That this country°®¶¹app™s conservative Supreme Court majority has gone off the rails with decisions such as its 2022 Bruen decision rooted in the °®¶¹appœhistorical tradition of firearm regulation,°®¶¹app or our state°®¶¹app™s Republican super- majority legislative branch following suit with its permitless carry gun law, does not mean that a majority of the general public think and believe the same way.
In fact, they do not.
A 2023 national survey of gun policy at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence indicates that:
°®¶¹app¢ 81% of Americans support prohibiting a person subject to a temporary domestic violence restraining order from having a gun for the duration of the order.
°®¶¹app¢ 76% support allowing family members to ask the court to remove guns temporarily from a relative who they believe is at risk of harming themselves or others.
°®¶¹app¢ 72% support requiring a person to obtain a license from a local law enforcement agency before buying a gun.
°®¶¹app¢ 72% support laws that require a person to lock up the guns in their home when not in use.
°®¶¹app¢ 69% support funding community-based gun violence prevention programs that provide outreach, conflict mediation and social support for people at high risk of gun violence.
°®¶¹app¢ Only 24% support allowing a person who can legally own a gun to carry a loaded, concealed handgun in public without having to obtain a concealed carry license.
Other recent national surveys also show that:
°®¶¹app¢ 61% of adults say it is too easy to obtain a gun legally.
°®¶¹app¢ 58% favor stricter gun laws.
°®¶¹app¢ 54% say an increase in the number of guns is bad for society.
°®¶¹app¢ 59% of K-12 teachers say they are at least somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting ever happening at their school.
And now there are machine gun conversion devices known as °®¶¹appœGlock switches°®¶¹app or by other terminology which are taking gun violence to the next level in communities such as ours all over America.
Nationwide seizures of these tiny illegal devices which cheaply, easily and quickly turn semiautomatic weapons into very lethal automatic firearms have skyrocketed from 814 between 2012-16 to 5,849 between 2017-21.
One victim°®¶¹app™s father said, °®¶¹appœIt°®¶¹app™s (°®¶¹app˜Glock switches°®¶¹app™) the worst invention in American history, in world history.°®¶¹app
All of this data and information on how Americans think and feel about guns and gun violence, coupled with the ever-rising associated deaths and injuries, is why °®¶¹app°®¶¹app™s Nov.°®¶¹app„8 editorial °®¶¹appœTrigger warning/City°®¶¹app™s youth gun-violence problem must be curbed°®¶¹app makes such perfect sense.
As the editorial states:
°®¶¹appœWe can°®¶¹app™t afford to stand by any longer. The well-being of our community, especially our youth, hangs in the balance. When parts of our city feel like war zones and parents live with the constant anxiety of losing a child to gunfire, it°®¶¹app™s clear that our current approach has failed. If we truly value safety and the promise of our next generation, then we ought to expect something more than °®¶¹app˜thoughts and prayers.°®¶¹app™°®¶¹app
In the meantime, as I wrote in an op-ed published April 29, 2023, headlined °®¶¹appœMemories of new generation will spur gun reform°®¶¹app:
°®¶¹appœThe novelist and screenwriter John Irving wrote, °®¶¹app˜Your memory is a monster; you forget °®¶¹app” it doesn°®¶¹app™t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you °®¶¹app” and summons them to your recall with will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!°®¶¹app™
°®¶¹appœThis is how our young people in particular will remember the scourge of gun violence in America.°®¶¹app
Whether directly or indirectly touched, our young people especially °®¶¹app” from rich to poor families alike °®¶¹app” are being negatively and irreversibly impacted by gun violence.
Are these the kind of anything-but-sweet memories we want for them when such reasonable solutions are so readily at hand?
Greg Slyford of Fort Wayne is a retired educator.
