EDITORIAL: W.Va. needs gun reform
Manuel Valdes | Associated Press
Students at Roosevelt High School take part in a protest against gun violence in March 2018, in Seattle. It was part of a nationwide school walkout that calls for stricter gun laws following the massacre of 17 people at a Florida high school.
In a country where nearly 700 people die of gun violence every week, West Virginia’s gun violence problem is anything but an anomaly, but the state’s lack of safe laws and regulations to prevent such deaths is unacceptable.
The 2020 Annual Gun Law Scorecard, recently released by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, reveals that West Virginia ranks 9th worst of the 50 states in the category of gun death rates. The report states that West Virginia’s gun death rate per 100,000 citizens is 18.6.
The report also reveals that West Virginia exports guns later used for crimes at the second-highest rate in the country. The state is one of 21 across the U.S. that received an “F” rating on the 2020 Giffords Law Scorecard.
The other states with the worst ratings and highest gun death rates in the country include Alaska with 24.5 per 100,000, Alabama with 22.9, Montana with 22.6, Louisiana with 21.6 Mississippi at 21.5, Missouri at 21.3, Arkansas at 20.2 and Wyoming at 18.7.
Earlier this week, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that West Virginia experienced 347 firearm deaths in 2018, the most recent year with available data. 2018 marks the third straight year that firearm deaths in the state have surpassed the number of motor vehicle deaths. 2016 was the first year this had ever occured.
In addition to some of the worst gun death statistics in the country—and the world—West Virginia also ranks 34th amongst the 50 states in the category of gun law strength.
Of fourteen potential regulations regarding gun ownership that the Law Center measured, West Virginia implements just one, which is the prohibition of gun ownership for citizens with domestic violence misdemeanors.
The report suggests several reliable methods and steps the state could take that have proven to reduce gun violence significantly in other states in the U.S. and countries around the world. These steps include requiring comprehensive background checks and waiting periods before each gun purchase and repealing the state’s carry law that allows citizens to carry loaded, concealed weapons without a permit.
Additional measures not implemented in West Virginia include gun dealer licensing, firearm owner licensing, firearm registration, lost and stolen firearm reporting, mental health reporting to federal databases, bulk firearm purchase restrictions and several others.
Regardless of one’s opinions on the right to own guns or the 2nd Amendment, West Virginia’s gun violence and gun safety problem is undeniable. The U.S. is experiencing a gun violence epidemic unlike any the world has ever seen, and West Virginia is in the middle of it. We must remind ourselves this is not normal. This does not happen elsewhere in the world, and we must demand better for ourselves.
Equally as undeniable is the reality that clear majorities of citizens—at least nationwide—already support commonsense regulations on gun ownership that would almost certainly decrease levels of violence if implemented.
For example, a 2019 poll conducted by PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist showed…
… 90% support for increased measures regarding mental health, 83% support for background checks, 72% for red flag laws and 72% support for gun license requirements.
PolitiFact has also confirmed as “true” the reality that even upwards of 75% of National Rifle Association members support comprehensive background checks for all gun sales.
These polls are just two of countless examples which show the same reality: the American people know that, like all our rights as Americans, the right to own a gun does not come without common sense regulations and restrictions.
With bills recently passing the West Virginia Senate that would prohibit possession of firearms in municipal buildings and outdoor events and allow for roadside sales of firearms and the campus carry bill’s inclusion in the legislative docket for the current session, West Virginians should prepare for robust debate on gun legislation in the near future.
Aside from simply having the necessary conversations, citizens should demand better for ourselves than to continue serving as a sad symbol of the gun violence epidemic our country is facing. It may not be easy, but our clear path forward, if we care about justice and about our own collective wellbeing, is that we must use empathy, understanding and common sense to find common ground with each other and to enact changes that we all believe will serve the greater good by combatting this crisis.
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Cynthia D. Ellis • Mar 1, 2020 at 5:10 pm
As a retired WV teacher and Marshall alum, I am deeply grateful for this editorial. We are in grievous times when we cannot protect all in our schools…and in every public place.
William Fisterbottum • Feb 19, 2020 at 2:37 pm
Ahh yes, the typical Dems bad, ALL CAPS rant. Bravo!
mGm • Feb 12, 2020 at 2:49 pm
Explain to all of us how taking firearms away from Law-Abiding Citizen’s will;
a) Stop ANY bad guy from getting a gun, and
b) Stop ANY bad man from USING said gun to commit evil
c) what FACTs can you or the Democratic Party provide to prove that taking firearms away from Law=Abiding Citizens will stop ANY gun violence OR SAVE ANY LIVES?
