USA TODAY Dec. 29, 1993 page 1A 200 million guns can't be ignored by Tony Mauro The USA can no longer ignore guns. Until now, it was easy for a large slice of the nation to grow up never knowing about guns, never handling guns, never thinking about guns. Another part of the nation never thought much about guns because they were as common as broomsticks 컴 part of growing up, working, playing, serving in the military. But today in the USA 컴 land of more than 200 million guns and 12,489 handgun murders last year 컴 the issue finally has crossed the cultural divide. A consensus has formed that something must be done to reduce the availability of guns. On every street corner, at the workplace, in the classroom. It is a consensus formed of fear. The longtime lure of guns in this country has brought us to a place where, even in our mostly urban society, half of all households contain a gun, where gun and gun crimes have become so common that a new language has been created to define them: drive-by shooting, carjacking, street sweepers. If guns have changed our vocabulary, they have altered our lives even more. On New Year's Day, a new attraction will flick on in New York City's Times Square 컴 a "death-clock" counting the number of people killed by guns in the USA. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, no longer will sell handguns over the counter. Midnight Mass was held hours early in some churches Christmas Eve because of fear. And guns have triggered seemingly contradictory desires: for more gun control 컴컴 and for more guns. Gun sales are skyrocketing, but so are the poll numbers in favor of gun control, hovering close to 90%. The response of the political system has been similarly divided. As urgent as the crisis is, there is still disagreement over how we got where we are with guns 컴 and whether guns are only a misleading symbol of society's deeper problems. "Gun control is a case where things almost seem to be out of whack," says Everett Ladd, head of the Roper Center for Public Opinion. It is very rare, Ladd says, to find such clear public demand for action 컴 and so little action to show for it. "The public is leading the politicians," he says. One example: the Brady Bill's five-day waiting period for gun purchases has had near-unanimous public support since 1988, but it was not until this year that Congress passed it. The debate over guns, says Florida State University's Gary Kleck, has always been a "dialogue of the deaf" 컴 both sides certain of their positions, certain the other side is wrong. Both sides have been unwilling to listen, until now. There is a new sense that a saturation point has been reached: .One child is killed with a firearm every six hours. .One handgun is produced every 20 seconds, and a handgun injures someone every 20 seconds. .A suicide by firearms takes place every 28 minutes, 20 seconds. .More than one-third of Americans have [a] friend or relative who has been shot, recent polls show. "Anything else we do is useless until we get the guns off the streets," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino at Monday's funeral of a boy shot on his way to an anti-gang meeting. "All they've got to do is read the paper and they think, 'My God, there but for the grace of God goes me,'" says Sgt. Robert Hoelscher of the Metro Dade Police Department in Miami. "People feel defenseless." The crisis seems sudden to many, but has evolved over more than two centuries 컴 in a country conceived in revolution, born with a skepticism of government, and carved out of a vast and threatening frontier. "The great object is that every man be armed," said Patrick Henry, the patriot orator, during debates over the Constitution in 1788. "The militia, sir, is our ultimate safety." That belief was memorialized in the Second Amendment, which figures in the debate even today. "The nation was born in violent revolution," says Independence Institute scholar David Kopel. "You can't say from our history that violence is always wrong." The USA's beginning gives context to the commonness of guns today. In many parts of the country, guns always were a part of home life; owning one poses no moral dilemma, teaching a child to use one, no sin. But elsewhere, guns are decidedly foreign objects. In the newsroom of USA TODAY, for example, which prides itself on drawing its staff from a cross-section of the nation, it was hard to find editors and reporters who had ever pulled a trigger. In other workplaces, it would be difficult to find anyone who hadn't. "The real gulf between points of view is geographic, not necessarily political," says Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. "If you're from a rural area or the far West, your gun takes on an almost theological significance." How did the common experience with guns turn sour in so many places? Pick from a host of social trends: rootlessness, drugs, a detachment from society, media violence, breakup of the family. "Why is it that people are carrying weapons?" asks Thomas Blomberg, professor of criminology at Florida State University. "Why are people able to pull the trigger and shoot someone in the face and walk away? We do have people in this society who have nothing to lose." Says the Rev. Robert Drinan, a Georgetown law professor: "There's a streak of violence among us that is deep. It's there, like the Rocky Mountains. No other civilized nation is like us." For many young men, new rites of passage have evolved, and they include guns. "It used to be beer or a cigarette or sex that kids would use to mark their entry into to manhood," says sociologist Edward Peeples of Virginia Commonwealth University. "Now they've got to tote a piece. Our culture is developing new ways of being a man." And as this happened, guns became ever so much more powerful and available. The National Rifle Association says the proliferation of guns saves lives because they're used for self-defense. How often? Figures range from thousands of times a year to millions of times. But many claim availability only adds to the danger. "If you have a family violence situation ... having a gun in the house is like pouring kerosene on the fire," says Paul Mones, a lawyer who has defended children accused of murder. "And what we've seen recently is the proliferation of more powerful weapons. It's amazing how much easier it is to kill people when you can shoot 15 rounds in seconds." Says psychologist Stanley Samenow, "A lot of shootings that occur, including domestic shootings, happen because you have a gun lying around ... Most people get mad, some people get really mad but if they don't have a gun handy they handle it another way." Guns have taken on a new role in society: problem solver. "There was a time when conflict would end with people being the best of friends, and it just doesn't work that way anymore," says Clementine Barfield of Detroit, who founded the group Save Our Sons and Daughters after her son, Derrick, was shot and killed at 16. The national sense that guns have reached a toxic level has given gun control advocates more hope than ever that something will be done to restrict access to guns. In the wake of the passage of the Brady Bill, President Clinton has asked Attorney General Janet Reno to devise a proposal for some form of national registration of firearms. Reno's mantra 컴 "It should be at least as hard to get a license to possess a gun as it is to drive an automobile" 컴 is meeting less opposition than ever before. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., thinks the time is now. "We've got a real shot at beginning to make some progress on this," Schroeder says. "The public is saying, for the first time, 'It's violence, stupid,' to policy makers." But some fear the public's resolve will fade again. Through history, Congress has enacted gun control legislation almost every 30 years, with little action in between. "We've been up this road before," says law professor Drinan, a former member of Congress. "I remember thinking in 1981 when President Reagan was shot and the pope was shot, that now the two most important people in the world have been shot, something will happen. "And nothing did." 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � Deaths due to guns � � A breakdown of the reasons for 1991's 38,317 firearm deaths � � in the USA: � � Suicide: 18,526 � � Homicides: 17,746 � � Accidents: 1,441 � � Unknown/other: 604 � � � � Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention � 쳐컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � Handguns and homicides � � Handguns were used in 55.4% of all homicides in 1992, � � up from 43.5% in 1982: � � � � [line graph plots all homicides vs. handgun homicides] � � 1982 1992 � � All homicides: ~ 19,500 22,540 � � Handgun homicides ~ 9,000 12,489 � 쳐컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � � Youths killed in handgun homicides (under age 18) � � � � 1986: 602 � � 1988: 812 � � 1990: 1,362 � � 1992: 1,468 � � � � Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � Common target: Young black males � � Young black males are 10 times more likely than white males � � to be a firearm homicide victim. Firearm homicides per 100,000 � � in the 15-19 age group: � � � � Black males 같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같� 105.3 � � Black females 같같같 10.4 � � White males 같같� 9.7 � � White females � 2.0 � � � � Source: Centers for Disease Control, 1990 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� [end]