A few times a year, something I write winds up in the Omaha World-Herald, our local newspaper here in Omaha. It’s the leading newspaper in Nebraska, and has a steadfast reputation as a moderately conservative publication. What this means in today’s terms, of course, is that Far-Right MAGA and Q-Anon types think it’s just this side of The Communist Manifesto.

Sorry, it’s still a fairly conservative paper. Nonetheless, they’ll still publish guest articles by people like me, especially when they speak to issues that are in the headlines. So here it is, pretty much as printed, with just a couple of additions:

CARRY A GUN AND DON’T WEAR A SEATBELT

July 26, 2022

The author is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the Creighton University School of Medicine, and the author of “Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later: One Physician’s Guided Tour Through an Insane Asylum Called American Health Care.”  This article represents the author’s personal views and are not necessarily those of Creighton University.

Much as this may shock younger readers, there was a time, some forty years ago, when seatbelt laws were controversial.  The notion that the evil government, whether national, state, or local, would “mandate” seatbelts was viewed by some as one step away from communism.

Just as we’ve seen many times since, the issue of “you can’t tell me what to do!” was way more important than “what’s the right thing do?”

Some people wouldn’t admit to opposing seatbelt laws from a personal standpoint.  Instead, they needed a different excuse–seatbelts weren’t just ineffective, they were dangerous.

Here was their claim.  They knew somebody who knew somebody who’d been in an auto accident.  At the moment of impact, just before the car burst into flames, the driver had been thrown safely out of the vehicle and landed at a safe distance.  There, they watched as their car exploded before their eyes.

The person telling the story would then lean forward, scowl and say, “and you know, if that guy had been wearing a seat belt, he’d be dead!  Burned alive!  That’s why I’ll never wear a seatbelt.”

Did this actually happen?  Who knows?  If the window had been open (and it must have been a mighty big window), the exit angle perfect, and the ground about as soft as a pile of compost, maybe.

Don’t get me wrong.  Anything is possible.  Wherever you’re reading this right now, a piano might come falling out of the sky and land on your head.  But it’s pretty unlikely.

Today we know from years of experience that if deaths have occurred from wearing a seatbelt, those numbers are far fewer than the lives saved by seatbelts.  The evidence is so compelling that even those who’d sworn they’d never wear one now strap one on without a second thought.

All of this should come to mind when considering America’s last mass shooting (at the rate we’re going, there’ll be plenty more by the time this is printed).  A gun-carrying citizen killed the shooter in an Indiana mall.  The young man who stopped the shooter was praised.

Gun advocates were quick in their response.  “You see!  The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun!”

The facts tell a different story.

According to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, fewer than 3% of all active shooter incidents over the past 20 years ended with a civilian firing back.  The incident in Indiana, along with the tragic mass shooting in Superior, Nebraska, are exceptions rather than the rule.

The notion that if everyone runs around packing a firearm we’ll all somehow be safer doesn’t hold water.  Weapons don’t fire themselves.  They’re fired by human beings.  And if you’ve been around as long as I have, you know human beings do some incredibly stupid things.

I grew up around guns in rural Missouri.  They were no big deal one way or the other.  But no one thought of carrying them in malls, grocery stores, churches, or restaurants.  Back then, if you insulted someone, cut somebody off in traffic, or otherwise crossed someone, the worst you’d wind up with was a bloody nose or busted lip.  People usually cooled off, shook hands, and moved on.

That doesn’t happen when a gun’s involved.

Let’s be honest.  Most shootings occur because good, upstanding, law-abiding citizens are placed in overwhelmingly stressful situations.  They lose their job.  Their spouse cheats.  Their partner leaves.  Someone cuts them off.  They think someone has ripped them off.

Maybe they just see a stranger’s face at the door. . .

Put a gun in the mix, and you know what comes next.  It happens every day.   

Yes, mental health is important, and desperately needs more resources.  But it’s not the primary cause of gun violence.  A recent Public Pulse writer lamented the fact that suicide is now the third leading cause of death among American young people.

The number one cause?   Gunshot wounds.

Despite what many would like to believe, this isn’t because American kids are somehow different.  Throughout the developed world, young people watch the same television, the same movies, play the same video games, and listen to the same music.  They’re wracked with the same self-doubts, subjected to the same bullying, and feel the same need to prove themselves.

They just don’t kill each other nearly as often.  

So if you carry a firearm, at least know the facts.  Yes, there’s always a tiny chance you may use it to take out a “bad-guy.”  But you are much more likely to use that gun—intentionally or unintentionally—on yourself, a family member, or someone you know.

That’s not being anti-gun.  That’s just being factual.

And while you’re at it, you can go without wearing a seatbelt, too.  There’s always that slim chance you’ll get thrown out the window.  But don’t count on it.

The only difference is, by not wearing the seatbelt, the only one who gets hurt is you.

Midlands Voices: Carry a gun and don’t wear a seatbelt | Columnists | omaha.com