As a student of history, it’s sometimes fun to read “alternative histories”–where theories about how different life would be today if say the Confederacy had won the Civil War, or if Germany had never declared war on the US right after Pearl Harbor. Today, I will present to you the Alternative History of Gun Control in America–if we had “done something” right after mass incidents of gun violence.
We start in 1966 when Marine sharpshooter Charles Whitman took his sniper rifle to the top of the bell tower at the University of Texas campus in Austin and killed 18 people while wounding another 31. In our alternate history, we immediately banned military sniper rifles and banned all guns from college campuses.
Then in 1984, James Huberty purchased an Uzi machine gun, a shotgun and a pistol hours before going into the McDonalds in San Ysidro, California and killing 22-people while wounding another 19. In our alternate history we immediately banned the sale of machine guns, required background checks and a waiting period for the purchase of guns.
Then in 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold got their older friends to buy them some guns, before making some purchases of their own after turning 18–learned how to make improvised explosives on the Internet–and a few months later went to Columbine High School, where they killed 15-people and injured another 24. In our alternate history, we immediately banned the purchase of firearms for another person that cannot buy them, we banned parents of minors from allowing them to have guns, we raised the age to own a gun to 21 and we banned weapons from all school campuses.
Then in 2007, 23-year old Seung-Hui Cho purchased handguns that he used to kill 32 people and wound another 17 on the Virginia Tech campus–despite a ban on weapons at the school. When it was discovered that Cho had a history of mental health issues–but had never been committed to an institution, therefore allowing him to pass the mandatory background check and waiting period–in our alternate history we banned anyone with mental health problems from owning a gun.
Then in 2012, unable to buy a gun because of mental health issues, Adam Lanza killed his mother and stole her guns before going to Sandy Hook Elementary School where she taught, and despite a ban on weapons on the campus, killed 28-people and wounded two more. In our alternate history we immediately banned anyone living with someone with mental illness from owning a gun.
Then in 2016, Omar Mateen–a convert to radical Islam–passed background checks after being removed from the FBI’s Terror Watch List and purchased guns used to kill 49 people and injure another 58 at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. In our alternate history, we tried to ban all people on the terror watch list at any time from buying guns, but an outcry of racial profiling defeated that effort.
And then in 2017, Stephen Paddock used modification kits to make his more than 40 rifles automatic and used a room in a high-rise hotel to kill 59 people and wound 525 at a Las Vegas country music festival. In our alternate history, we are going to ban those modification kits, limit how many guns a person can own, and ban guns from high-rise buildings.
But as you can see in our alternate history, “doing something” about gun control definitely made us safer.
