Guns

In Alameda County, one of the biggest contributing factors to its high homicide count is the spread of guns. In Oakland, where the majority of Alameda County's homicides occur, 91 percent of the homicides last year involved guns.

My feature story "Accepting Defeat" follows the history of gun legislation in California and Alameda County from 1968 until the present, where it has come up against a brick wall. I also spoke with students involved in Youth Alive, all of whom are residents of neighborhoods in Oakland with the highest homicide rates. None of them are older than 17, and all of them said that they had easy access to guns.

The story is posted in the Features section; please watch and comment.

-- Kevin Jones, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism 

Here's a useful resource to keep up on gun news: GunPolicy.org. Every day, it gathers all the news about small arms, including handguns, from news organizations around the world in a service that promises "Daily gun news, gun control news, small arms policy and firearm violence prevention news from global media." You can have the daily headlines sent to you by email, or take an RSS feed. And, you can search through dozens of categories, from "Firearms in Japan" to "Stray Bullet, Gun Death & Injury."

Here's the link for GunPolicy.org. And for the two categories mentioned: "Firearms in Japan" to "Stray Bullet, Gun Death & Injury." (There's something hinky with this blog, so that we can't put hyperlinks in the first paragraph.)

Gunpolicy.org's home page

That's where I discovered yesterday's USA Today editorial, "Our view of gun restrictions: keep parks free of firearms."

The National Park Service requires that all guns taken into the park be unloaded and kept out of sight. It's been that way from the day the park service was formed, according to the editorial. Now, it appears that the National Rifle Association wants a review of that policy, and is lobbying for people to be able to carry loaded guns.

The park rangers don't want people to carry guns. They know what violence epidemiologists have shown through research, and what Oakland residents have known for years: in many places, more guns often means more injury and death.

According to the editorial, the NRA thinks people should be able to protect themselves from violent people and animals. There are few violent people in the parks (the editorial cites 11 homicides among 273 million visitors in 2006, while Washington, D.C., with a population of about 600,000 had 181 homicides in 2007), and the park rangers say that people aren't a great judge of whether a bear's getting ready to attack or is just standing up to get a better view. The editorial goes on to provide an anecdote:

"That very scenario played out at the Lodgepole Campground in California's Sequoia National Park when Doug Morris was chief ranger. A camper needlessly shot a bear, which then charged dangerously around the campground before settling down to die in front of a horrified family. The camper was cited for both having a loaded gun and killing wildlife, Morris said."

What do you think? My view is: if it ain't broke don't fix it. The parks seem to be doing just fine, thank you.

Hmmm. What about Oakland? Guns figure in most homicides around here. What if neighbors got together and designated areas that were gun-free? Like those old saloons: We've got no complaint about you owning guns. But if you enter here, you gotta check your guns at the door. -- Jane Stevens