A Position on Gun Ownership and Control
Joan Ellis Beglinger
The topics of gun ownership and gun control are among the most divisive in our country today. Let’s start an examination of the subject with some truth. “Assault” is a noun or a verb. A person can assault someone, which is the act of attacking them or an assault (an attack) can occur. Assault is not at adjective. There are no “assault weapons”, though any weapon may be used in an assault. If I slap someone in the face, my hand is an assault weapon.
Homicides are pervasive in the United States. In 2020, more than 19,000 people were killed in shootings that were either homicides or unintentional. This number does not include gun suicides, which comprise more than half of all gun deaths. There are 7 states and Washington DC that have “assault rifle” bans in place. They are California, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Hawaii. California and New York have among the highest number of gun homicides in the country.
Mass Murder is defined by the FBI as the killing of at least 4 victims. While this is generally thought about in terms of one shooter, it is clear that mass murder occurs in big cities throughout our country every week.
There is much debate about whether banning some types of guns or ammunition would have a significant impact on mass murder. In the course of these debates, many labels are used that are inaccurate, intended to stoke fear and associate certain weapons with a particularly sinister brand of evil. “Assault weapons” and “weapons of war” are common examples. The people most concerned about guns are often not involved in owning or using them, so can be very easily influenced by terms that sound scary.
The AR-15 Rifle has become the poster child for advocates of gun control. Let’s delve into some facts about this gun. AR does not stand for “Assault Rifle” as is frequently asserted. It’s an ArmaLite Rifle, as named by its manufacturer. Through an acquisition, the AR is now manufactured by Colt. There is an AR series of guns. The 15 is the 15th version of this particular design. When the term AR style rifle is used, it means a gun that is a similar style to the AR-15, but manufactured by another company. The gun is a “semiautomatic”. A semiautomatic gun is one that fires by pulling the trigger. One pull fires one bullet. Semiautomatic is another term that scares people. Many guns are semiautomatic. The Smith and Wesson 38 Featherweight revolver that I own and am licensed to carry is a semiautomatic.
Myths about the AR-15 include that it is a “machine gun” and is fully automatic, meaning the gun will fire unlimited rounds by holding the trigger down.
Semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 are the most popular rifles in the United States. There are millions of them in circulation and, contrary to what is frequently alleged, they are widely used in hunting.
Mass shootings in the United States always serve as a magnet to renew the calls for gun control. The horror of multiple people gunned down, often while just going about their daily lives, evokes intense emotion and the strong desire to do something. The facts about gun homicides do not comport with much of the hype:
- Newsweek analyzed the last 80 mass shootings as of March, 2021 and found that 21 of them used an AR-15 style rifle.
- From 1982 – March, 2021 the weapon types in mass shootings were 143 handguns, 56 rifles and 30 shotguns. (Source: Statista)
- James Alan Fox, a Professor at Northeastern University analyzed data on mass shootings dating back to 1982. In 2013, he said, “Assault weapons are not as commonplace in mass shootings as some gun control advocates believe. Semiautomatic handguns are far more prevalent in random massacres (47.7%) than firearms that would typically be classified as assault weapons”
- In an analysis of FBI data on homicides from 2007-2017 there was an average of 13,656 homicides per year. Just .1 of 1% were mass shootings involving an AR-15.
In the United States, certain individuals are not allowed to own a gun. Gun dealers do a background check on every individual who buys a gun, and those who do not pass the background check are denied the sale. Private sales do not require background checks. I could sell a gun to my sister without conducting a background check on her. We hear much talk about the “gun show loophole”, which means a private gun owner like me could sell a gun at a gun show or anywhere else without doing a background check. As with all regulation, a determined person can find a way around it. A felon who is not allowed to have a gun can have a friend or relative who can pass a background check make the purchase for him. There are undoubtedly lots of illegal guns on the street available for purchase by those who shouldn’t have them.
Where does this lead us in the debate on more regulation of guns and ammunition?
I am emphatically opposed to any infringement beyond current law on the right of citizens to bear arms for a number of reasons:
We are a country that is passionate about our personal freedoms. They were so important to our founders that the US Constitution could not be ratified until the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments, was written. Our government does not grant us our rights. It exists to protect them. We understand that it is from our individual freedom that all of our opportunities and access to the American Dream are assured. We are more passionate about our freedom than any country in the world and frankly, should not concern ourselves with other countries’ willingness to surrender personal freedom for the supposed common good.
We undeniably have a murder problem in our country. We are failing to teach from childhood on that you shall not kill. There is nothing short of dealing with this root cause that will address the killing in a meaningful way.
The political class has demonstrated over and over again that they are not trustworthy. It is clear that there is a liberal agenda to rid the country of guns to the extent possible. They are wrought with anguish when a mass shooting occurs but are silent every week when the violence in our big cities takes many lives. Their claims of needing to ban “assault weapons” and “weapons of war” sound so sensible but aren’t.
The states that have assault-weapons bans define assault weapons by both specific make and model as well as many technical, complicated additional characteristics. California Senate Bill 23, for example, lists the characteristics of assault weapons in 8 separate bullet points, each with a detailed list of sub-points. A partial list of point #1 bans a semiautomatic centerfire rifle with a detachable ammunition magazine if it has a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon, a thumbhole stock or a folding or telescoping stock. It goes downhill from there. It’s obvious that the road to banning guns is a slippery slope ripe with potential to erode deeper and deeper into our rights and bury us in bureaucracy that we are unwilling to contend with.
Guns aren’t killing people. A miniscule percentage of people who own guns legally are killing people. Pastor James E Ward, during a meeting in Kenosha following the shooting of Jacob Blake, wisely said, “If you give a righteous, good moral man the launch codes to our nuclear arsenal, everyone will be safe because he is a good man, but if you give a malicious man who is immoral an ink pen, you have to fear for your life.”
Joan Ellis Beglinger, MSN, RN, MBA, FACHE, FAAN is a registered nurse. Currently retired, she spent 10 years in clinical practice as a critical care specialist and nearly 30 years as a hospital Vice President for Patient Care. She is a champion for our freedoms and spending her retirement fighting the many threats they face.