Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, West Virginia and Alaska are part of a growing list of states that have opened vaccine registrations to all adults. Utah opens to everyone today. Tennessee opens to all adults on April 5.
It is extraordinary how quickly distribution has changed from a few weeks ago when seniors could not find vaccines. Soon, nearly anyone will be able to.
On Friday, North Carolina will join states that have lifted restrictions on gatherings, restaurants and bars.
Is it true that an assault weapons ban reduces mass killings?
A judge in Boulder, Colorado, blocked an assault weapons ban 10 days before a man with what is believed to be an AR-556 assault weapon killed 10 people at a Boulder grocery store. The city banned assault weapons in 2018 but Boulder County District Court Judge Andrew Hartman wrote that the court found “only Colorado state (or federal) law can prohibit the possession, sale and transfer of assault weapons and large capacity magazines.”
The city of Boulder also banned ammunition magazines capable of accepting more than 10 rounds, which is stricter than the state of Colorado’s limit of 15-round magazines.
The judge said if cities could enact their own bans, it “could create a ripple effect across the state by encouraging other municipalities to enact their own bans, ultimately leading to a statewide de facto ban or to a patchwork of municipal laws regulating assault weapons and (large capacity magazines).”
President Biden is asking Congress to pass a national ban on assault weapons because he says a previous ban, which he sponsored, “worked” in reducing mass killings.
Here is how the ban in 1994 worked, from a Justice Department summary:
Title XI, Subtitle A of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 imposed a 10-year ban on the “manufacture, transfer, and possession” of certain semiautomatic firearms designated as assault weapons (AWs). The ban is directed at semiautomatic firearms having features that appear useful in military and criminal applications but unnecessary in shooting sports or self-defense (examples include flash hiders, folding rifle stocks, and threaded barrels for attaching silencers).
The law banned 18 models and variations by name, as well as revolving cylinder shotguns. It also has a “features test” provision banning other semiautomatics having two or more military-style features. In sum, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has identified 118 models and variations that are prohibited by the law. A number of the banned guns are foreign semiautomatic rifles that have been banned from importation into the U.S. since 1989.
The ban included large-capacity magazines, which means feeders that hold multiple rounds, usually defined as 10 rounds or more. Some states now have more strict standards.
Here is where the assault weapon ban will run into problems. The 1994 ban exempted the more than 1.5 million “assault rifles” that were already in circulation. Since that ban expired, one of the weapons that would have been covered has grown to become the most popular rifle sold in the United States — the AR-15 style rifle. Any exemption of existing weapons would mean that millions of assault weapons would remain legal, and there are maybe hundreds of millions of large-capacity magazines in the hands of private owners.
The other point that an assault weapon ban misses is that AR-15s are not the most commonly used weapon in crimes. Pistols are. It was true in 1994 and is still true. In 1994, the DOJ said assault weapons were used in 2% to 8% of gun crimes but that large-capacity magazines were used in 14% to 26% of gun crimes.
Then evidence that the assault weapons ban led directly to a lower gun crime rate is not as clear as President Biden says. The DOJ found that people started using different kinds of weapons rather than bulky rifles, particularly pistols with large-capacity magazines. The DOJ’s report puts it this way:
Should it be renewed, the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. Assault weapons were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban. Large capacity magazines are involved in a more substantial share of gun crimes, but it is not clear how often the outcomes of gun attacks depend on the ability of offenders to fire more than ten shots (the current magazine capacity limit) without reloading.
Nonetheless, reducing criminal use of assault weapons and especially large capacity magazines could have nontrivial effects on gunshot victimizations.
Gun advocates are sensitive to the phrase “assault weapon,” which they point out is a reference to a military rifle that can be either automatic or semi-automatic. That is true. But when the federal statute defined “assault weapons” as having unique qualities described above, the phrase took on a new meaning beyond the pure military definition. Journalists should understand that people who own these rifles now commonly call them “sporting rifles” because the phrase is less controversial, but it is also true that they are incredibly accurate at long distances and can be used in target sports as well as hunting.
“60 Minutes” did an exceptionally good job explaining why the AR-15 is so devastatingly injurious.
Journalists, be alert to the references to mental illness and mass killers
Family members told reporters that the man who was arrested in the Boulder shootings has a history of mental illness. While that may turn out to be accurate and important, it is also important that journalists keep something in context: People who suffer from mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence than to be violent themselves.
A National Crime Victimization Survey interviewed 936 patients with “chronic and severe mental illnesses.” Among them, “more than one quarter … had been victims of a violent crime in the past year, a rate more than 11 times higher than the general population.”
Of course, the general description of “mental illness” can refer to anything from mild depression to extreme psychosis. It is analogous to saying a person is “sick,” which could describe everything from a cold to cancer.
And just describing somebody as having symptoms of mental illness do not give us enough information to know if the person is receiving care and/or medication, which can be vitally important.
Researchers Jonathan M. Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish wrote in 2015:
Connections between mental illness and gun violence are less causal and more complex than current US public opinion and legislative action allow. US gun rights advocates are fond of the phrase “guns don’t kill people, people do.”
Neither guns nor people exist in isolation from social or historical influences. A growing body of data reveals that US gun crime happens when guns and people come together in particular, destructive ways. That is to say, gun violence in all its forms has a social context, and that context is not something that “mental illness” can describe nor that mental health practitioners can be expected to address in isolation.
Researchers do point to a definitive connection between mental illness and gun deaths in one way: suicides. Keep in mind that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more Americans die by using guns in suicide than die by criminal gunfire. Researchers say:
Media accounts of mass shootings by disturbed individuals galvanize public attention and reinforce popular belief that mental illness often results in violence. Epidemiologic studies show that the large majority of people with serious mental illnesses are never violent. However, mental illness is strongly associated with increased risk of suicide, which accounts for over half of US firearms–related fatalities.
Post-pandemic airfares are really low and rising fast
