One gets the impression listening to some folks in the state legislature that Arizona wants every baby born in the state (legally) to own an automatic weapon….no regulations whatsoever on gun ownership.

But maybe the  impression Arizonans aren’t willing to accept reasonable regulation of guns is not true.

Arizonans may in fact be more moderate than the news accounts of state legislative efforts to allow guns on college campuses….

A new poll by the bipartisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that 83 Percent of Arizonans and 75 Percent of Gun Owners Support Requiring All Gun Buyers to Pass a Background Check – no matter where they buy the gun or who they buy it from.

In other words…gun shows would have to require background checks.

Other results of the poll:

 91 percent of Arizonans and 91 percent of gun owners support requiring federal agencies to share information with each other about suspected dangerous persons or terrorists, in order to prevent them from buying guns.

 88 percent of Arizonans and 86 percent of gun owners support fully funding the NICS Improvement Act, the law passed after the Virginia Tech shooting to prevent people with a history of mental illness from buying guns.

 77 percent of Arizonans and 72 percent of gun owners support requiring gun dealers to notify state and local police when someone fails a background check when buying a gun.

 85 percent of Arizonans and 85 percent of gun owners support prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns.

 75 percent of Arizonans and 71 percent of gun owners support tracking bulk purchases of semi-automatic assault rifles, the weapon of choice of Mexican drug cartels.

 69 percent of Arizonans and 56 percent of gun owners oppose proposals to allow carrying concealed guns on college campuses.

 75 percent of Arizonans and 72 percent of gun owners oppose state proposals to allow carrying of concealed guns in government buildings, including courthouses and the state legislature.

 Arizonans Support Closing Loopholes and Gaps in the Background Check System

 82 percent of Arizonans and 78 percent of gun owners support a law to require background checks for all guns sold at gun shows.

 83 percent of Arizonans and 75 percent of gun owners support requiring all prospective buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.

Press Release:

 

POLL:  ARIZONANS – INCLUDING GUN OWNERS –

OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT FIXING GUN BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM

83 Percent of Arizonans and 75 Percent of Gun Owners Support Requiring All Gun Buyers to Pass a Background Check –

No Matter Where They Buy the Gun or Who They Buy it From

Strong Majorities of Arizona Gun Owners Support Tougher Laws to Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Dangerous People

While Protecting Rights of Law-Abiding Citizens

75 Percent of Arizonans and 72 Percent of Gun Owners Oppose State Proposals to Allow Carrying a Concealed Gun in Government Buildings, Including Courthouses and the State Legislature

FixGunChecks.org Campaign and more than 250,000 Americans Urge President and Congress to Fix Background Checks

The bipartisan coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns today announced the results of a statewide poll demonstrating overwhelming support among Arizonans for measures designed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, including fixing glaring loopholes background check system. 

The survey by American Viewpoint found deep support for provisions contained in the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011, introduced today by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY).  The legislation, modeled on a proposal by more than 550 mayors in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, would create stronger incentives for states to submit records to the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) on individuals who are prohibited from purchasing firearms. The bill would also require federal agencies to certify that they are sharing information about prohibited purchasers and require all gun buyers to pass a background check, with narrow exemptions. 

Full results for the polls are available here: http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/downloads/pdf/poll_slides_2011.pdf

The poll questionnaire is available here: http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/downloads/pdf/poll_questionnaire.pdf

 ”This isn’t just about public opinion, it’s about saving lives and making our families safer,” said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva. “There’s a reason 83 percent of Arizonans and 75 percent of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check. The loopholes that gave Jared Loughner easy access to deadly weapons have no place in civil society, and ending them will make this country a safer place to sleep at night. Background checks are a simple law enforcement tool to ensure that gun buyers are not a threat to public safety, and opposing them puts one far outside the mainstream. This is a bill whose time has come, and I will strongly support it in the House.”

Tucson shooter Jared Loughner had a history of drug abuse that led military recruiters to reject him in December 2008.  According to U.S. Army sources, he was eventually rejected from enlistment after admitting that “he smoked marijuana to such an extent” that they decided they were “not going to accept a habitual drug abuser into the Army.” 

