Since 2012 there have been 1,624 mass shootings in the U.S. We’re responsible for 31% of global mass shootings despite being 5% of the population, but guns are the only aspect of society we can’t seem to regulate. Since 1996, 167 of mass shooters’ weapons were obtained legally (49 were obtained illegally.) Somehow keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the violently mentally ill has become a partisan issue costing endless lives. Stricter gun laws have proven time and time again to work – from our 1930s machine gun ban to reforms around the world in Australia, Germany, and Canada. The shooters at Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Pulse, Las Vegas, and most recently, Parkland all bought guns legally, but the system isn’t failing us.When is enough, enough?
We’re not safe at our schools, movie theaters, concerts. The money generating death cult of the NRA is fueled by the politics of fear; Democrats don’t want to require universal background checks, those “crisis actors” want to take your guns. We can have laws against drugs, against machine guns but not the tools of death and destruction (not hunting) that easily fall into the wrong hands and are able to take 17 lives at a place of learning in minutes.
After the deadly mass shooting in Parkland left 17 dead, gun control is pertinent. Yet the system shows no signs of doing literally anything to prevent mass shootings. It was only a year ago that Trump signed an executive order making it easier for those with mental illness obtain guns. And just last week, the Florida House rejected a ban on assault weapons thanks to the un-elected governor of Florida, NRA lobbyist Marlon Hammer. Our President after meeting with victims at a hospital threw a disco party and then pulled back support for universal gun background checks after meeting with the NRA. While our Senate will “skip the gun debate” and instead turn to a banking bill next week according to Majority Leader McConnell.
“Criminals will obtain guns illegally anyway”
When we have a higher rate of gun deaths than any other place in the middle east except Iraq and a gun homicide rate 25 times higher than other high-income countries, we’ve clearly forlorn our constitutional pact to “well-regulated militia.” The system has failed us when the overwhelming majority of guns used in the past 19 mass shootings were bought legally, through a background check despite criminal backgrounds or documented mental health issues. When the law can’t guarantee the pursuit of life and liberty to America’s children, the moral rot ingrained in the fabric of our hijacked system rises. Guns were legally given to the San Bernardino, Parkland, the Texas church shooting, Las Vegas, and Pulse murderers, some among who had been reported to the FBI for threats, were convicted criminals and had alleged terrorist ties.
Clearly, the majority of mass shooters are obtaining guns legally when their criminal background shouldn’t have allowed them to. Yet conservative gun fanatics believe we shouldn’t stop these depraved monsters where we can because extensive background checks will somehow repeal the second amendment. They point to an illegal weapon market as a basis to oppose stopping criminals from legally obtaining guns. If that logic follows, we shouldn’t have drug laws, and anti-machine-gun laws are useless. Why should guns be the only area not regulated? Oh, that’s right, because the NRA profit machine demands it at the sake of American lives.
The Automatic Weapon Ban Worked
In the 1920s and 1930s, Prohibition-era mobsters used portable machine guns to terrorize towns, which – like AR’s – fired multiple rounds with the single pull of a trigger. Often times children and civilians were caught in the middle. President Roosevelt witnessed this as governor in his city, and in turn got Congress to pass the National Firearms Act of 1934. Since then, fully-automatic weapons have not been responsible for any of the last 81 mass shootings. A fully-automatic weapon ban worked then, and a ban of semi-automatic weapons – the weapon of choice in have been used in the country’s deadliest shootings, such as those in Newtown, Orlando, San Bernadino and Las Vegas, should work now.
The Assault Weapon Ban Worked
Guns do kill people – and taking the ones responsible for the past mass shootings out of the equation has been proven to drastically reduce the number of mass shootings in the U.S. Such was the case with the 1994-2004 automatic weapon ban. The federal Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Act banned “19 military-style assault weapons, assault weapons with specific combat features, “copy-cat” models, and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds,” according to Politico. During the ban period “the number of gun massacres plunged by 37 percent and gun massacre deaths, by 43 percent. After the ban massacres skyrocketed by 183%. Yes, we can prevent death from raining down on our schools, movie theaters, and concerts – it’s successfully been done before.
Mental Illness is Not Solely to Blame
Many are quick to blame shootings solely on mental illness as if America has a monopoly on it. (Less than 1% of firearm homicides are committed by a person diagnosed with a mental illness.) Nations around the world are not exempt from mental illness yet they’re not responsible for 31% of the world’s mass shootings. We are 5% of the world population. No other country has had close to 290 mass shootings since 2013, or any mass shootings for that matter after passing serious gun reform.
