ON GUN ACCIDENTS

After the shootings in Columbine High School in Colorado some anti-gun nuts tried to coerce changes by saying, “Gun and magazine laws need tightening to protect high school students.”  That approach proved to not work at all in moving the American public to change.

Next, after Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D) and others were shot, these same folks tried to change minds by uttering, “Guns and magazines need regulation to protect Congress.”  This tactic proved no less effective.  Even members of Congress were not moved by this logic.

Then, after 20 small children and 6 adults trying to protect them were gunned down in Connecticut, gun regulating citizens tried a line of reasoning sure to move everyone to action, “Guns and magazines need more rules to help us protect our grammar school children.”  Alas, even the slaughter of babies could not move Congress to feel guilt and shame enough to effect a change in gun laws.

The Orlando Sentinel recently reported that 40 percent of Florida emergency room visits for non-lethal gunshot wounds were accidental in nature.  More than $57 million was billed to treat those injuries, one half of that paid by tax dollars through Medicare and Medicaid, claimed the article.  The Sentinel went on to report that the average cost per patient was $85,024.  Extrapolated to the 50 states, could this mean we are spending nearly $2.85 Billion each year on this problem?  Could this be the cudgel Congress and State Legislatures need to begin the common sense regulation of weapons and ammo?  “No more taxpayer dollars should go to paying for seniors and the poor to play with their tools.” [Guns Are Tools, MamaLiberty, June 23, 2013]

Surely money spent on the elderly and the poor too stupid to handle a gun properly deserves attention.  As I learned many years ago in weapons and combat training in the Marine Corps, and advice I passed down to my son who is now a weapons and shooting instructor for the FBI, there is no such thing as “accidental” shootings.

The National Rifle Association has screamed at us for years that, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  They are right.  Guns cannot discharge a bullet without a person involved.  They must be loaded, the safety must be released, and then the trigger must be pulled. 

Governor Rick Scott believes those persons eligible for Welfare, including Medicaid, should be drug tested before receiving aid.  Since the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that unconstitutional, perhaps his next step in corralling the wanton wastefulness of poor Floridians should be to ask if they have guns.  Maybe the question could be broadened to include, “does anyone in your household or whom you know have guns.”  If they answer yes, rule them ineligible for Welfare and Medicaid coverage. 

Further, since our Republican Congress hates Obamacare so much, they could pass legislation to reduce its wasteful spending.  It should be easy to pass a law allowing no Medicare or Medicaid payments to any healthcare provider who treats someone stupid enough to shoot themselves, or allows themselves to be shot by someone else, no matter the type of weapon.  It appears on the surface this would cut $2.85 Billion in spending in the first year alone.