Gun Legislation

A miracle occurred recently when the National Rifle Assn. actually lost a vote in the U.S. Senate. Six moderate Republicans crossed over to vote with all but one Democrat with the resulting tie vote being broken by Vice President Al Gore.

While the resulting legislation was a small victory for gun-control advocates, the NRA had lobbied long and hard against it and lost. The amendment would tighten loopholes in gun show and pawnshop gun sales and require locks on new gun sales.

To become law however, the bill must pass the House of Representatives. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has already postponed action on the bill and Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) of the Judiciary Committee has scheduled a study by a select group that will delay it even further. Barr is a member of the board of the NRA.

Although this is but a small step in the ongoing battle for sensible gun control that will bring about a halt to the flood of guns in U.S. society, it is a cracking of the control the NRA has long exerted in our government.

Many gun buyers are driven by a sense of fear and desire for self-protection. The irony is that these guns bought for self-protection are 43 times more likely to kill a family member than an intruder.

The figures on gun ownership in America are staggering: 192 million guns are in private ownership, enough for more than two out of three men, women and children to have access to a gun.

FBI reports for 1996, the most recent figures available, indicate that two-thirds of all murders in America were by gunshot; 10,744 murders were committed with a gun.

This trend of problem-solving using violence is not laid solely at the door of gun availability. Violence has increased worldwide since 1964 and is still rising. Violence is rising even in countries that have draconian laws against firearms.

The one phenomenon that tracks the timing and methodology of rising violence is world acceptance of television and later the video games that trivialize life, that make victory a matter of decimating your enemies.

The jigsaw picture of violence has many parts, but the overwhelming weapon of choice is still the gun.

BRAD SMITH, Oxnard