“Among whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are suicides,” washingtonpost.com reports. “But among black Americans, 82 percent of gun deaths are homicides.” Wonkblogger Christopher Ingraham warms up to his analysis of the stats by pimping gun control: “The traditional understanding is that there’s one overarching problem — gun violence — that can be addressed by a more or less uniform set of solutions: better background checks, improved technology, etc. This approach makes a lot of sense.” And then reaches the appropriate conclusion . . .
Gun rights advocates often correctly point out that gun violence springs from many different sources: Suicide among older white males in the heartland is a fundamentally different issue than homicide among young black men in urban areas. This observation suggests that bringing down gun deaths would require a multi-pronged public policy approach rather than a monolithic one-size-fits-all package.
To paraphrase the Chairman of the Board (and his daughter), and then Ingraham goes and blows it all by saying something stupid like I love you, pro gun control pols.
But the debate over gun violence has become so polarizing that many lawmakers — particularly at the federal level — have simply done nothing.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s a whole hell of a lot better than what “many lawmakers” want to do about “gun violence.” Checks and balances baby. Checks and balances.