What can we take from our experience fighting big tobacco that we can apply to fighting the NRA?

My heart broke again this afternoon when I read that a three-year old in SC died after mistaking a pink, loaded handgun for a toy (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/toddler-dies-playing-pink-gun-mistaken-toy-article-1.1256597).

I made the mistake and read some of the comments. The same old, same old. The parents are to blame. They were "irresponsible" gun owners. Any responsible gun owner would NEVER keep a gun where a child could get it. They should be prosecuted, blah, blah, blah. But assuming that the gun was purchased legally, the parents were being responsible, by the NRA's standards, for keeping a gun in their home to protect them from the bogey man and jack-booted government thugs.

Sometimes it seems as if the NRA has such a strangle hold on our public policy and collective psyche that we will never make any headway on this issue. But then I think of the big tobacco battles of the 1990s. Those seemed impossible. I was an idealistic, newly minted, public health advocate back then. I worked with the folks on the front lines of the tobacco wars. It seemed like we would never break the tobacco industry's grip on our nation's health - no matter how many studies were conducted, no matter how many law suits were filed, the tobacco lobby was too strong.

But inch by inch, the American public has begun to reclaim it's health from an industry bent on destroying it. We have regulated the hell out of cigarettes. You can't smoke in most restaurants and clubs anymore. Try lighting up in an airplane. You'll get quite a reception when you land. Smoking cessation counseling is a routine part of primary health care. School health programs preach about the dangers of smoking to kids. We tax and tax cigarettes.

The result? Smoking rates in the U.S. have been dropping consistently from year to year. States such as California have achieved record lows in the rates of adult smoking. They've also see drops in rates of heart disease, lung cancer, and other smoking-related illnesses. http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/NR11-031.aspx

And guess what - we have not BANNED cigarettes!!!! You can't smoke anywhere or anytime you want. It may be uncomfortable or inconvenient for you to suck on that cancer stick, but you can still smoke your life away if you want. But you're not going to be endangering my health or the health of my children any more.

Maybe it's time to revisit the tobacco wars and see what strategies we can adapt to the gun wars. Maybe we start by teaching young children what bullets do to human flesh (who remembers seeing the diseased lung in science class?). Maybe state Attorneys General start prosecuting manufacturers for marketing guns to children (pink guns, really? It's like the fruit-flavored cigarettes they tried to sell in the 90s). Maybe we put more money into public health research into the prevention of gun violence. Maybe a public education campaign like The Truth Campaign (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448237/) to fight the bogus claims of gun safety promoted by the NRA (which is the gun manufacturers' version of the Tobacco Research Institute).

Maybe, just maybe we can save some lives and you'll be able to keep your guns too.

I will keep posting about gun regulation until we actually regulate guns

I, like millions of people around the globe, was stunned, shocked, angered, and saddened by the unspeakable horror that took place last week in Newtown, CT. A seriously disturbed young man killed his mother then took her Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle and her Sig Sauer and Glock handguns to the Sandy Hook Elementary School where he proceeded to slaughter 20 children and six adults who were trying to protect them.

Immediately people took to Facebook to try to understand how this could have happened. The shooter played violent video games. He was autistic. His mother failed to get him appropriate mental health care. People began to talk about how we were going to prevent this from happening again. We should improve school security. We should arm all the teachers. We need better mental health services. We should keep guns away from mentally ill people. Every parent should be armed.

But the ultimate reason that 20 beautiful children will not be singing in the holiday concert or opening presents under the tree next week is because one young man had access to military grade weapons. Plain and simple. To ignore that simple fact is to leave us wide open for the next tragedy - which almost happened this week. A young man in Maryland, inspired by the events in CT, plotted to "break the record" by shooting up his school. Guess what? He had access to multiple weapons in his home. Luckily students reported his threats and the police removed the weapons from his home. That young man is still mentally disturbed but his classmates are now safe because he no longer has access to those weapons. I thank God that the system worked.

Back to CT. The shooter's friends and family knew that the boy had serious mental health issues. They knew he had violent tendencies. They knew there were multiple firearms in the home. Yet nothing was done. Nothing was done because his mother had the right to have multiple military-grade weapons in her home. Nothing was done until 20 beautiful children were slaughtered.

It is time that we get over our slavish obeisance to the NRA and their narrow, anachronistic interpretation of the 2nd Amendment and start enacting sane gun regulations. The time for talking about gun control is over. It is time to act.

When I have said this to gun owners they say that I my call to regulate the hell out of military-grade weapons and ammunition is a knee-jerk, liberal reaction to an isolated event and that any move to regulate guns should be well thought out and discussed. Folks, public health professionals and victims of gun violence have been researching, evaluating and talking about this issue for over 20 years. 20 YEARS. For all you gun owners out there who don't like what's been put on the table? Well I'm sorry you missed dinner but you can blame your standard bearer, the NRA. The NRA has consistently shut down all discussion of reasonable, sane gun control policies with it's obscenely well funded political machine that feeds on our nation's worst fears and paranoia.

Yes, paranoia. The NRA has you convinced that gun control advocates are trying to take away all your guns. Guess what - we're not. They have you convinced that we want to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Guess what - we don't. What we do want is the federal government to be able to regulate a lethal public health hazard in a way that balances personal liberties with public safety. Yes, it's a fine line to walk, but not the slippery slope towards Armageddon that the NRA would have you believe. Did you know that the federal government imposed strict laws governing the ownership of machine guns back in the 1930s? Since those laws were enacted, there have been virtually no deaths from machine guns. And yet we are still one of the most heavily armed nations in the developed world. The 2nd Amendment is still standing strong. Twenty innocent children are not.

It is time for gun owners to stop acting like spoiled, entitled teenagers who don't understand why they can't stay out all night and are angry because mom and dad won't buy them the latest Xbox. The 2nd Amendment does not entitle you to own the newest, coolest, most powerful weapon out there. The 2nd Amendment does not relieve you of the awesome responsibility that goes along with owning a deadly weapon. Be adults. If guns owners and their standard bearers won't take responsibility for protecting the public from their guns, we will. The time is now. Not after the next tragedy.