Derrick Jackson asks if we are "Tough on violence?"
In light of the events of this week, he observers, in this Boston Globe column (And this week the Globe is NOT behind a paywall). what is noted in the subtitle: Resolute on terrorism, Congress caves on mass gun killings.
Jackson is particularly incensed by the proposal of John Cornyn to require states to honor each other's concealed carry decisions, writing that
Jackson is particularly incensed by the proposal of John Cornyn to require states to honor each other's concealed carry decisions, writing that
a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Massachusetts had the nation’s strongest gun laws in 2010 — and the second-lowest rate of firearms fatalities. Cornyn’s Texas had much weaker laws — and three times the firearms death rate.He also puts our supposed toughness on the violence of terrorism in one brief paragraph:
For all the supposed determination to protect American lives, more than 350,000 Americans have died from firearms homicides and suicides since Sept. 11, 2001. Imagine what our response would be if Al Qaeda or North Korea caused the deaths of 350,000 Americans.To that statistic I might provide an additional one, that in the 6 years since the shootings at Virginia Tech, more than 187,000 Americans have died by gun violence of all kinds.His final point comes in a comparison between deaths by automobile and those by gun, with the latter on track to surpass the former within 2 years. Jackson writes:
Before one can operate a vehicle, we require driver’s licenses, vehicle registration, annual inspections, and insurance. For safety, we also require seat belts and air bags. In the further