A PPARENTLYquailhuntersposeas much a threat to national security as terrorists. Last weekend, Vice President Cheney and his friend Henry Whittington, a 78-year-old attorney, were hunting quail in Texas, and the vice president sprayed his companion with birdshot. The irony of this event is transparent.If Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States, and an avid sportsman, can accidentally shoot a hunting buddy, why should we expect better firearm responsibility from toddlers? Gun control should be a lot tougher to prevent other innocent Americans from falling victim to gun accidents.
Guns kill thousands of children every year in the United States. In fact, according to the Violence Policy Center, American children are more likely to be injured or killed by gunfire than children in any other industrialized nation. The Children's Defense Fund and National Center for Health Statistics report that 3,012 children or adolescents were killed by guns in a year. That translates to one child every three hours. These shocking statistics should make all of us stop and think. A father might buy a gun intending to protect his family, but the Brady Campaign reports that this gun would be 22 times more likely to kill unintentionally rather than in self-defense. Simply put, guns pose amuch greater threat to children than to burglars.
Virginia gun laws, or lack thereof, are ridiculous and nonsensical. A person can buy an assault weapon as easily as he can buy a rifle. Even more disturbing, child safety locks are not mandatory with the purchase of guns. According to the American Bar Association, more adolecents and children die from gunshot wounds than the combined death totals from all diseases in the United States. These locks can cost around $10, which would be a small price to pay to protect children.
While statistics prove that gun accidents kill thousands of innocent people each year, many gun rights advocates argue that gun ownership is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. However, if these people had paid more attention in American Politics 101, they would see that current gun laws are a horrible interpretation of what the Founding Fathers intended.
These wise men gave the right to own a gun to the people in order to maintain "a well regulated militia," which is "necessary for the security of a free State." The vast majority of gun owners today are not part of militias. Thus, the Second Amendment essentially is irrelevant to the question of whether or not stricter gun laws should be imposed. Americans cannot hide behind vague statements of the great men who wrote the Bill of Rights over 200 years ago. Misinterpreting and manipulating the Amendment obfuscates the spirit of the law meant to guide, not suffocate, the American people.
Furthermore, the individual freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights are limited the minute a person's right to bear arms takes away another person's right to live. The endangerment of another person's life should make people question what is more important -- an arguably obsolete right, or making American streets, homes and schools safer.
The best way to make sure guns do not get into the wrong hands is to make sure they get into few, if any, hands. The government needs to ban assault weapons, require background checks at gun shows and all other gun purchases, and mandate child safety locks. Although gun rights advocates will complain about the hassle of safety precautions, this seems a small price to pay for the promotion of the general welfare.
Politicians hide from any debate on gun control because of the enormous political and financial ramifications of angering the NRA and other gun rights groups. While Americans need to demand more gun restrictions, the debate only becomes urgent as another child dies. Tough gun laws help society more than vacuous invocations of constitutional rights. And maybe, just maybe, hunting buddies of Vice President Cheney won't hav to worry about dodging bullets.
Marta Cook is a Cavalier Daily Viewpoint Writer.
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