With the recent string of mass shooting taking place in just about every corner of the United States when will our country wake up and realize that guns are a big part of the problem? The NRA (National Rifle Association) has so entrenched their antiquated way for thinking upon many Americans that it may well be darn near impossible to convince them of the facts otherwise.
Sixty-one mass shootings since 1982. Just about all of those guns obtained “legally” in the states where they were used for horrific crimes. The United States is a country loaded with firearms and they are being used a lot of the time for dubious purposes. It never has nor will likely be, popular in the future to talk about more “gun control.” Politicians do their best to stay away from the incessant fear people have of the government taking away all their guns.
But Americans are by in large reasonable people. Poll after poll has shown that upwards of 90% of Americans have no qualms about a background check for every transaction that involves a gun, including the “gun show” loophole, which is “gun collectors may sell from private citizen to private citizen without any type of check whatsoever.” Scary stuff. It happens everywhere, not just at he traditional gun shows.
After the horrific shooting of 27 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, that state passed some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation, second only to New York. And they are better for it. Magazine size limits, universal background checks on all transfers of firearms from one person or entity to another, ammo certificates, long rifles and shotguns are regulated now and Ar-15's are illegal (grandfathered in for those who owned previously). And the State is safer.
Facing a tough re-election fight in the state, Governor Malloy has taken a brave stand against the gun lobby saying recently, “ What this is about is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible — even if they are mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background," Malloy said on CNN's "State of the Union" broadcast just after signing Connecticut's new gun restrictions into law. "They don't care. They want to sell guns."
No one doubts that mental illness plays a big role in the mass shootings that take place on a regular basis. No one is saying our mental health system doesn't need substantial time improvements in order to catch the signs of mental illness before tragedy’s like this happen. But the biggest factor is the guns. Access to all sorts of firepower, which gives unstable people easy access to weapons that are designed to kill fast and as accurately as possible. That is their purpose.
What is un-American is the continued resistance to “common sense” gun legislation like the kind we have seen from states like Connecticut. When will the people have the courage to stand up and tell the NRA the answer is not to put a gun in every school but to get them out away from our kids. I hope that time comes soon before the next mass shooting strikes and wounds the nation's heart yet again.