There is hope for stopping gun violence — look at cigarettes and seat belts
This Thanksgiving weekend, as we give thanks for our family, health and that insanely good cornbread dressing, let’s also include cigarettes and seat belts in that conversation.
And the massacre of six people at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., on Tuesday night assaults the promise that the simple pursuit of mundane, daily life can be done in safety.“Today I had to watch my husband walk out the door to go to his job at a Walmart,” said Cathleen Parker, 33, whose husband works at a Virginia Walmart about 80 miles from the one in Chesapeake.
“Anytime there’s a shooting, tension is high,” she said. “But it’s worse when you don’t even feel safe at work.”That’s the part that gets us. Yes, American history is full of guns and gunslingers. But it used to be that you could largely take action to avoid them. Stay away from the gambling saloons, mob meetings, dark alleys and dope houses, and you had a good chance of avoiding gunfire throughout your American life.So, let’s get to the hope, and cigarettes are a good place to start.
Like firearms today, the tobacco industry looked invulnerable. For decades, enterprising trial lawyers attacked the companies selling death and were rebuffed in U.S. courts. It felt hopeless.Congress launched bipartisan investigations. Schools launched public health campaigns to explain the danger to children. States taxed every pack so heavily that usage fell. And very slowly, generations of Americans were raised to revile cigarette smoking.
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