Gun Control Worked Worldwide
There were four mass shootings between 1987 and 1996 in Australia. Their legislature did not hesitate in passing gun reform requiring 28-day waiting period to obtain a weapon, a ban on semi-automatic weapons, and a national gun registry. There have been zero mass murders in the 20 years since while the U.S. has had 1,624 shootings just in the last 5 years. In the UK there the 1996 mass murder in Scotland, prompted the government to ban all handguns, (in addition to the ones already banned in 1987), and there has only been one mass shooting since. After gun reform in Germany ,violent gun deaths fell to 0.12 per 100,000 people compared to the U.S.’ rate of 3.85 violent gun deaths. Comparatively, Canada has a rate of 0.5.
Japan is the quintessential example on what to do about gun violence. The population of 127 million had just six gun deaths in 2014 compared to 33,599 in the US. That’s right Donald Trump, despite practically inventing video games, the country has virtually eradicated gun violence. Video game sales per person in Japan is $96.06, compared to the U.S.’ $63.45 in sales. Respectively gun deaths are 6 per 10,000,000 people per year and 1,016. It looks like the video games, or mental illness aren’t to solely blame for gun violence (given Japan’s high suicide rate.) This is because of the country’s strict gun control measures best summarized by Business Insider:
Gun Reform Now
At 19 you should not be able to buy an AR-15 military assault-style weapon, much less with no waiting period or ammo restriction. AR-15’s were used in the Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, Aurora, San Bernardino & Orlando shootings. No civilian should even be able to buy a semi-automatic weapon at all – they are weapons of war not for blowing deer’s brains off and protecting your home. Furthermore, bump-stocks – which capacitated the Las Vegas shooter with the ability to kill 58 people and injure 851 within the span of minutes by turning a semi automatic rifle into an automatic one, should be outlawed.
This is just phase one of a much needed reform which in no way infringes second amendment rights – not one public official has much less called for taking anyone’s guns away. It’s a baseless NRA soundbite designed to fear-monger and distort common sense gun regulation targeting criminals and the mentally unstable in order to keep profiting off the sale of weapons of war. Phase two is actually tightening background checks so that convicted criminals and those with suspicious, violent backgrounds reported multiple times to the FBI can’t get their hands on any weapon. We must also end the “gun show loophole” which allows for the private sales of guns without background checks.
– President Ronald Reagan
The “Good Guy With a Gun” fallacy
Contrary to popular belief, more guns don’t stop crime. Sadly, instead of addressing the root cause of the gun problem with preventive measures, the national conversation has turned to arming overworked, underpaid teachers to end up being killed by the shooter anyway or taken down by a confused SWAT team. Teachers are educators, not trained killers. In fact, Trump’s proposal to arm teachers has been panned by experts as a “colossally stupid idea.”
It’s absolutely ludicrous that we expect to train teachers a little better than the greatest American sniper in military history who was killed by a “bad guy” with a gun. To be trained superior to six Secret Service agents who couldn’t save Reagan from being shot. Surely an overworked educator would have saved: Vegas: Orlando, a Texas church. Furthermore, the “right to carry” gun laws don’t suppress crime, but increase it by 15 percent. The “good guy with a gun” scenario has proven to be as disastrous as you’d expect. Recently, a Texas man disarmed a possible school shooter only to be shot by police. And an armed teacher in Georgia was arrested after he barricaded himself in a classroom and fired his handgun.
If 63% of mass shooters were Hispanic men or Muslims the GOP would have been as quick to enact gun reform as they were to roll out an immigrant crime tracking database reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s. But since 63% of the last 184 mass shootings in the U.S. were white men, Trump can have a disco party while the Senate moves to a banking bill.
“In 2016 there were 1.2 million violent crimes, or 23,077 a week. If that number held last week, the WH only found two crimes linked to immigrants in the country illegally, meaning native-born Americans committed the other 23,075.”
In 2017 there were more than 300 gun murders in the US in February alone, in the entire year, only 22 serious crimes were committed by undocumented immigrants in the US.
Putting up the Ten Commandments in public schools selling bulletproof shields, and banning backpacks will not prevent this. The only solution is common sense gun reform that has been proven to work both around the world and at home twice with the National Firearms Act and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.) These semi-automatic weapons ban should only function in conjunction with more extensive background checks, and an end to private gun sales loopholes. By our lack of responsiveness after countless shootings it’s evident this can only be done through an NRA political boycott. All those who value the sanctity of life, the pursuit of liberty and happiness must vote out those beholden to the NRA over human lives. Those who walk back on promises of universal background checks after meeting with the NRA, who’s son likes tweets smearing parkland shooting survivors. There’s no “fighting tyranny” by submitting to the oligarchy, by not votingfor progress, and life.
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