Frum countering Coulter and Dreher: America's gun problem is not a race problem

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Tue Jan 15, 2013, 05:09 PM - Edit history (2)

Because this piece is written by a conservative the language and tone of argument are such that I kept expecting it to veer into RW nuttery, and there are sentences that, out of context, would be eye-brow raising. But the overall of it is refreshing gun control argument. The first four paragraphs do not represent the piece very well. Read the link.

One of the more useful (in terms of potentially persuading someone to a view they did not previously hold) pro gun control things I've read recently. And his efficient counter to Coulter and Rod Dreher is worthwhile—that non-white Americans are, ahem, Americans.

If for nothing else, his analysis of the racial underpinning of the debate, in terms of some white people feeling that gun control would arbitrarily punish them for the actions of non-white people, is spot on and more analytically useful than some of the other pop-psychology theories and assumptions. One cannot hope to address an anxiety without first properly identifying it.

Editor's note: David Frum, a CNN contributor, is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of eight books, including a new novel, "Patriots," and a post-election e-book, "Why Romney Lost." Frum was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002.

(CNN) -- Massacres such as Newtown are horrifying and heart-rending. They are also nothing like the typical American gun murder.

The typical murder has one victim, not many. The typical murder is committed with a handgun, not a rifle. And in the typical murder, both the perpetrator and the victim are young black men. Blacks are six times as likely as whites to be the victim of a homicide. Blacks are seven times as likely to commit a homicide.

The horrifying toll of gun violence on black America explains why black Americans are so much more likely than whites to favor gun control.

Conversely, fears of being victimized by violence explain why so many white Americans -- especially older and more conservative white Americans -- insist on the right to bear arms in self-protection. They see gun violence as something that impinges on them from the outside. They don't blame guns for gun violence. They blame a particular subset of the population. And they don't see why they should lose their right because some subset of the population abuses theirs.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/opinion/frum-guns-race/index.html

[upaloopa]

1. If a black man stands on a street corner with a gun on his

belt he is a New Black Panther. A white man on the same corner with a gun is exercising his second amendment rights.

[cthulu2016]

2. .

[DreamGypsy]

3. If poor people had jobs and prospects for improving life for themselves and their families...

I think the important conclusion from the article is that reducing poverty in Baton Rouge is key in addressing the gun violence there. The writer is refuting an approach take in a different report by "Rod Dreher, an independent-minded conservative", which highlights gun violence as a racial and economic phenomenon in Baton Rouge

David Frum argues in the article:

...
But countries cannot dismiss the sufferings of great blocks of their people by dismissing some "demographics" as unworthy of attention.

If you ignore America's poor, you can make all kinds of problems disappear from view. Not counting the poor and minorities, the country does not have an obesity epidemic. Not counting the poor and minorities, the United States has perfectly adequate schools. Not counting the poor and minorities, America would have a higher average income.

Likewise, not counting hurricanes, America would not have so many natural disasters. Not counting divorces, America would have more intact families. Not counting wars, America would have a smaller public debt. But what's the point of this exercise? The people who make up America count as Americans, and their problems count as America's problems. Their problems do not occur in isolation, but are manifestations of failures to which all Americans contributed together.

Those young men in Baton Rouge who are killing each other in such horrific numbers do not manufacture their own guns. They did not organize the gun trade that brings the guns to their town. They did not write the laws that prevent their town government from acting against guns. They carry guns -- and misuse guns -- thanks to a national system of gun regulation that makes guns easily accessible to those least likely to use guns responsibly.

I interpret the comments above, not as literal statements of the author's view, but as examples of the kinds of statements that can be made if part of the population is excluded/dismissed from the conversation. Clearly, for example, obesity is not confined to the poor and minorities, all schools in America would benefit from improvements.

The price of redefining gun violence as an issue pertaining only to "those people" -- of casting and recasting the gun statistics to make them less grisly if only "those people" are toted under some different heading in some different ledger -- the price of that redefinition is to lose our ability to think about the problem at all.

[cthulu2016]

4. Much of the RW approach is defining parts of America as not America

In Romney's extreme case, if we don't count 47% of Americans this is a very rich and optimistic nation.