Sue Lani Madsen: Inslee’s gun decree doesn’t make sense for rural counties
Although nearly 80 percent of gun deaths are suicides, less than half of suicides involved firearms in 2012-14. Focusing on one tool does nothing to address underlying causes – poverty, lack of education, unemployment and depression.
This is not a winning public health argument in communities where guns are part of the social fabric and where targeting guns for control raises real state and federal constitutional concerns. While I agree with the governor that we need better public health data, starting off with a foregone conclusion makes it hard to build trust. It highlights the rural-urban cultural divide across the state.
About 14 years ago, there was a murder trial in Lincoln County. It was a classic love triangle. The jealous girlfriend was convicted of taking the boyfriend’s revolver and driving from Kennewick to Davenport to kill the boyfriend’s estranged wife. Apparently, she was too impatient to wait for his divorce to be final.
The esteemed defense attorney out of Spokane arrived in the rural county courthouse ready for jury selection. One hundred prospective jurors were seated in the courtroom. He consulted his list of prepared screening questions. “Raise your hand if you own a gun,” he said. A sea of hands shot up. One hand went up more slowly. “I don’t own a gun, but my husband does. Does that count?” asked a prospective juror.
Red-faced, the attorney switched tactics and tried again. “Raise your hand if you don’t own a gun.” Only three hands waved meekly. The defense attorney was taken aback. Clearly this was not going to be a useful screening question.
And here’s why the urban attorney was surprised. Spokane County has a 7 percent concealed pistol license per-capita rate, just a shade under the statewide average of 8 percent. Lincoln County has a rate of 15 percent, highest in the state. King County is lowest at 4 percent. Although not all gun owners have a CPL, the CPL per-capita rate does give a sense of overall gun ownership.
Lincoln County Sheriff Wade Magers estimated the probable overall rate of gun ownership at 75 percent in the county, in a 2014 interview with Seattle’s KING5 news. In that 2002 jury pool, the rate was 97 percent.
In the same TV news piece, Mike Gaffney, a social science researcher at Washington State University, discussed the wide variation in CPL rates across the 39 counties. Gaffney said there appeared to be little correlation between high CPL rates and political beliefs, using voting patterns in the latest presidential election as a marker. Nor was there a pattern of higher CPL rates following higher crime rates, which tend to be in urban areas. The greatest correlation was between low population density and high CPL rates. It’s a cultural connection.
Gun ownership affects whether a person understands guns as tools to be respected or an unknown to be feared. When the rate of gun ownership is high in a community, the culture reinforces a view of guns as a useful tool or ordinary sports equipment. High schools compete in skeet shooting, and gun clubs meet for competitions. Varmints need to be controlled and meat harvested for the freezer. Folks living on the edge of nowhere are vulnerable and have a right to protect themselves and their property. Like any tool, firearms can be misused, but as the saying goes, it’s a poor workman who blames his tools.
Inslee’s executive order has little practical short-term effect and one unfortunate long-term side effect: It has made it harder to address a serious public health issue. We need better data on root causes of violence and suicide apart from a preconceived conclusion blaming guns. As long as progressives lead with gun control, conservatives will react with mistrust of their motives.
Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.