Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

University Union holds forum on gun control

(Gretchen Keller/ Daily Collegian)

The University Union at the University of Massachusetts Amherst held a small forum on the topic of gun control Wednesday night in Herter Hall.

The forum’s speakers included Leah Libresco, a journalist and statistician, and Dr. Akhil Amar, a professor at Yale Law School, considered to be one of America’s leading interpreters of the Constitution, according to the event’s webpage. They were invited by the president of the University Union, Mostapha Massaee, a junior biology student.

“I’m an absent-minded professor,” Dr. Amar joked when he realized he forgot a visual aid he meant to bring to the event. The joking tone quickly faded as the event progressed. Amar opened saying that he lives one town over from Newtown, Connecticut, home of the infamous Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. He was out driving the day of the shooting. As Amar waited in his traffic jammed car, he turned on the radio. That’s when he heard the news.

“They’re talking about this horrible gun incident at a school. They’re not naming the school. And I’m thinking, is it my kid’s school?” said Amar.

It wasn’t his child’s school, but one of the victims, a seven-year-old girl, who was tutored by the same man who tutors Amar’s children.

Despite his proximity to the tragedy of Sandy Hook, Amar, who identifies as a liberal, does not bear a fully anti-gun sentiment. “I believe, for better or for worse, there is a right to have a gun in your home for protection,” he said.

Amar repeatedly stated that there needs to be understanding on the reasons people want their guns and that understanding is key to making progress on gun control. And by control, Amar does not mean a ban on all firearms in the United States. Even if a ban was successful, according to Amar, the process of authorities acquiring all the firearms in the U.S. “would make Prohibition look like a walk in the park.”

As a journalist, Libresco worked on an article with FiveThirtyEight, a website that focuses on polls and statistics, to discuss the issues of gun control.

“We ran into the problem horrifyingly often where there would be sudden breaking news of a mass shooting,” she said. Instead of reactionary news, FiveThirtyEight decided to do a more in-depth piece on gun violence. Libresco and her team went to work.

“We took a look at the CDC’s data on gun deaths. There are 33,000 gun deaths per year in the United States,” Libresco said.

According to her report, of those 33,000 deaths, two-thirds are suicides. Of these suicides, 85 percent are male, and half of those men are over 45. One third of the 33,000 are homicides. Half of those homicides are young men. Two-thirds of those young men were African American. The remaining deaths are attributed to domestic violence, and finally, mass shootings.

“My ignorance about guns was a really big stumbling block to wanting to do anything about guns,” said Libresco. “For me guns were hypothetical. I’ve never held a gun, until I went to college.”

According to both her and Amar, a lack of understanding of firearms by the left has made it more difficult to create proper gun control laws. The “assault weapons” ban was used as an example.

“I learned that ‘assault weapons’ are not a real category in any sense,” said Libresco. “What an ‘assault weapon’ is, is a gun that has too many features bolted to it at point of sale. This loose term meant the ban was largely ineffective, as people could just by the features somewhere else and install them themselves.”

“It’s a real problem when politicians do it [speak with ignorance on guns] because they are alienating people and spreading fake information,” Libresco said.

After the speakers finished, there were very few questions as students exited the room. Despite the lack of discussion, Massaee, who helped organize the event, was positive.

“I thought the event was very productive and worth attending. As a student, I had the opportunity to hear the opinion of two academics approaching the controversial topic of gun control,” said Massaee.

Jon Decker can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jon_H_Decker.

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    Gene RalnoNov 30, 2017 at 10:42 am

    Last I checked more than 60 percent already reciprocate and another 20 percent reciprocate with limits. Even California allows certain firearms to be transported through as long as they’re in locked containers in the trunk and separated from ammunition. Starting in 1934 with the first of four federal laws, leftists began infringing on constitutional guarantees to the states by banning military weapons. They extended federal infringements on the states in 1968 by requiring dealers to be licensed by the federal government. In 1986, leftists banned machine guns. In 1993, leftists forced the NICS system on the states.

    In spite of all these prohibitions and so called “protections,”, the caterwauling actually has increased. Perhaps it’s time to allow universal self protection with force equivalent to the bad guys. Some day, our great nation may wake up and realize that the federal government never should have tinkered with the 2nd Amendment. Not only was it another federal overreach but as usual, the feds screwed it up. Nuts, felons, terrorists, illegal aliens, drug dealers, et al., never would have stood a chance if they faced an armed and angry public.

    Perhaps too, it’s time to ask yourself why leftists go to such extremes when they know firearms owners won’t tolerate confiscation without unimaginable fury? Fact is leftists will temporarily settle for little laws that deal with little things like magazine size, ammunition taxes, license fees, sound suppressors, bullet shapes and on and on. Eventually they’ll get around to universal registration again. They need universal registration because it fundamentally transforms a hundred million owners into dependents. Once they know who the owners are, they’ll choose which of them are allowed to be licensed. It’s the consummate entitlement. The democrat party cannot survive without more than half the nation being dependent on the government. Entitlements earn votes for leftists who dispense them.

    The leftist dream of peace in our time extends beyond the U.S. and is dependent on total elimination of firearms from the entire planet. That’s some impossible dream. Voters should open their minds to the fact that the U.S. is very lucky to have a hundred million armed citizens with 400 million firearms in private hands. These people need to look at our open borders, colossal drug trade, ineffective law enforcement, lame prosecution, limited incarcerations, gang strength, mental defectives living at home and terrorists roaming the streets. Can anyone even imagine the unbridled carnage if the leftist goal of total confiscation were to be achieved? Think about it the next time a democrat only wants to discuss the issue.

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    Dan GordonNov 30, 2017 at 7:01 am

    Good article but one correction: There were many questions at the end, There were so many who wished to ask questions that we ran out of time. The author of the article was sitting in the front and asked two questions himself From the front he was perhaps not able to see the many others with their hands up behind him.

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    GeorgeNov 30, 2017 at 1:35 am

    Wow that is a very shocking perspective from a liberal like Akhil Amar.

    Reply