BY: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
March 6, 2001
On April 24, 1999, a few days after the Columbine School shooting in Littleton Colorado, then President Bill Clinton used the event as a prop to get more gun control. He said: in h is weekly radio address,
Every one of us must take responsibility to counter the culture of violence. Government must take responsibility. Next week I'll send to Congress two new bills to keep our children safe. First, we must do more to keep guns out of the hands of violent juveniles. My bill will crack down on gun shows and illegal gun trafficking, ban violent juveniles from ever being able to buy a gun, and close the loophole that lets juveniles own assault rifles.
None of Clinton's proposals, however, would have prevented the shooting deaths at Santana High School in Santee, California yesterday morning. What exactly WOULD stop the rash of school shootings that have taken place in America in the last 3 years? Since Luke Woodham, a quiet 10th grader at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi killed his mother with a knife, then shot and killed two classmates and wounded nine others on October 1, 1997, public schools in Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Oregon, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan and now California have experienced similar shootings by troubled teen-age boys. Ten schools, 28 deaths and 77 wounded children and teachers in 2 ½ years suggest something is wrong.
And, while it has become popular to blame the easy availability of guns as the "cause" of these killings, from the days of our pioneer ancestors to recent times, guns were often the constant companions of teen-age boys. In my generation boys brought their guns with them to school during hunting season so they didn't have to waste time going home to get them when school was out. It never crossed anyone's mind that they might shoot someone at school with their guns.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the architects of the Columbine school massacre that killed 13 people and wounded 23, had planned to kill hundreds of people. The Jefferson County Sheriff's report on the shootings declared that "Had the two bombs in the cafeteria functioned properly, all 488 people in the room may have died." Harris and Klebold took 20 20-lb propane bombs, a number of pipe bombs, C02 Bombs and other explosive devices into the school with them on April 20" and placed in the cafeteria. They had built the bombs in Harris' bedroom without being detected by his parents.
However, in spite of the publicity the school shootings have created, most of the teen-violence takes place with little or no publicity. Furthermore, death from firearms is not nearly as frequent as, for example, as death by suffocation. An American is ten times more apt to die by falling than from a firearm, for example, yet we have practically no effort to protect the public from the often fatal results falling.
Also, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, death by firearms is far more prevalent among some groups in our society than it is in other groups. Men are far more apt to die by being shot, for example, than women. Black men are far more apt to be shot than white men. Teen-agers are far more apt to be shot than children 1-14:
White Male 15-24 1980: 28.4 ---1998: 24.9
White Male 25-44 1998: 29.5 ---1998: 21.2
Black Male 15-24 1980: 77.9 ---1998: 117.6
Black Male 25-44 1980: 114.1 ---1998: 61.3
Asian or Pacific Islander Male 15-24 1980: 10.8 ---1998: 17.7
Asian or Pacific Islander Male 25-44 1980: 8.2 ---1998: 8.1
White Female 15-24 1980: 6.1 ---1998: 3.7
White Female 25-44 1980: 7.4 ---1998: 4.5
Black Female 15-24 1980: 12.3 ---1998: 10.9
Black Female 25-44 1980: 16.1 ---1998: 8.4
Asian or Pacific Islander Female 15-24 1980: na ---1998: 3.1
Asian or Pacific Islander Female 25-14 1980: 3.2 --1998: 2.1
There are rich and poor in all the above groups. What appears to make the difference is each group's culture - not their income.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com
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