Do we have the political will to elect people who will support gun control legislation?
As a child and throughout my life I have bled red, white and blue. In 1968, I didn’t seek out the National Guard. I was drafted, U.S. Army. I fought in two wars, served nearly 24 years. I was proud to be an American.
Now I am not sure. At least 19 children and two teachers were killed by a young man with an assault weapon, handgun, etc. The previous week, 10 died at a supermarket in Buffalo by a white nationalist with an assault weapon, and there was an armed assault on a church in California. These are not lone occurrences. They all involve guns, most usually AR-15-type assault rifles. And most damning? These deaths could all have been avoided!
Today, I came to realize that those people trying to enter through our southern borders must not be coming because America is so good. They are coming because their home countries are so bad. And bad enough to put themselves and their children at such risk to live in America.
We are the only nation in the world dead set on killing its grocery shoppers, children in schools and worshipers in churches. These used to be safe places. We used to think when our kids were at school, they were safe. Not any more. Not my grandkids. Not yours, either.
Why are we not safe? This country does not have the political wherewithal to elect congressmen and women who will enact common sense laws to protect us from evil people afforded the ease with which to obtain the weapons to mass murder us.
Common sense works in other parts of American life. Why do we punish people driving drunk? Many of us like to drink but we need to be protected from those who put us in danger. Brewers and distillers don’t oppose this. We have laws to ensure cars are safe to operate. Who disagrees? Not the car manufacturers.
We continue to elect congressmen and women and state legislators who follow the money, the big campaign money to ensure continued paydays, big money to remain in office. And the real big money comes from gun manufacturers and the NRA. These organizations’ interest is not public safety. It is power and profits. They will adamantly oppose any common sense legislation that would make us safer if power and money were to be reduced. They will continue to denigrate common sense laws that will keep guns out of the hands of felons, the mentally ill and immature.
Common sense must question the need for assault rifles. These are weapons of war, made to kill, designed to maximize damage to the human body, so powerful a round can go through your home’s walls, your neighbor’s home’s walls and kill someone in the next house over. Good for deer hunting? A 5.56mm round from an AR-15, upon entering a deer’s flank, will rip the meat to shreds.
What are the chances meaningful legislation can be passed in these times? We had a presidential election in 2020, the results of which were rejected by one side and hailed by the other. All our national intelligence agencies (seven total!) confirmed Russian interference in our 2016 election. Our past president was impeached twice. Convictions did not follow, not for the facts, but for the politics.
Should we expect anything when it comes to common sense gun law legislation?
Likely not. Not in today’s disjointed America. But we must find a way. For our kids, our husbands and wives, for our teachers, for our moms and dads.
If we do nothing, the carnage will continue.