Beware of Human
By Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO−On my walks in the neighborhood, I see a lot of Beware of Dog signs. Why don’t I ever see any Beware of Human signs? There are approximately 88,000,000 dogs in the United States, and, 49 Americans died from dog bites last year. [I don’t want to stereotype any breed, but three quarters of those fatalities were attributed to Pit bulls.] Nearly 40,000 Americans died from gun-related injuries during 2017, 60 % from suicides and 37 % homicides.
The Golden Deceiver claims most killings are committed by people who are mentally unhinged. Parenthetically, I hope he isn’t packing any heat. Seems to me he must be crazy if he thinks increasing funding for mental health is the only way to counter mass shootings. What about universal registration, red flag laws, and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines?
Let’s compare how dogs and guns are treated differently as potential lethal weapons. When you buy or adopt a dog, you are supposed to get a license from the local authorities and an identification chip. Many rescue agencies require you to fill out a background check to assure that you will be a responsible owner. There are laws against letting your dog run off leash and designating where you can bring dogs.
If you live in red state like Texas, you might undergo a background check for purchasing a gun, but can circumvent this if you buy it privately, online, or at a gun show. In those states red flag laws are like red rags to bulls. You can carry your guns openly in almost every public place. Dogs can trigger allergies or annoy people, but they never massacre people.
What’s even worse is permitting semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines! Imagine if there was a breed of dog called the AK-9 endowed with the speed of a Greyhound, the teeth of a shark, the size of a Great Dane, the viciousness of a crocodile, and the capacity to regenerate new teeth immediately upon sinking them into the flesh of a person. I doubt if the government would allow the adoption or sale of this lethal creature. But turn that AK-9 into an AK-15, and, suddenly there is a constitutional right to own it.
For me, the only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun is a sane society that regulates guns more carefully than it regulates dogs. Short of that, the US might want to create and station AK-9s in airports, churches, schools, restaurants, and shopping malls, theatres, and train stations, or at least unleash them at NRA meetings.
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Elona resides with Bonnie and Laurie Baron. The latter is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com. No animals were harmed in the writing of this column.