COFFEE BREAK 345

+ Last Friday, 20 children and 6 adults were killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. A long overdue national conversation on gun control has begun.  I am all for a lot more regulation.  I have a few thoughts and resources to offer:

If there is a gun in your home, the chance that a family member will be killed by that gun is 44 times higher than an intruder will be killed by that gun. I just heard that. I don't know the source. I am simply questioning the idea that guns are needed for protection of you and yours.

Countries with far less access to firearms have far less deadly violence.

My denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) offers excellent resources and strategies for dealing with gun violence.

There are those who think increasing regulations on firearms can do nothing BUT Australia did something after a mass murder and, guess what? MANY LIVES HAVE BEEN SAVED.  Here's an excerpt from "Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings" by S Chapman,  P Alpers, K Agho, M Jones: "In the 18 years before the gun law reforms, there were 13 mass shootings in Australia, and none in the 10.5 years afterwards."