence. We need some common sense in this country not just a bunch of
personal opinions biased in one direction or the other.
I cannot agree that we need a pragmatic approach to this perceived problem. Everyone knows that guns are not the problem, it's the people. I know this because I see it on interwebz forums all the time.
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If senseless violence and a perversely large number of annual victims of gun violence is what it takes to preserve our "freedom" then that is what we need. Even if one homeowner successfully defends his property for every fifty homeowners who get pistol-whipped by a burglar with his own gun, it's still worth it.
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How many times do I need to remind everyone that guns are good for everyone? Sheesh.
 @PilonidalCyst Yup, I agree.  I'm glad that we get the choice of self-defense in this country compared to Canada and the UK, for example.  Criminals tend to have much more rights and the law-abiding it seems in overly socialist nations.  So those that don't like our freedoms here can choose to immigrate to these so-called "utopias" where "no violent crime happens."
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"If senseless violence and a perversely large number of annual victims of gun violence is what it takes to preserve our 'freedom' then that is what we need."  Just so you know, just because someone ambushes you, and you're armed, that doesn't mean you have the edge.  But being unarmed is even worse in many forced-entry situations.  Sometimes the homeowner catches wind of the break-in and has adequate time to arm him or herself.
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I don't agree that guns are for everyone, though. Â But public firearms education should be encouraged, maybe even mandated, for those that elect to the responsibility.
 @KennyGambler I don't agree that guns are for everyone, though.  But public firearms education should be encouraged, maybe even mandated, for those that elect to the responsibility.
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And how will you decide who should or should not have them? This is the problem. The government will now decide, and since they are treating this as a health issue, it will easily be determined we should ALL be on the list.   And there in lies the real problem.Â
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Guns have always been about Americans protecting themselves against government (They know this all too well) which is why its ridiculous to listen to ever listen to government in the first place.Â
 @KennyGambler Wooosh. Right over your head.
What's the 'gun' have to do with it?
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The key word here is VIOLENCE. And depending on yer interpretation, it happens all through nature. Water is the most violent thing on the planet.
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Doctors kill FAR more people than guns do. Maybe we should call them a social disease.
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 @bobalouie "Doctors kill FAR more people than guns do." When someone dies in a hospital under a doctors care it is not murder. If you don't agree with this doctor thats fine but be reasonable.
Detroit, Chicago, California and DC all have extremely restrictive gun laws, yet despite the gun laws, they have the highest incident of gun violence. It's not about guns, it's about the people. Stop wasting energy and money on a fake, manufactured issue and deal with the real issue, gangs and gang mentality.Â
Let gun = knife, and to illustrate the ignorance in the following article excerpt...
Â
---Start Excerpt--
One example: Guardrails are now curved to the ground instead of having sharp metal ends that stick out and pose a hazard in a crash."
Â
People used to spear themselves and we blamed the drivers for that," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine professor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.
Â
"People used to spear themselves and we blamed the drivers for that," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine professor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.
Â
It wasn't enough back then to curb deaths just by trying to make people better drivers, and it isn't enough now to tackle knife violence by focusing solely on the people doing the knifing, he and other doctors say.
--End--
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I have a hard time agreeing with this wannabe "social doctor." Â Comparing the negligence to auto accidents to the intent of homicide isn't exactly the same thing. Â I'd stick to medicine, and not logic, Dr. Garen Wintemute. Â Remember, just because someone has an advanced degree in medicine, that doesn't mean he or she is an expert in everything including law.
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Since this doctor is from the UC Davis in California, I'd assume this is just another disguised anti-gun/self-defense position disguised.  Speaking of so-called "experts", why is it that those that are the most vocally against guns, and self-defense, the least knowledgable about firearms.
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I will say that these doctor are right about the social problem aspect, because violence is a social problem, but blaming inanimate objects tends to be a fallacy that even smart people tend to argue against with so much emotion.
"Last week, reports popped up around the nation of people bringing guns to "Batman" movies. Some of them said they did so for protection."
What did the rest of them say they did it for?
Tell the truth. Gangs are a social disease, but every liberal doesn't want to stigmatize gangs for some reason.
 @GeorgeG. Wow. You are absolutely stunning in your insanity.
 @GeorgeG. I stigmatize all gangs. I am liberal and I can't stand street thugs and do not want to hug them. I do not live in a dream world where idiots and criminals can be rehabbed. I do not support slap on the wrist sentences for crime. I am liberal because I support equality of every citizen under the constitution- including gay citizens. I am liberal because I think it is time we legalize the weed. I am liberal because I think we need to teach science with integrity and not allow any religion to be taught in our public schools or interfere with the governing of the nation. I also own multiple guns. I have no problem with people who have DUIs not owning guns, as they're not responsible with their cars. I have no problem with technology that would make it so only the owner can fire the gun. I have no problem with private sellers having to abide by the same laws as retail outlets with regard to background checks.
@GeorgeG. Every liberal?? You're sure about that? I am a liberal, but I don't mind calling a gang for what it is. I don't get into being politically correct on situations that are backed by stats and clear evidence.