I ask these things because there have been Absolutely NO legislations proposed ANYWHERE (I read them all) that will do ANYTHING other than Take Firearms Away From Law-Abiding Citizens. Nothing is offered to Sto Bad Guys from getting/using Guns.
Thats because BAD GUYS DONT OBEY THE LAW!
What part of that do you not understand?
Gene Ralno • Feb 11, 2020 at 8:43 pm
Democrats see this movement as rational but the fact is, red flag laws were created to transfer powers from licensed psychiatrists to unqualified persons more obedient to democrats, e.g., local judges and crotchety old aunts. Due process requires reports from two psychiatrists, one from each side, legal representation, arraignment, indictment and trial by jury.
I’ve often wondered how the police, teacher, classmate or aunt would know the rightful owners of which firearms. Seems law enforcement would risk serious lawsuits if they err on that point. And I’ve wondered about the issue of an accused having firearms stored at another address. What if they’re out of the city or even the state but easily accessible. This law is flawed in many ways.
Nobody wants criminals to have firearms but to be taken seriously, if the accused is a danger to himself (not against the law) or others, he should be legally arrested. In other words, take the man but leave the guns. The line of inheritance codified in state laws determines the legal custodian of any property. Politicians on both sides who support this notion will regret the day they ever heard of red flag laws.
Their legacies will carry a Supreme Court scolding and perhaps be the landmark of their careers. Writers, politicians and demonstrators have been hoodwinked by Bloomberg’s rhetoric and haven’t read his 2018 data. It reveals gun homicides declined seven percent, firearm injuries declined 10 percent, fatal child shootings (under 18) declined 12 percent and unintentional shootings plummeted 21 percent.
As an analogy, if someone sips too much wine during dinner at home, a crotchety old aunt might be empowered to call the police and have them impound every motorized vehicle from the homeowner — just in case he or she might decide to drive somewhere. Never mind who owns the vehicles.
None of this hysteria is justified. Since 1991, the murder rate has fallen by 45 percent and the overall violent crime rate has fallen by 48 percent. It’s bizarre that Bloomberg wants to change all that. Since 1999, the statistical probability of a student being killed in school, on any given day by a gun has been one in 614 million. Your odds of winning the lottery are 1 in 300 million. The chances of your child being kidnapped are about one in 300,000. Bloomberg says the nation is in crisis, suffering an epidemic. Folks, there is no crisis, no epidemic.
Shooting incidents involving students have been declining since the ’90s. Fact is all but three mass shooters in recent history passed background checks. Two stole their rifles. The other one bought from a guy who assembled it from parts and sold it from home. Murders committed by all types of rifles combined, in 2018, dropped by 23.9 percent. According to the FBI, out of 14,123 homicides in 2018, only 297 (2.1%) were committed by rifles, less than by knives (11%), hands, fists and feet (5%) and blunt objects (3%).
During that time, citizens were buying a record number of firearms. In 2019, more than 28 million requests were submitted to the National Instant Background Check System, a general indicator of firearms purchased and an historic record. That number exceeds 27.5 million in 2016 when purchasers were mortified that Hillary might be elected. Democrats want US citizens to believe making the U.S. safer for criminals will make it safer for their victims. Ask yourself, do you believe being disarmed makes you safer? What kind of political leader would disarm his people while howling about the peril they face?
The Supreme Court isn’t about to jeopardize its own reputation by reducing the ability of private citizens to defend themselves. It’s especially important because currently, half the nation’s murders occur in only 63 counties while the other half are spread across the other 3,081 counties. Said another way, 15 percent had one murder and 54 percent of the nation’s counties had no murders at all.
As a postscript, red flag laws have triggered the national movement for 2nd Amendment Sanctuary counties. And we’re already witnessing a sea change in the sanctuary movement. I’ve always believed these partisan and unconstitutional laws could be defeated by simply denying assistance to federal or state law enforcement.
The obvious reason is federal and state resources alone are woefully inadequate to enforce such things as grip or storage violations and could not begin to undertake such efforts without local law enforcement assistance. If deputizing hundreds of thousands to actively resist federal and state efforts is representative of the whole movement, it’s a single issue rebellion which could rapidly expand.
Hundreds of counties already have proclaimed sanctuary status and almost 70 percent of the counties nationwide are projected to declare allegiance to the Constitution and refusal to enforce laws that violate it. That would comprise 472 counties with only one murder per year plus 1,700 counties that have no murders at all. If that materializes, a desirable result would force federal and state enforcement to concentrate on the 63 counties (2% of the total) where half of America’s murders occur.