In considering the city council's recent decision to drop the city-wide handgun ban, the word that first comes to mind is astute. Astute, of course, in both the political and financial sense. The city is able to save money on a lawsuit it almost certainly would have lost, and the decision will also placate gun owners in the area and those around the nation who are watching to see how these early test cases pan out. Even the most ardent pro-gun activists must acknowledge that the city council had little choice but to do what they did. An NRA spokeswoman said the organization would "absolutely" pursue its lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court.
I consider it my duty, as a responsible and caring Evanston resident and American citizen, to voice my concerns at the outset of this decision about the safety of my fellow citizens. I urge the city council and municipalities around the country, when faced with the same decision, to maintain the most stringent gun control laws that pass constitutional muster. An ever-growing volume of research shows that rates of gun ownership are directly correlated with rates of gun injuries and fatalities. Louisiana, Alaska, Montana, Tennessee and Alabama, the five states with the highest number of gun fatalities per capita, had an average gun ownership rate of 54 percent, according to a 2005 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their average gun death rate per 100,000 people was 17.26, well above the overall average of 10.32. In contrast, the five states with the lowest number of gun fatalities per capita had an average gun ownership rate of 13 percent. Their average number of gun deaths per 100,000 people? 3.92.
And the gun deaths will not be limited to homicides, said Kristen Rand, the legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, a non-profit organization concerned with lowering gun-related deaths and injuries. Rand ticked off the things that would rise if handgun bans were dropped around the country: "suicide, domestic homicide, police being confronted with guns on domestic calls, unintentional injuries." Studies by the Harvard School of Public Health have consistently found that gun availability is a risk factor for youth suicide and that the number of firearm-related suicides is directly correlated with regional gun ownership rates. Rates of unintentional injuries and fatalities also correlate in the same manner.
It is likely that Evanston will not see very many short-term effects of the new ordinance. Even Rand acknowledged that in affluent suburbs with low gun ownership rates like Evanston, "the risks to the community are fairly low." Instead, the effect will be probably be small and occur further down the road - light ripples in this big nation, almost unnoticeable. They'll make headlines in local newspapers; they already do. A young kid accidentally shoots another, a lover's quarrel ends in gunshots, a dejected teenager decides in a moment of intense passion to end his life. And families will mourn their bad fortune, and in their zeal to uphold an anachronistic amendment, pro-gun activists will continue to fight for more guns for more people.
As for the city council, it played the hand it was dealt. And in this case, the astute decision was to fold. Only time will tell how this all plays out.
k-berlin@northwestern.edu
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