I recognize that none of what I’ve said adequately atones for my past silence on this issue in the face of so many tragedies.
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In 2012, Adam Lanza shot 20 elementary school pupils and six adults at Sandy Hook school in CT. America has become a warzone, and our enemy lurks behind every corner.
This is one of a number of letters I have written to you about gun violence and the preventable slaughter of our citizens and many youngsters not yet able to vote. Back then we used to dance and sing along to The Doors’ “When the Music’s Over”. Rather, we should try to help them to feel like they are part of something not an outsider.
It is time for lawmakers to do their jobs to protect us – or to make way in November for someone who will. “We’re pretty comfortable that freedom works”.
That young adults aren’t any more likely to be in favor of stricter gun laws than the average America is even more remarkable when you consider that young adults today are politically more liberal than young adults at the time of Columbine. So, why is it that nothing is being done to address this growing problem? “Every last one of them”. The people who defend gun rights believe that snobbish elites look down on their morals and want to destroy their culture. The difference between the two is that assault rifles fire continuously when the trigger is pulled versus once per trigger pull for assault weapons. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old Parkland, Florida shooter, was fascinated by guns, and when he turned 18, he purchased an AR-15 at a local gun shop.
“I am heartbroken and really, really f***ing angry about America’s gun problem”, Bush said.
Even seemingly innocuous measures like strengthened background checks run the risk of having a disparate impact based on race and class.
Unlike the bullets of regular handguns, the bullets of AR-15s tear through the human body, leaving the victim battered internally. About 70 percent of voters support assault rifle bans and no-fly list gun sales bans. As elected officials, we have a responsibility to act in the best interests of all our citizens, not just the ones who use their campaign contributions to buy our inaction. But right now we are going in the opposite direction on all fronts. Is our liberty being upheld if we are restricted by fear and dread? Asking not to me murdered at school is snarky and obnoxious?
Guns themselves are not risky until there is a finger on the trigger and a deranged person holding the gun. That’s identical to the 50% of all Americans who said they were for gun control in the same surveys. In 1791, the most modern gun available was a muzzle loader.
For years people in the U.S. have been protesting for stronger gun control laws, declaring something has to be done following the endless massacres and gun violence.
It has taken no lead in the discussion of the safety of Americans. States with more guns tend to have more police officers being shot as well.
The most absurd argument made by the Republican party is effectively an advertisement for the NRA. The number of violence incidences by guns across the country does little to prove the NRA’s ideologies. Given this logic, gun ownership, or the right to bear arms, should not be absolute. Also, mental health has become an industry.
So as a practical matter, the only people who would suffer if we restricted access to these weapons would be firearms manufacturers and their hired guns, pardon the expression, with the NRA .
It would be nice if we could trade all the thoughts and prayers in the world for some common sense solutions and action on guns from the United States Congress.
For many, the emphasis in the amendment on “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” provides an individual constitutional freedom and right as citizens of the United States to possess arms.
I imagine that’s where the thoughts and prayers come in. Sure, there are myriad ways we could do that, from requiring things like insurance and a license, to heavy restrictions on what sort of guns manufacturers are allowed to sell to the public. CNN reports that eight of these have been school shootings. But I suspect most Americans are not willing to make that trade-off, and might never be-unless they suffer the same of kind personal loss. I have a problem with blaming mentally ill people for everything.
The first thing I can agree with Trump about, since he started running, was his statement that something must be done about mental illness in America. More men support a ban than oppose it. Some of the other top NRA beneficiaries are Senator John McCain – $7,740,521; Senator Richard Burr – $6,986,620; and Senator Roy Blunt – $4,551,140. Cowardice among both parties have left Americans with only individual champions, such as former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a mass-shooting victim herself. How many lives have been squandered in the creation of a wedge issue? U.S. lawmakers must also devise out-of-the-box solutions to stop bloodshed countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. If they continue to ask smart questions and push for a dialogue…
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Please, I don’t want to hear the cliche that people kill people, guns don’t kill people!
