As the NRA responds to the murders in Newtown, Connecticut with a call for armed “good guys” in schools, it is important to shine as bright a light as possible on the linkage of government, lobbying organizations like the NRA, and gun manufacturing. There is no way to do all of that in one post, or with one voice on one tiny blog, but it needs to happen on a large scale if there is to be any change in American obsession with guns and tolerance for gun-related murder. A side-effect of the Newtown murders is the exposure of communities across the country that are ravaged by gun violence. Chicago is front and center, but there are many more in similar situations.
As much as I applaud the calls for gun control, as they indicate a degree of concern and awareness, they represent a goal, not a policy. Gun control is the result of policy, and good policy requires good information. I see some glaringly obvious steps that need to be taken, and I hope to enumerate and expand on them in the upcoming weeks. Here is the first:
Job #1 is: remove all barriers to BATFE gun-crime data collection, analysis and distribution.
As it stands the BATFE is prohibited from using any money or resources to manage or distribute their data on gun crimes in the US. That includes location, gun mode and make, ammunition type, rounds fired, etc… All data that would allow the public, including policy makers, to assess the impact of these devices and how they might be regulated. It should be no surprise that groups like the NRA have put a lot of effort into restricting data that will make their arguments weak or plainly ridiculous. ANALOGY ALERT!!!!
Once upon a time there was a company called Johns Manville that was heavily invested in the asbestos business. Exposure to their product caused premature death. JM knew this full well, but considered it Confidential Business Information. They altered their hiring practices to compensate for the high death and disability rate among their workers. Their clients, most prominently shipyard workers, followed suit. It took the exposure of internal memoranda, oroof that they knew they were killing their workers, for any meaningful action to occur. Instead of being shut down they were ordered to remain in business… the fiberglass business, and deal with the liability issues related to their product.
In the case of guns, there is a major twist: It is the US Government, specifically Congress, that is keeping the public safety data out of public view. In a way, that is horrible. But it presents a golden opportunity for Congress to act unilaterally to reverse these policies. That is what the President and Congress can do in the next 90 days to move this process forward. The NRA can squawk all they want, but the reality is that if their position is as strong as they believe, then they have nothing to fear from the truth. It also puts elected officials in the position of having to defend a policy of keeping the public uninformed on a massive public health and safety crisis.
Jobs 1a, 1b…. are to unify record keeping and reporting of firearms sale and transfer data at the state and/or county level and consolidate that data on a national level. This would also go for detailed manufacturing and import data on guns.
One reason we have shitty public policy on guns is that we have shitty public data on guns. GIGO is the technical term.
More soon. Here is a wish for a happy and peaceful holiday season.
[I will backfill links later, or collect related links in a separate post]
petebrunelli 