Any of these facts should have prohibited Loughner from buying a gun for at least one year.  But less than a year later after the military turned him away, he was able to buy a shotgun after passing a background check conducted by the NICS.  A year after that, in November of 2010, he bought another gun-a Glock that he used to kill 6 people and injure 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

The national gun background check system has serious flaws.  In part because Congress has failed to fully fund the system, millions of records of prohibited purchasers (including criminals, drug abusers, domestic violence offenders and the mentally ill) are still missing from the NICS database.   Arizona has submitted only 5,036 mental health records and only one drug abuse record to the NICS database. 

There is also no federal law requiring background checks for “private sales” by someone other than a licensed dealer.  Around 40 percent of U.S. gun sales are private sales completed at places like gun shows, in parking lots or over the Internet.

The Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011 would provide tough incentives to states to ensure that all records of prohibited buyers are included in the background check system, and that all purchasers have a background check, with reasonable exceptions.

“Debates since the Tucson shooting, ranging from the tone of politics to the gun culture in Arizona, have been conducted in general terms and give the impression of sharp divisions,” said pollster Bob Carpenter of American Viewpoint, which conducted the survey.  “However, our poll today shows that when you get down to the policy details, Arizonans, including gun owners, unite behind their support for proposals ranging from improving reporting of mental health records into the background check system, reporting bulk purchases of assault rifles, and requiring background checks on all gun sales. When you get past controversy and turn to specifics, even gun owners agree that there many places where gun laws need to be fixed.”

The polls were released as the National Drive to Fix Gun Checks campaign truck continues its two-month journey across the United States.  The campaign is holding events in cities across the country with local mayors, families of local gun violence victims and others to harness the growing momentum for reform.  The truck is led by Omar Samaha, whose sister was killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.  Around 250,000 Americans have signed petitions calling on the President and Congress to fix the gun background check system.  The campaign site can be found here:  http://www.fixgunchecks.org/

Support for Getting Records of Dangerous People into Background Check System and Requiring Background Checks for Every Gun Sale

 91 percent of Arizonans and 91 percent of gun owners support requiring federal agencies to share information with each other about suspected dangerous persons or terrorists, in order to prevent them from buying guns.

 88 percent of Arizonans and 86 percent of gun owners support fully funding the NICS Improvement Act, the law passed after the Virginia Tech shooting to prevent people with a history of mental illness from buying guns.

 77 percent of Arizonans and 72 percent of gun owners support requiring gun dealers to notify state and local police when someone fails a background check when buying a gun.

 85 percent of Arizonans and 85 percent of gun owners support prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns.

 75 percent of Arizonans and 71 percent of gun owners support tracking bulk purchases of semi-automatic assault rifles, the weapon of choice of Mexican drug cartels.

 69 percent of Arizonans and 56 percent of gun owners oppose proposals to allow carrying concealed guns on college campuses.

 75 percent of Arizonans and 72 percent of gun owners oppose state proposals to allow carrying of concealed guns in government buildings, including courthouses and the state legislature.

 Arizonans Support Closing Loopholes and Gaps in the Background Check System

 82 percent of Arizonans and 78 percent of gun owners support a law to require background checks for all guns sold at gun shows.

 83 percent of Arizonans and 75 percent of gun owners support requiring all prospective buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.

 Poll Methodology

 This poll was part of a five-state bi-partisan polling project sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns and managed by Momentum Analysis. The Arizona poll was conducted between February 16 and February 17, 2011 by American Viewpoint, a Republican polling firm.

 About American Viewpoint

 American Viewpoint is one of the most widely respected public opinion research and strategic message consulting firms in the United States. Founded in 1985 by Linda DiVall, the company has established a national reputation for outstanding quantitative and qualitative research in politics, corporate affairs, public policy and government relations. American Viewpoint has advised Republican campaigns and groups, including McCain-Palin ’08, Bush-Cheney ’04, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senator Roy Blunt and Senator Johnny Isakson.  Corporate clients have included AT&T, CBS News, International Paper and Pfizer.

 About Mayors Against Illegal Guns

 Since its inception in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 mayors to more than 550. Mayors Against Illegal Guns has united the nation’s mayors around these common goals: protecting their communities by holding gun offenders and irresponsible gun dealers accountable, demanding access to trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat illegal gun trafficking, and working with legislators to fix gaps, weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other prohibited purchasers to get guns.

I’m not sure gun “control” versus regulation is the same issue.

