Let’s Commit to Lowering Gun Deaths by 50 Percent in Ten Years, Will The Parkland Students’ Proposals Help?  —  A Report Card

By Trevor Burrus Trevor Burrus

The “March for Our Lives” brought hundreds of thousands of
people to the National Mall to protest gun violence. It was an
understandably emotional and evocative event that hopefully can
spur a constructive discussion about what to do about the problem.
As someone who has studied gun violence for more than 10 years, a
productive discussion would be a welcome change from the yelling
and shouting that typically accompanies the gun debate. The kids
have spoken, and I applaud them for their passion and effective
activism. Now it’s time for the adults to talk about what to
do.

America is a great nation that, when it buckles down and stops
bickering, can do great things. In 1961, President Kennedy
committed the country to putting a man on the moon before the
decade was out. So let’s make a similar pledge: let’s commit
ourselves to lowering American gun deaths-meaning both homicides
and suicides-by 50 percent in the next ten years. Like the moon
landing, we will employ the best thinkers on this issue and
instruct them to doggedly pursue the task at hand.

Every thinker we put to this task will tell us the same thing:
don’t focus on mass shootings and “assault weapons,” focus on
inner-city violence and suicides of middle-aged men. Fifty percent
of gun deaths equates to roughly …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute