Treating guns as if they were as lethal as cars

Native Oregonian Bill Kristof sees the connection:

Take cars, which are also potentially lethal instruments ubiquitous in America. We've undertaken a remarkable half-century effort to make automobiles far, far safer — and that is precisely the model for what we should do with guns. We've introduced seat belts, air bags, prominent brake lights and padded dashboards. We've cracked down on drunken drivers, improved road layouts and railings, introduced graduated licenses for young drivers and required insurance for drivers.

The upshot is that we have reduced the vehicle fatality rate per 100 million miles driven by more than 80 percent — so that firearms now claim more American lives each year than vehicles.

We need to approach gun safety in the same meticulous way we approach safety in motor vehicles and so many other aspects of life: It's ridiculous that a cellphone can require a code to use, but a gun doesn't.

For an essay first written and published in 1999 and updated and republished after several gun massacres since, see prorev.com/idguns.htm

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/the-pasty-little-putz-dowd-friedman-kristof-and-bruni-51/