James M. Trice lives in Concord.
An article in the New York Times caught my attention recently, about the TSA intercepting guns at a record pace.
To date this year, more than 4,600 guns have been found at airport checkpoints. In 2021 a record number of guns (nearly 6,000) at airport checkpoints were discovered. The number of guns found at these security sites has been trending upward for more than a decade.
Astonishingly 87% of the guns found in 2022 at these checkpoints were loaded. Thatโs more than 4,000 loaded guns.
A director for federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, a gun rights group, commented that these folks were in a stressed state and might not have been thinking about the location of their guns. What an extraordinary statement.ย So the stress of traveling resulted in these people forgetting they were carrying a gun, and 87% of these guns were loaded.
Being curious, I searched forย examples or lists of major life stressors โ death of a loved one, serious injury, chronic illness, divorce, and job loss were examples that I found consistently. Plane travel did not appear on any list of major life stressors that I could find. We have all seen the tragic consequences of the toxic stew of someone with a loaded gun who is dealing with a major cataclysmic life event.
And what about the economic burden of gun ownership?ย The revenue for tourism in the U.S.ย was (pre-pandemic) nearly $2 trillion dollars per year, according to data from Yahoo Finance. In the last several years I have heard a number of potential tourists opt to skip coming to our country specifically because of concerns for their personal safety. A mere 10% less revenue from tourism equals $200 billion dollars of revenue lost which would support jobs in multiple industries.
There is additionally a significant economic burden from gun related injuries. An entire edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association was published on September 27th devoted to the public health crisis related to firearms.
One article by Z. Song of Harvard Medical School found that the economic toll of firearm related injuries totals $557 billion dollars annually. This represents 2.6% of gross domestic product, 85% of which is attributable to quality of life losses among those injured and among families (original data courtesy of Everytown Research and Policy). Workers who survive firearm injuries experience a 40% increase in pain, a 51% increase in-psychiatric disorders and an 85% increase in substance abuse disorders.
How did we arrive at this juncture? Shannon Watts the founder of Moms Demand Action a gun safety group summarized the current landscape well, sayingย โthis is the logical result of record gun sales and policies that encourage guns anywhere, for anyone no questions asked.”
Mass shootings have occurred at many public venues, such asย movie theaters, concerts, supermarkets, churches, synagogues, and most tragically at public schools. Very recently a mass shooting took place at a shopping mall. The assailant was then shot dead by someone else shopping at the mall. Do people carry loaded weapons into public places to defend themselves on the off chance that there might be a person set on committing a mass murder?
This is so sad. I was born and raised here and I, like many of you, married and had children and am now blessed with grandchildren. We need to do better so that our families can be safe and not live in fear. Speak clearly and consistently for a safe and sane society.
Meaningful gun safety laws are urgently needed. My fervent hope is as the adage says: that the pen will prove mightier than the sword (or gun.)