I am not advocating taking guns per se away from people (except criminals and the mentally defective to use the federal term). But I think meaningful distinctions can be made as to what sort of firepower is available to whom and with what level of training.

While I doubt if a K-12 education system is the answer as one commentator has suggested …I do agree that we need a very wide spread basic education about guns whether or not someone is actually wanting to own and use one…with more degrees of training above that depending on the role one wants to play.

Coming back to the basic education level….having grown up with guns one gets a really good idea of the damage they can do and the responsibility that goes with firearms possession and use. That level of education was sort of basic as a part of rural life and family members took care of this.

Ideally the basic training including having the opportunity to do some shooting (like was offered in summer camps) changes the fear of guns to respect and responsibility. Fire is beneficial or can burn homes and forests down. We cannot be afraid of fire…we must learn how to use it positively. Same for guns.

Even though I had what I’d call “basic training” with a wide range of firearms as a kid…when put in a situation of working with cops in the field under cover it was immediately obvious I really didn’t know squat about how to use a weapon in the context of real-time crime situations. The cops involved were not about to have me out there without being a functional part of the team on the ground, so I got a cop’s vesion of Police Academy with a real life “pass fail” situation in which to assess wheter or not I had any business being out there. I passed…but gained a whole new comprehension about how really difficult it is to keep your cool when bullets are flying or someone is waving a weapon around.

There is a kind of training that law enforcement folks as well as emergency responders and crisis management people get that focuses on, what I’ll call “being in the zone” where one goes to a different level of consciousness, your training kicks in, you’re not over thinking a situation, and you act appropriately and responsibly. The aide that went to Gabby’s side and used his training to save her life for example…listening to him talk about what he did and why he did it…wow….

There are what I call the “oath people” who are tasked with law enforcement and emergency response who…when the gunfire starts or the planes hit buildings run towards the event…not away from it. The nore of us that are “oath people” the better for all.

What concerns me is there are a lot of people who think that by just merely owning a wespon, they are prepared to deal with a crisis situation…and I’m sure there are many who have the right instincts to act…but I also think that a whole lot of people would benefit from the kind of training that is offered in the emergency response and law enforcement venues.

The last decade, because of my duties and responsibilities in Nogales, I went through a lot of additional training and drills in the FEMA emergency response context and have served in various capacities in Emerency Operations Center management of stuff like train wrecks as well as training exercises such as having a bunch of terrorists blow up the port of entry and inflitrate into the city carrying automatic weapons.

I encourage everyone to consider taking some of the training that’s available for citizens to be part of an emergency response effort. Check the FEMA website or your local fire station for training opportunities.

When you look at how everyone acted in the wake of the shooting….there were obviously lots and lots of people doing the right stuff because they were trained.

I think the gun debate has to focus on responsibility and not just rights.

This from the Arizona Daily Star….

Sales of guns, including Glocks, soar across US

….A national debate over weaknesses in state and federal gun laws stirred by the shooting has stoked fears among gun buyers that stiffer restrictions may be coming from Congress, gun dealers say. The result is that a deadly demonstration of the weapon’s power has boosted sales of handguns in Arizona and other states, according to federal law enforcement data.

More….

Hmmmmmm.

There are 3 threads running from the Giffords shooting incident:

–the rhetoric of hate needs to be toned down

–Arizona’s gun laws are crazy

–and we didn’t have any effective way to sort the crazies and keep them from being inspired by the hate rhetoric to buy a semi-automatic weapon.

What’s interesting is there are lots of people defending the inflammatory rhetoric and pointing out there is probably not a direct cause and effect relationship between venomous commentators like Glenn Beck and Jared Loughner.

Maybe. Maybe not. We’re likely to get the answer to that issue one of these days.

There’s also a lot of people arguing that guns didn’t kill 6 people and seriously wound Congresswoman Giffords and 13 others…it was a crazy person.

And then there’s a lot of information coming out about how weirded out Loughner appeared and how there is virtually nothing anyone could have done to get him into a treatment program or deny him the right to buy a gun.

Whenever someone goes on a rampage and shoots a lot of people it is easy to write off the incident to a deranged person. Arguably anyone who commits murder, especially mass murder, is crazy.

But that is a convenient way to deflect the much broader responsibilities the entire society has.

