Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / Nov. 13, 2018, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE BLUE BANNER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SARAH SHADBURNE SSHADBUR(>>^UNCA.EDU NEWS EDITOR MAGGIE HADDOCK MHADDOCK(i''UNCA.EDU ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR LAURA BROWNE LBROWN[:Xo'),UNCA,LDU ARTS a FEATURES EDITOR TAYLOR SEXTON TSEXTON@UNCA.EDU ASSISTANT A8F EDITOR MADDY SHERER MSHERER1@UNCA.EDU ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR PEYTON RODGERS PRODGERS@UNCA.EDU ADVERTISING MANAGER VIRGINIA TAYLOR VTAYLOR@UNCA.EDU ASST. ADVERTISING MANAGER LONDON NEWTON LNEWT0N2@UNCA.EDU PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR EMMA JORDAN EJORDAN^x^UNCA.EDU COPY DESK CHIEF BRAILEY SHERIDAN BSHERIDAt>'UNCA.EDU MULTIMEDIA EDITOR LAWSON RUDISILL LRUDISIL@UNCA.EDU FACULTY ADVISER MICHAEL GOUGE MGOUGE@UNCA.EDU The Blue Banner is UNO Asheville’s student newspaper. We publish each Tuesday except during summer ses sions, finals week and holiday breaks. Our office is in Karpen 019. The Blue Banner is a designated forum for free speech and welcomes letters to the editor, considering them on the basis of interest, space and timeliness. Letters and articles should be emailed to the editor-in-chief or to the appropriate section editor. Letters should include the writer’s name, year in school and major, or other relation ship to UNCA. Include a phone number to aid in verification. All articles are subject to editing. EDITDRIAL THE ROOT OF GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US CONTINUES TO GO OVERLOOKED MAGGIE HADDOCK News Editor mhaddock@unca.edu The Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27 and the Thousand Oaks shooting last Wednesday left 24 dead in total. Three weeks apart, these two incidents were not anomalous. They were just two of the 308 mass shootings this year, separated by 11 mass shootings in between them, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Some, like Roger Gilmore in this weeks Letter to the Editor, propose the presence of at least one armed guard at every place civilians gather — places of worship, nightclubs and so on — will turn these otherwise soft targets into fully equipped, safe places. In shootings like the one at the Tree of Life synagogue, alleged shooter Robert Bowers used an AR-15 as one of his weapons. Seemingly, a handgun carried by a single armed security guard could not deliver the necessary impact to stop a mass killer with an assault rifle. Even in the case of the Thousand Oaks nightclub, the probability of one guard defending a full club before the shooter attacked seems improbable. Now in particular, we ask: Could gun reform fix the problem? Gun reform proposed as a full ban of this weaponry would not remedy the is sue, as banning any accessible thing only makes room to defy its absence. The Second Amendment includes the right to bear arms, but these rights are not hindered unjustly by the proper precautions. Stricter background checks and investigating previous violent or suspicious activity could decrease the number of gun crimes each year. But as Gilmore poses, criminals will always find a way to access guns, regardless of bans. This is true, but acts of senseless violence by mass shooters quickly find space to be demon ized as the likely demographic of suspects — criminals who have illegally obtained weapons. The Violence Policy Center has identified 32 concealed handgun permit owners responsible for mass shootings since 2007. In the case of the Thousand Oaks shoot ing, alleged shooter Ian David Long was cited with having post-traumatic stress disorder. The Sidran Institute estimates that 20 percent of adults who have experienced significant trauma suffer from PTSD, and not all of those diag nosed commit acts of violence. Assuming every mass shooter suffers from mental illness only further isolates the already stigmatized popu lation of those struggling with mental health, those who never commit acts of murder in their lifetime. Until we address the bigotry behind mas sacres like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, or other acts of violence such as the 12,588 that have been killed in 2018 by some form of gun use, according to the Gun Violence Archive, we do not make the arguments for more effective gun reform. Instead, we wander aimlessly and argue nothing can be done as school children, those who worship and those who socialize fall victim to the crimes by white American men who legally obtain weapons not with the inten tion to defend, but with the intention to kill. ADDITIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON GUN VIOLENCE PAGE 15
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