Firearm Regulation: Decreasing Senseless Childhood Deaths

The child firearm mortality rate has doubled in the U.S. from a low of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 in 2021. The United States has the highest rate of child and teen firearm mortality among developed nations. In no other developed country are firearms in the top four causes of death for children and teens. In our case, it is number one. The U.S. states with the fewest gun laws (southern and western) have the highest rates of child and teen firearm deaths compared to states with more gun laws. But, even states with the lowest child and teen firearm deaths have death rates much higher than peer countries. The rate of death from firearms in the U.S. is 30 times that of the average of 12 comparable high-income countries. For example, the rate of childhood death from firearms in the U.S. is 60 times greater than the rate in Germany!

We have a severe case of an unclassified national psychological problem that is attributed to the Second Amendment of the Constitution. The Second Amendment is interpreted as giving unfettered access to firearms, abetted by a heavily financed and politically aggressive gun lobby and a judiciary trapped in the 18th century. The interpretation of the Second Amendment to provide unregulated gun access is and always has been indefensible as attested to by former Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Warren Burger, who supported the concept that guns should be regulated as are automobiles. He did not think this approach would violate the 2nd Amendment. The Founders were referring to the need for State Militias at a time when the ability to raise armed troops for the defense of the country was insecure. The Constitution reads: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The need for a militia was the predicate of the "right" guarantee to protect the security of the State. Today, of course, the State militia serves a different purpose. A huge national defense establishment has assumed the role of the militia of 250 years ago. Chief Justice Burger, a Republican presidential appointee and highly respected jurist, called the application of the Second Amendment a fraud perpetrated on the American people by special interests. He also said if he were rewriting the Bill of Rights today, he would not include the second amendment, which is no longer “necessary to the security of a free State”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfQpGk7KKw

Guns should be regulated, as are vehicles, Burger suggested. This proposal would require a minimum age of ownership and a requirement for owners to be licensed, have a licensing examination, and to have penalties for infractions as we do for vehicle drivers. He would include a 30-day wait period so agencies can determine the reason for acquiring a gun. The failure to come close to such a national position is a testimony to the firearms psychosis prevalent in this country. A “psychosis” is defined as a severe mental condition in which thought and emotions are so affected that contact is lost with external reality.

There is no apparent interest by sufficient numbers of U.S. citizens to require the States to regulate the license, purchase or the transfer of a gun as it does a vehicle and require reasonable standards for its use. Rational regulations for the ownership and use of a firearm could reduce the homicidal carnage that plagues the United States.