Why do Republicans in Congress remain recalcitrant regarding the enactment of smart, sensible gun reforms to end mass shootings?
This is clearly evidenced by Republican ruthlessness in protecting the powerful gun lobby at the expense of citizens’ safety and wellbeing — the exact opposite of their sworn oath of office under the U.S. Constitution.
The radical right in Congress is at the whim of its chief accomplice and patron, the notorious National Rifle Association (NRA), which is likewise nefarious in its nonstop pro-gun propaganda.
Both congressional Republicans and the NRA now have even more blood on their hands in the wake of the latest gun-related mass murder in Maine.
Ditto that for some conservative Democrats — those in gun loving states or congressional districts — who are also obedient to the NRA.
Consider the following, to reiterate just a few facts, to put the issue of guns in America into a clearer context:
- There are more firearms among the American civilian population than people — over 400 million according to a global ranking by the Small Arms Survey.
- No other country has more guns or annual mass shootings than America, which is far worse than the Philippines, Russia, China or India, for example.
- Americans alone own about 40% of all guns in the world, more than all civilians combined in 25 other countries.
- A survey by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva (part of the Small Arms Survey) shows the gun ownership rate for Americans is about 120 per every 100 people.
No other country comes even close to the USA per gun ownership among its people. And no other country comes even close to America per mass shooting incidents. The two are inextricably linked.
Republican Myths
Following are some typical myths which need to be demystified and debunked about assault weapons, as enunciated by radical Republicans and the negligent NRA:
MYTH: Banning assault weapons will lead to a national ban on all gun sales.
As everyone knows by now, military-style assault weapons — like the infamous AR-15 — are weapons of war meant to kill as many people as possible, and as quickly as possible.
That’s why many major law enforcement organizations and police officers support a prohibition on the sale of assault weapons.
Fighting crime is difficult and dangerous enough without having to apprehend criminals using military-style weapons of war.
Banning semi-automatic assault weapons will not result in a so-called “slippery slope” leading to the abolition of all guns, as pro-gun advocates profess. This is particularly true considering how many handguns are already on the streets of America, and how easily they are unlawfully obtained.
It would be near impossible to eradicate the colossal number of guns already circulating nationwide, not to mention prohibiting all sales of any new guns.
Yet, despite the record-breaking number of mass shootings across the USA, modern history shows that it is indeed possible for the President and Congress to successfully work in unison to enact smart, sensible restrictions on weapons of war in the hands of ordinary citizens.
The truth, however inconvenient for Republican extremists, is that banning assault weapons can indeed be accomplished while simultaneously upholding broad Second Amendment gun rights.
It’s not a binary decision. We do not have to endure the proliferation of mass shooting tragedies.
All that’s needed is the political willingness to get the job done — which has been sorely lacking in Congress for decades due to right-wing intransigence.
Reasonable Restrictions
President Bill Clinton, for whom I once worked, proved the aforementioned point in 1994 when he signed the last national ban on assault weapons. But provisions of that bill inserted by Republicans at the behest of the gun lobby let the law lapse after a decade.
What’s the predictable result of failing to ban assault weapons nationally?
America today is a nation incessantly on edge, a country which has lost its moral compass.
When the Founding Fathers penned the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the weapons of choice were muskets. Did the framers of the Constitution really anticipate citizens of the future arming themselves with the deadliest types of firearms which can kill and maim dozens of people in minutes?
Regardless of where you stand on a host of contentious gun issues, enough is enough already!
President Biden must assert his executive authority to ban assault weapons by declaring a National Emergency.
Founders Original Intent
It’s illuminating that a now deceased leading fixture of the conservative movement had expressed serious doubts about keeping assault weapons in the hands of the general public.
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia inferred that the Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms” is NOT necessarily ironclad, according to an interview he conducted on Fox News Sunday.
“They had some limitations on the nature of arms that could be borne,” Scalia said regarding the context of the Founding Fathers’ original intent during the 18th century.
When asked about how the modern-day Supreme Court might rule in a case involving the legality of assault weapons in the public sphere, Scalia offered a tepid reply: “We’ll see…It will have to be decided.”
Although the Supreme Court has consistently upheld gun rights, it has also stated that — in certain circumstances — reasonable restrictions on firearms are consistent with the Constitution, per the 2009 ruling in United States v. Hayes.
Weapon of Choice
It’s outrageous that unchecked gun violence is now the leading cause of death among children in America. Citizens simply don’t need access to an AR-15 or any type of assault weapons for lawful purposes.
The AR-15 has been labeled as the “weapon of choice” for deranged gunmen carrying out mass murders. This type of firearm, for example, was outlawed when the decade-long assault weapons ban was effectively in place before Republicans killed it legislatively.
The NRA and congressional Republicans made sure there were loopholes to weaken the legislative intent of this reasonable restriction on firearms.
Ask yourself this: Should people really be able to purchase semi-automatic firearms as effortlessly as buying bread and milk at the local grocery store? What about sacred Second Amendment rights?
It should be noted that there’s a significant difference between the “right to keep and bear arms” and arming oneself with the most lethal types of firearms. This should be a simple question of common sense to any rational-minded person.
Are citizens able to purchase tanks at the local car dealership or shoulder-fired missiles at the neighborhood Walmart?
While many Americans approve of the Second Amendment’s guarantee to own guns, why aren’t handguns and rifles enough without adding assault weapons to the deadly mix?
As the hunting season begins in many states, ask yourself whether “sportsmen” really need semi-automatic weapons to facilitate hunting down Bambi and her friends in the forest?
Yes, Guns Kill People
The often-cited NRA mantra: “Guns don’t kill people…people kill people” is a malicious misnomer.
On that note, the NRA and their pro-gun accomplices in Congress continue saying things like, “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun.”
Of course there is a mental health crisis in America, but allowing the use of assault weapons only makes a bad problem much worse.
As Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisianna, the newly minted Republican Speaker of the House, just told Fox News host Sean Hannity during his show: “The problem is the human heart, it’s not guns, it’s not the weapons.”
While one could argue that guns technically don’t kill people by pulling the trigger on their own, assault weapons are an unequivocal deadly means to that end on a mass scale.
Facts are facts no matter how the NRA and GOP spin it.
There’s a major distinction between pulling the trigger of a handgun or a rifle versus that of an AR-15 or AK-47 military-style assault weapon.
Again, it’s important to remember that the only purpose of such weapons of war is to kill as many people as possible, and as quickly as possible.
Final Thoughts
You can support reasonable gun reforms without supporting the abolition of all guns. Don’t let the NRA brainwash you into equating one with the other. This is not a mutually exclusive matter.
Having control over weapons of mass murder is a good thing, whereas total loss of control to mass murders is not.
Every legitimate national public opinion survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly support reasonable restrictions on firearms by passing gun reforms — such as universal background checks and red flag laws, as well as a host of other smart and sensible gun control measures.
Why have GOP lawmakers put their own political and personal self-interest above the vital interests of the American people whom they purport to represent?
That’s why President Biden must use his executive authority under the Constitution to outlaw the sale of assault weapons by declaring the epidemic of mass gun violence as a National Emergency.
It is the duty of the Executive Branch to act if Congress and the Supreme Court continually refuse to take responsible action on behalf of public safety.
Presidential action to ban assault weapons by declaring a National Emergency is not a first resort, but it should be the last resort if it means saving innocent lives, including the lives of children.
Just ask those who have been traumatized by mass gun violence.
DBG
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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