A gun in every house

Press, 10 February 1988, Page 20

A gun in every house

From the “Economist,” London

About 25 million American householders consider it a sensible precaution to keep a gun in the house. And, according to a study carried out in Texas, over half of them keep their guns loaded, ready to repel intruders. Half of these do not keep their guns locked away. No doubt they feel that an unloaded, locked-up gun would be of little use in an emergency. Over the Christmas holidays six families paid dearly for their precautions. Six young boys were shot playing cops and robbers with their parents’ or their relatives’ guns in a suburb of Houston. Three died; one was blinded. Two years ago the carnage in the Houston area was even worse. In 13 accidental shootings of children, six were killed. In all, experts say, accidental shootings caused the deaths of about 1600 people in 1984, nearly 300 of them children under the age of 15. Household guns are 12 times more likely to kill a friend or relative than an intruder. The risks to children seem likely to grow with the introduction of guns made of plastic, which tend to look like toys. People carrying plastic guns can also pass unimpeded through many security checks. For this reason, it was thought they would be outlawed under the Administration’s proposed new gun-control legislation. But the National Rifle Association,

the gun lobby, has persuaded the Attorney-General to stay his hand, at least temporarily. It argues that the solution to accidental shootings is not to ban guns, but to educate parents and their children about how to use them. The number of non-accidental shootings of young people aged 12 to 15 amounted to 27,000 (wounded or killed) in 1985, compared with an average of 16,500 for each of the . previous three years. Guns are plentiful, and so cheap that a single mugging may be all that is needed to get enough to buy one. Young distri-

butors of drugs can afford to buy sub-machine-guns and assault rifles. And the regulations are modest.

Although a Gallup poll in 1986 showed that Americans favour stricter gun laws, only six states — New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Michigan and Minnesota — require permits to buy guns as well as licences to carry them. At the other extreme, Florida recently relaxed its controls to make it legal for anyone except convicted felons, certified psychotics and twice-convicted drunks to carry a concealed gun.

Children in big cities, and some not so big, have to learn to live with guns. Gun-fire is commonplace in the ghettos where many of them live. And guns are appearing more often in schools. Fists, and even knivs, are passe. A judge in Baltimore has found that at one high school in the city nearly half the boys admit to having carried a gun at least once; over 60 per cent of the students know someone who has carried a gun recently; and 60 per cent know someone who has been shot, intimidated or robbed at gunpoint in their school. Urban poverty is partly responsible. But Clint Eastwood and Rambo may have something to answer for.

Copyright — The Economist.