It's been three years since 20 year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people (including 20 children) inside an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut with a high-capacity magazine assault rifle before killing himself with a handgun. Immediately following these events, the White House laid out ambitious new proposals towards gun control and the general public demanded more action be taken. In all, 23 executive orders were issued by the president in the wake of the shooting, all promising tighter control on guns and more preventative measures towards future mass shootings. It has been three years. There have been 894 mass shootings since Sandy Hook. Nothing has changed.
The gun lobbies in the Republican Party and the NRA have a lot to do with this. In a developed nation with such an abnormally high gun death rate, you would think an issue that effects the entire country on such a universal scale in such a negative way would gain precedence. But still nothing gets passed. The only piece of gun control legislation Congress has passed since Sandy Hook is to renew an expiring ban on plastic fire arms that can easily avoid detection at airport security terminals and other security checkpoints. So that is all well and good except that shooters don't need to buy plastic guns to commit mass murder; we have seen time and again how easy it is for people to purchase assault weapons, walk into a public place and slaughter innocents indiscriminately.
I'm not arguing for a ban on guns. I think that is unnecessary for a number of reasons and impractical for others. Guns are an intrinsic part of American culture. People should have the right to own a firearm for hunting, for sport, or even for protection. But when it comes to something as dangerous as a firearm, that is when our safety protocols need to be the most stringent. The fact that absolutely no significant gun control legislation has been passed in three years even though there have been over 800 mass shootings with thousands of innocent victims dead or injured, is simply an insult to the American public.
The fact is, the NRA has been relentlessly pursuing the notion that the government is after the gun rights of the average American citizen even though the track record of Congress shows otherwise. If anything it is the Conservative right that has a stranglehold on gun legislation in Washington. But where our leaders in D.C. have failed us, state governments have taken up the mantle of responsibility to protect their respective citizenry. Over the last three years, 39 states have passed upwards of 117 new pieces of legislation on gun control, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Ultimately, it is up to the American public to demand reforms on gun control. There will always be a segment of the American right that espouses the doctrine that all gun rights are to be held sacred by the Constitution, and are thus inviolable. But the reality of modern America is that guns are killing our people and we need to take measures to ensure the safety of innocent civilians. People should not have to fear going to school, work, the movies, a restaurant. Guns have become too prolific in American life. There is no need for so many firearms to be so readily available in our communities. A mental change in attitude towards guns is long overdue. We are no longer a nation of homesteaders on the open range, or paranoid colonials defending our coasts from the British. We are the richest, most powerful nation on Earth and we have the means to protect ourselves without unrestricted access to firearms.
This issue is so important and you are absolutely right that there hasn't been enough done about gun control. I agree that something needs to be done and the longer we wait, the more harm that is done.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times actually put their first editorial about gun control on there front page recently. This is the first editorial to make the front page of the NY Times since 1920.