Editorial
Guns Do Kill People
I
n April, the Connecticut state assembly approved gun control measures said to be the most comprehensive in the nation. The sweeping new restrictions include a ban on new high-capacity magazines and background checks on all gun buyers. In March, Colorado, which like Connecticut has also been hit by gun violence, despite its deeply embedded culture of gun ownership, imposed limits on the size of ammunition magazines and expanded background checks for gun buyers. The much neglected gun control debate was revived in December 2012 after a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at a Newtown elementary school. In April, President Barack Obama launched another gun control campaign, reminding the pro-gun lobby, “If you want to buy a gun... you should at least have to pass a background check... that’s just common sense.” The powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby, however, argues that more guns keep people safer. It has blocked several efforts to impose stricter gun controls, insisting that the Constitution forbids firearms restrictions. And now there is an even harder hitting gun lobby: Gun Owners of America is growing in influence since the debate over gun control has surged. In 2008, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to possess guns in the home for self defense; however, they also stated that this right is “not unlimited” and elected officials may enact common sense gun laws to protect communities. No doubt, the NRA is a powerful force. The NRA and its government affairs subsidiary, the Institute for Legislative Action, spent more than $3 million lobbying the federal government on firearms-related legislation in 2012, according to their lobbying disclosure forms. In its 2011 report, the non-partisan Violence Policy Center noted that “selling
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PUBLISHER The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
militarized firearms to civilians—i.e., weapons in the military inventory or weapons based on military designs— has been at the point of the industry’s civilian design and marketing strategy since the 1980s.” And in its 2011 annual report to investors, gun maker Smith & Wesson noted that there was a $489 million domestic, non-military market for “modern sporting rifles.” This being a euphemism for auto-loading, assault-style rifles; modern sporting rifles are perhaps the fastestgrowing segment of the domestic long gun industry. From 2007 to 2011, the Freedom Group reported that modern sporting rifle sales grew at a rate of 27 percent. The November 2012 Congressional Research Service report found that, as of 2009, there were approximately 310 million firearms in the U.S. What about assault rifles? In 2009, in a declaration made as part of a court case, NRA research coordinator Mark Overstreet said that, from 1986 to 2007, at least 1.6 million AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles were produced nationally—imports not included. More recent estimates suggest the number of AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles in American homes today is close to 3.3 million. ISNA has been working to address gun violence and mental health issues through the interfaith coalitions Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence and the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition, which recently published Grounded in Faith: Resources on Mental Illness and Gun Violence. This is not about banning guns. It’s about responsibility in selling and owning guns—and making our homes, schools and communities safer. And Muslims have a stake in it. Instead of just resigning to the dictates of the NRA or the arms producers, Muslims need to fan out and join every possible pressure and lobbying group to get their state laws made more effective.
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Islamic Horizons May/June 2013
PRE SID ENT Mohamed Hagmagid Ali ED IT O R
Omer Bin Abdullah A ssistant Editor Deanna Othman ED IT O RIA L A DVIS O RY B OA RD
Imam Mohamed Magid (acting Chair); Haroon Mughal; Sohaib Sultan; Wafa Unus; Wajahat Ali. ISL A MI C H O RIZO NS
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