{"id":1527499,"date":"2022-06-24T08:05:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T12:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1527499"},"modified":"2022-06-24T08:05:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T12:05:54","slug":"why-the-senates-rushed-gun-bill-will-not-make-america-any-safer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-the-senates-rushed-gun-bill-will-not-make-america-any-safer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Senate\u2019s Rushed Gun Bill Will Not Make America Any Safer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-the-senates-rushed-gun-bill-will-not-make-america-any-safer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1527499&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/16813894179_92b12da7dd_k.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Senators are billing the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.murphy.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/bipartisan_safer_communities_act_text.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new Senate gun control legislation<\/a>\u00a0as a bipartisan breakthrough that will make Americans safer. \u201cOur legislation will save lives and will not infringe on any law-abiding American\u2019s Second Amendment rights,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/06\/21\/senate-bipartisan-gun-safety-deal-00041051\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claim<\/a>\u00a0Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. But the bill will do nothing to prevent the mass public shootings, which the senators claim motivated their action, and will likely increase suicides. It is a mess.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican senators caved in the negotiations. Take red flag laws. Republicans such as Cornyn promised to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cornyn.senate.gov\/content\/news\/cornyn-\u2018no-national-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oppose federal funding<\/a>\u00a0of state red flag laws \u201cunless their red flag law contains a full set of due process and Bill of Rights protections in the Constitution.\u201d But the Senate bill only requires a hearing in which you have the right to know the opposing evidence and can confront adverse witnesses\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.murphy.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/bipartisan_safer_communities_act_text.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">after<\/a>\u00a0your guns are <em>already <\/em>taken away.<\/p>\n<p>These laws are virtually always used to prevent suicide. Yet when people pose a clear danger to themselves or to others, they should be confined to a mental health facility. If someone is really suicidal, simply taking away his gun won\u2019t solve the problem anyway. There are too many ways for people to kill themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If anything, \u201cred flag\u201d laws harm people who need genuine help. Absent such laws, a person contemplating suicide might speak to a friend or family member and be dissuaded from that tragic course of action. With these laws in place, individuals may fear that confiding in someone will result in a report to the authorities, possibly leading to the loss of their ability to defend themselves or their loved ones. Indeed, my research with Professor Carl Moody at the College of William and Mary found these laws\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3316573\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slightly increase suicide rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>More funding for mental health is fine, but don\u2019t expect it to stop mass public shootings. <a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Mass-Public-Shooting_US_1998-to-May-2022.xlsx\">Over half<\/a> of those committing mass public shootings in the last 25 years saw mental health care professionals before their attack. Yet in not one single case were these mental health professionals able to identify these murderers as a danger to themselves or others.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the Buffalo mass murderer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/accused-buffalo-shooter-was-released-deemed-not-a-danger-in-mental-health-evaluation-last-year-11652960576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">underwent a mental health evaluation<\/a>\u00a0last year after threatening to shoot up a school and then kill himself, but he was released when he told the mental health professionals he was merely joking. So unless someone is stupid and says he is serious about committing a threatened crime, it is possible to evade detection by mental health professionals.<\/p>\n<p>So what do you do if you can\u2019t identify who these mass murderers are in advance? Completely ignored in the bill is any discussion of gun-free zones. While\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2022\/05\/another-school-shooting-in-a-place-where-teachers-and-staff-were-banned-from-carrying-guns-robb-elementary-school-in-the-uvalde-texas-cisd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">30 percent of the schools in Texas<\/a>\u00a0have armed teachers and staff,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2022\/05\/another-school-shooting-in-a-place-where-teachers-and-staff-were-banned-from-carrying-guns-robb-elementary-school-in-the-uvalde-texas-cisd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas b<\/a>anned guns. The Tulsa, Oklahoma hospital shooting was another gun-free zone. The Buffalo shooting wrote in his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2022\/05\/new-york-mass-public-shooter-explicitly-targeted-areas-where-ccw-are-outlawed-or-prohibited-may-be-good-areas-of-attack-areas-with-strict-gun-laws-are-also-great-places-of-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">manifesto<\/a>: \u201cAreas where\u201d carrying with a concealed weapon \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2022\/05\/new-york-mass-public-shooter-explicitly-targeted-areas-where-ccw-are-outlawed-or-prohibited-may-be-good-areas-of-attack-areas-with-strict-gun-laws-are-also-great-places-of-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">are outlawed or prohibited may be good areas of attack<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nor are those cases unique.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2022\/05\/breaking-down-mass-public-shooting-data-from-1998-through-may-2022-info-on-weapons-used-gun-free-zones-racial-age-and-gender-demographics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ninety-six percent<\/a>\u00a0of all the mass public shootings occur in places where guns are banned. These murderers might be crazy, but they aren\u2019t stupid. They know that the more people they kill, the more media attention they can get, and if they go to a place where people can\u2019t defend themselves, they can kill more people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some people mistakenly think that if you ban guns from areas, you make them safer. But gun-free zones serve as magnets for attacks. The murderers depend on the victims being defenseless.<\/p>\n<p>The National Rifle Association has \u201ca membership and a business model that will not allow them to support any legislation,\u201d Cornyn claimed. \u201cAnd so I understand where they\u2019re coming from, but I think most people will not allow any outside group to veto good public policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is well past time that we address these mass public shootings. But, unfortunately, too many Republicans are more concerned about \u201cdoing something\u201d than fighting to do something that makes things better. Let\u2019s come up with proposals that matter, starting with eliminating \u201cgun-free zones.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  John R. Lott, Jr. is the president of the <a href=\"http:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/\">Crime Prevention Research Center<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senators are billing the\u00a0new Senate gun control legislation\u00a0as a bipartisan breakthrough that will make Americans safer. \u201cOur legislation will save lives and will not infringe on any law-abiding American\u2019s Second<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1527499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1527499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1527499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1527499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1527499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}