“This pen is more regulated than a gun,” said Dave Haffty, a program officer of Handgun Free America, raising his pen. “The gun industry is the only one that is completely unregulated for safety and health.”
Glen Caroline, director of the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action Grassroots, would wholeheartedly disagree.
“I don’t have time to refute all the falsehoods of David’s speech,” he said.
Haffty and Caroline spoke at a gun control panel in Healy Hall on Wednesday night, sponsored by the College Democrats, the College Republicans and the Campus Greens.
In his address, Haffty cited many statistics, including that 30,000 Americans are killed by guns, 89 people every day. According to the Center for Disease Control, Haffty said, “kids are 12 percent more likely to die from guns in the U.S. than kids in the next 25 similar nations.”
Haffty went on to attack the NRA’s position that citizens are the militia referred to in the second amendment. “No federal court has ever overturned a gun control law on second amendment grounds,” Haffty said.
Caroline emphasized that gun control is public policy that affects 266 million Americans and that calls for responsibility. “This may be an academic discourse but what we do … affects every American citizen,” he said.
During one of the more heated moments of the question-and-answer session, a student argued that, according to gun control advocates’ logic, cars should be banned from the road, being responsible for numerous deaths. “My car has other uses than killing people,” Haffty responded, drawing applause from some students in the audience.
Caroline presented his argument by stating that there are about 20,000 gun-related laws at the local, state and federal levels. “The NRA thinks 20,000 laws on the books are enough, but we need a commitment to enforce the laws.” Caroline concluded by saying, “According to [Handgun Free America], only police and the military should be allowed to own guns. That is not my America, and certainly not an America I want to live in.”
An audience comprised mostly of about 50 students gathered at the forum to listen to both sides on the gun control issue and participate in a question-and-answer session that followed.
