The Liberal Gun Owners Association latest editorial in the the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open ... 951235.php
(full text below)
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San Francisco Chronicle
What Saturdays gun buyback does — nothing
By Eric Wooten
December 11, 2014
San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles are among the California cities that will conduct gun buyback programs Saturday. You might want to plug your ears, lest you be deafened by the sound of the collective backslapping of politicians congratulating themselves for doing something about gun violence.
Except that gun buybacks are not only largely meaningless, they are actually dangerous. They do absolutely nothing to address the underlying issues of violence in our society. They do, however, offer a great photo opportunity for politicians.
But after the last photo is snapped and the last tweet tweeted, the entrenched inequities and other societal problems that cause violence still will be left unaddressed.
Oakland still will have an unemployment rate twice that of San Francisco. An unwinnable and inherently biased War on Drugs still will be largely confined to communities of color. Huge disparities still will exist in the graduation rates between poor and affluent students.
But politicians will applaud the fact that a few dozen guns were sent to the smelter.
What you won’t hear from those supporting this gun buyback is that the number of guns netted is probably less than the number of guns legally bought in the greater Bay Area in just the few hours it took to hold the buyback.
There are more than 300 million guns in the hands of Americans and thousands more are sold every day.
Even if Saturday’s buyback nets a truckload of guns (which it won’t), there still will be nearly as many guns as Americans.
But take heart; society is safe even with more guns in the hands of private citizens than at any time in history.
According to records kept by the FBI, today’s homicide rate is at a 50-year low.
Let that sink in. You had a better chance of being murdered after seeing a Dean Martin concert than after a Jay Z concert.
And while homicide rates have steadily declined since the 1990s, that decline dramatically slowed around the turn of the millennium. Interestingly though, the murder rate made significant declines once the federal Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004. Murders are not correlated to the number of guns in the hands of law-abiding gun owners.
If we want to reduce violence, then the effort spent on Saturday’s gun buyback would be far better focused on education or other social programs aimed at improving equality of opportunity.
But if the goal is to provide San Franciscans an expeditious façade that temporarily blocks their view of real problems of discrimination, gentrification and other inequities, then this gun buyback is money well spent.
Eric Wooten is president of the Liberal Gun Owners Association (lgoa.org). He spent a decade in Sacramento fighting for reproductive freedoms, consumer safeguards, worker rights, environmental protections and other lefty causes. He would be remiss if he didn’t mention that government-sponsored gun “buyback” is a misnomer, since the government never owned those guns in the first place.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
3Hmm. Won't let me access the page without being a paid subscriber?
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
4It's letting me as an unpaid guest. You might want to try on another device or clear your cookies. The paywall on the Chronicle is a new thing.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
6Hum. Tried on three devices. Damned paywalls.senorgrand wrote:It's letting me as an unpaid guest. You might want to try on another device or clear your cookies. The paywall on the Chronicle is a new thing.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
7Well, he reprinted it there in the OP
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
8Yeah, was hoping to be able to comment on the actual article though. The Editorial is predictably awesome as that's just how SG rolls.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
9They must have put the paywall in recently. One reason I kept frequenting the Chronicle is because it was the last good paper in CA without a paywall.
Sigh
Thanks for the kind comments shinzen!
Sigh
Thanks for the kind comments shinzen!
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
10Thank you SG!
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
11Seems like we might be having a good press day. Nice.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
12I edited the bloggity blog to include the text of the op-ed. Because damn paywalls.SmokeFan wrote:Yo. Bloggity blog.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
13Thanks for the anti-paywall measures. Shared.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
14I re-twitted it, because I am all excited to have opened a twit account.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
16BTW...we are getting some new email subscribers to LGOA. Hopefully that will translate into more people here too.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
17Tweeted and posted on G+ and that social media site people's grandparents use.
sbɐɯ ʎʇıɔɐdɐɔ pɹɐpuɐʇs ɟo ןןnɟ ǝɟɐs
ɯɯ6 bdd ɹǝɥʇןɐʍ
13ʞ
"ǝuıqɹɐɔ 1ɐ4ɯ" dɯɐʇsןןoɹ --- ɯoɔos0269ǝן ʇןoɔ
"ǝuıqɹɐɔ ʇuǝɯǝɔɹoɟuǝ ʍɐן sʇןoɔ" dɯɐʇsןןoɹ --- 0269ǝן ʇןoɔ
(béɟ) 59-pɯɐ
ɯɯ6 bdd ɹǝɥʇןɐʍ
13ʞ
"ǝuıqɹɐɔ 1ɐ4ɯ" dɯɐʇsןןoɹ --- ɯoɔos0269ǝן ʇןoɔ
"ǝuıqɹɐɔ ʇuǝɯǝɔɹoɟuǝ ʍɐן sʇןoɔ" dɯɐʇsןןoɹ --- 0269ǝן ʇןoɔ
(béɟ) 59-pɯɐ
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
18Sent a press release out to about 200 contacts in the California press. Let you know if anything else comes of it.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
19Josh Richman at the San Jose Mercury News will cover. Our old friend Carla at the Chronicle will tweet it on her political blog.
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
20Good job Senorgrand. Yeah SFgate has that paywall now. Don't news papers know they should follow the WSJ policy? Free-to-read op eds at least!
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
21Chronicle is still growing into the paywall thing...they may open up the opinion page (as many papers do).
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
22Josh posted it on his blog: http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2014/12 ... -saturday/
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
23Sweet. The voice of reasonable opposition. Nice work man!
Re: San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: PLEASE READ & SHARE!!
25Inquisitor wrote:Seems like we might be having a good press day. Nice.
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