Maine
Opinion: Maine is not exceptional when it comes to gun violence
The BDN Opinion part operates independently and doesn’t set newsroom insurance policies or contribute to reporting or modifying articles elsewhere within the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Robert W. Glover is an affiliate professor of political science and honors on the College of Maine. These views are his personal and don’t characterize an official place of the college or the College of Maine System. He’s the co-director of the Maine chapter of the nationwide Students Technique Community, which brings collectively students throughout the nation to deal with public challenges and their coverage implications. Members’ columns seem within the BDN each different week.
The nation is reeling from one more horrifying college capturing on the Robb Elementary College in Uvalde, Texas. As we think about common sense coverage measures to scale back gun violence on this nation, we should disavow ourselves of the notion that Maine is phenomenal. It isn’t. The disaster is right here.
Lots of you probably despatched your youngsters to high school final week wrought with emotion. Are they secure? Am I mendacity to them and to myself after I reassure them? Why should I drop off my baby in school silently hoping that their weak, younger our bodies won’t be ripped aside by bullets?
As a instructor, final week’s carnage prompted me to assessment our college’s (grimly mandatory) lively shooter tips: That we not attempt to transfer those that are badly wounded; the suitable methods to silently conceal if we can’t escape the assailant(s) safely; tips on how to sign that we aren’t a menace when rescue groups storm the constructing.
Does it should be like this? It doesn’t.
The USA is the one superior nation on this planet with this prevalence of dying by gun violence. A latest research within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation discovered gun violence dying charges 5 occasions increased than Canada, 10 occasions increased than Australia, 34 occasions increased than the UK. Put merely, these international locations appropriately regulate entry to and prevalence of firearms. We don’t.
The urgency is felt by lots of our policymakers. Final week, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut spoke with fury and eloquence on the Senate flooring. Murphy implored his colleagues: “What are we doing? … Why are we right here if to not attempt to guarantee that fewer colleges and fewer communities undergo what Sandy Hook has gone by? What Uvalde goes by?”
Insurance policies to confront this nightmare are inside our attain. Two such measures, HR 8 and HR 1446, would strengthen federal background checks, closing loopholes that allow gun gross sales and transfers with out oversight (a reform greater than 80 p.c of gun homeowners help). Each measures have handed within the Home, however Senate Republican opposition has prevented a vote there.
“Crimson flag” legal guidelines empower legislation enforcement or relations to petition for eradicating weapons from these deemed a threat to themselves or others. This measure, too, is supported by greater than 70 p.c of Individuals and 60 p.c of gun homeowners. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such legal guidelines. A invoice to increase such protections nationally was launched final yr by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, who lost her own son to gun violence. If Congress was sufficiently motivated, the measure might be voted on and signed into legislation inside a matter of weeks.
It could be tempting to assume Maine is phenomenal, that we possess a tradition of secure, accountable firearm use and relatively low ranges of violence, making such measures pointless. Assume once more.
From 2011-2020, Maine skilled 113 home abuse homicides, 52 p.c of which had been dedicated with a firearm. Significantly alarming is the prevalence of gun suicide in Maine. Maine suffered 163 gun deaths in 2019; 88 p.c of those had been suicides (a grim statistic alarmingly excessive amongst our veterans). Everytown for Gun Security estimates that gun deaths and accidents price the state of Maine greater than $979 million in 2019.
Gun violence is right here. It’s pricey. It’s devastating. There isn’t a cultural or social protecting bubble rendering us immune from the grisly homicide we noticed unfold in Texas final week. If we don’t take motion, a mass killing reminiscent of this will likely be inevitable in our future.
Lots of you might have been motivated by Uvalde to name your federal lawmakers to register concern. With Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer vowing to maneuver shortly on bipartisan laws, we ought to be asking U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins what they plan to do to make sure swift motion on such payments. We now have each proper to be indignant, damage, and scared. However now’s no time to give up to hopelessness.