Whether or not the bile being spread by left or right had anything directly to do with the Giffords shooting….bile is still bile and we need to tone down the political debate in this country. Just because we don’t agree with each other doesn’t make one side a bunch of traitors and the other side a bunch of fascists. We all love our country, and all sides have meritorious issues to consider.

I personally do not like the fact that the whole culture of violence and hate speech is making big money for the media outlets that purvey it. We can hold someone accountable for yelling fire in a theater, and we can stop people from broadcasting pornography to our kids At minimum the media outlets that provide the soapboxes for the hate-mongers can issue some civil guidelines and fire some flamethrower mouths. And we sure as heck can boycott the sponsors who buy ads in shows that incite hatred.

Creating a climate of violence and justification to demonize this or that group of people has repeatedly proven dangerous for a long long time.

As to the gun issue…Arizona has put gun rights ahead of human rights. I’ve got to wonder what the folks who wrote the Second Amendment would think if they saw the kind of weaponry gun rights advocates claim everyone can carry anywhere at any time.

I think some hard lines need to be drawn between the sort of recreational and home protection guns most everyone does agree we have a right to keep versus semi-automatic Glock 19s with 31 shot magazines.

Let me add another dimension to the gun rights debate….the Second Amendment refers to a “well regulated militia”.

I would suggest that a second tier of gun permitting be created whereby some folks would be allowed access to more military and police type weaponry….but only if they went through serious training and were part of a supervised militia structure that was like our auxiliary police forces. Not some wacko self-proclaimed Minutemen…but a force that could work effectively in tandem with law enforcement and increase safety and security without a political agenda.  What bothers me is having a lot of people armed to the teeth that really don’t know what to do how and when.

 The third thread is how do we figure out who is crazy and how to we keep them from buying guns.

I would hope the Second Amendment crowd could at least agree we do not want criminals or crazies having access to guns.

The first issue is basic permitting….and this is essential to at least weed out the criminals buying guns on the black market versus legitimate sales. The best thing a permit program can do is give  law enforcement a basis to bust someone with a weapon who does not have a permit.

Now comes the really thorny problem of trying to keep guns out of the hands of crazies.

Who decides who is crazy? What is the definition of “mentally ill”?

There is a long and sordid history around the world of governments using mental illness as an excuse to jail political dissidents. In a right-wing dictatorship it is the lefties that are “crazy” and in a left-wing dictatorship it is the right-wing packed off to insane asylums.

We have tilted the scale in our country to protection of the rights of the mentally ill.

Just suggesting someone is “crazy” is grounds to be sued {1}

 But we do not have an effective system of getting people who need help into the “system” for treatment, our “treatment” systems are heavy with drugs and warehousing and do little to help people function in society, and our ability to intervene in situations where someone is acting in such a way that they might be a potential threat is broken.

We need to figure out a fair and just way to intervene when people really need some help without the intervention system being abused by folks who want to lock up people they don’t like or disagree with. A tough problem, indeed.

But we’re a smart country and ought to be able to set up a system where a guy like Loughner can’t walk into a gun shop and buy a Glock 19 with extended ammo clips.

The problem is multi -faceted and there isn’t a clear simple solution. Real problems are like that.

If there is blame…it is widespread throughout our culture. There is no one simple point of fault.

What we can do is try and tone down the inflammatory rhetoric a bit and treat those we disagree with respect.

What we can do is take a hard look at who gets to carry around what kind of firepower on our streets, in our stores and in our public places.

What we can do is a lot better job of  identifying people like Jared Loughner and getting them the help they need before they act out their delusions.

As Pogo said “we have met the enemy and he is us.”

[1} I once defended a publication in a libel case over a published statement that the person was “crazy”.  Truth is a defense and we won.

I am guessing most Americans are appalled when they realize that a person of dubious sanity can walk into a gun store in Tucson and buy a Glock 19 and extended ammo clips so one can kill 6 people and wound 14 others…and still have enough ammo to kill another 30 or 60 people.

On top of that anyone can conceal such a weapon and go just about anywhere they want…except on a university campus (which some Arizona state legislatures want to allow).

OK..it is one thing to have the right to own a gun….but where does the right to own a gun run into the responsibility of actually buying and carrying weapons around?

To hear the Second Amendment folks argue…the more people carrying a gun the less likely a scene like what happened in Tucson would happen. Presumably, the argument goes, someone there at the grocery store could have pulled out his or her Glock 19 and shot Jared Loughner.

Let me ask each of you how many of you really think you’d know what to do if you were in a situation with a shooter like Loughner spraying a crowd with 9 mm bullets?

Would you really trust someone to know exactly what to do in a situation like that whose main claim to gun proficiency was their Second Amendment bumper sticker? I sincerely hope not.

Is the point of having the right to carry whatever weapon you want to buy really the right to be ready to go to the streets and fight off the UN take-over of America or some other nonsense spewed on the Web?

Is everyone just itching to be a modern Minuteman and defend our border or stop the left-wing takeover of the country?

I don’t see the Second Amendment advocates taking responsibility for arming the society… in fact they’ve done just the opposite when they got the training and licensing requirement voided for carrying a concealed weapon.

There is a lot of justification to requiring folks who want to walk around town with their gun to have some serious training about how and when to use that gun.

There is serious justification to trying to figure out how to keep guns out of the hands of crazy people…as well as street gangsters and others.

There is serious justification to asking just what kind of gun do you really need for home protection and safety?

It’s one thing to have the gun at home and quite another to go shopping packing your heat.

And I don’t really get why it is so important that everyone can buy a semi-automatic pistol. Does anyone hunt deer or coyotes with a Glock 19?

People are describing Arizona as Tombstone…the Wild West. One ought to remember that there was a very concerted effort to create a civil society with law enforcement so everyone in town wasn’t carrying a gun. Arizona grew and prospered in that civilized setting.

It should not surprise anyone that Sheriff Clarence Dupnik (as many law enforcement folks) question the situation where anyone can buy any kind of gun they want and carry it wherever they want in this state.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said it best:

“The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous, and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital,” Dupnik said Saturday January 8th at a press conference about the shooting of Congresswoman Gabriell Giffords and 18 others.

“We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry,” Dupnik added. “The fiery rhetoric that has taken hold in politics may be free speech, but it’s not without consequences.”

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was slated to give her “State of the State” speech to the legislature on Monday January 10th.

I doubt she will really give a true picture of the state of the state of Arizona or the nation right now.

From top to bottom we have become a sick society filled with hatred and armed crazies.

In our political process the opposition is demonized to the point where media commentators such as Glenn Beck can suggest liberals  ought to be killed.

In our political process is it ok for Sarah Palin to put a target on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords?

In our political process is it tolerated when people break their windows of Congressional offices and carry guns into political events as happened to Giffords in the last few months?

In Arizona demonizing undocumented Mexicans for political power gains was not only accepted…it worked to elect a lot of people to office who exploit hatred and fear for power.

Glock 9 mm Model 19 with clips

In Arizona certain interests fought hard to allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon, and to be able to buy semi-automatic weapons with extended ammo clips. What conceivable recreational use does that kind of weapon really have? They are solely for killing people.

We have 6 dead in Arizona because gun rights are more important than human life.

And then we have the suspected shooter Jared Loughner. Obviously from his internet postings a mentally disturbed individual.

Sheriff Dupnik made the point that where a climate of hatred and intolerance is created, that opens the door for armed nut cases to act out their craziness.

And this isn’t the first time a gunman has tried to kill  those who serve our country and kill those who have political views opposed to theirs. They try to instill fear in anyone who is willing to step up to the plate for fairness and social justice.

America is known for killing its leaders….and are we any different than Pakistan right now?

The hate filled rhetoric being used to justify one side’s political agenda has to stop RIGHT NOW !

The media who profit from allowing the Glenn Becks and others who spew hostility must stop exploiting promotion of hatred for their bottom line.

That includes the many websites who allow bloggers and commentors to spew their venom to incite insurrection and violence.

Those who profit from selling guns to crazy people must be stopped.

And we need to really do something effective about our mental health care system beyond cutting budgets because some folks don’t want to pay taxes.

*  *  *  *

Someone tore a giant hole in the fabric of a community of people that are dedicated to public service.

The message from the armed crazies is to try and frighten anyone away from public service if they don’t follow the orthodoxy of one particular political perspective or another.

It does cause one to pause before stepping into the arena of public service and activism knowing that our culture repeatedly spawns assassins bent on killing those who stand up for justice.

But for everyone who falls in the line of fire, a hundred others will step into the gap to keep the effort going for truth and justice.

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind  Hosea 8:7