About two weeks ago, we witnessed the worst mass shooting in the modern history of our country. The gunman had excessive amounts of guns and ammunition which he used to kill at least 59 people and wound over 500 people.
People often make the case that it is their second amendment right to own guns. I understand it is your right, but at what cost? I would like to see stricter regulations on guns which would prevent them from getting into the hands of people who carry out these mass shooting without taking away guns from sane people who rightfully obtain their guns.
Sunday, October 1, 2017, started as an ordinary Sunday. People in Vegas were enjoying the Route 91 country music festival when they heard sounds that sounded like fireworks. Everyone started looking for fireworks, but when they did not see anything they assumed the popping sounds must have been feedback from the microphones and speakers. After a few minutes, people began to realize that the sounds were gunshots.
According to the Los Angeles Times, there is a bill currently being discussed by Congress called the Sportsman’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, or SHARE Act, which would allow gun owners to transport registered firearms across state lines, carry guns in national parks and eliminate the $200 transfer tax on silencers. This is important to know about because the number of casualties in the Vegas mass shooting could have been much greater if silencers were more easily accessible.
Supporters of this bill say we need silencers because it can prevent hearing damage amongst hunters. But is this more important than knowing you are being shot at? I don’t think so. If silencers were more easily available, people would not know they were being shot at until it was too late. Also, it is currently very easy in some states to obtain a firearms license even if you do not live in that state. If the SHARE act was passed, people who obtain a firearms license fairly easily from a state they do not live in would be able to have the lenient gun laws of the state in which they obtained their license supersede the gun laws in their own state. This becomes dangerous very fast.
As we know, the Vegas shooter was in possession of several semiautomatic weapons. The uses for semiautomatic weapons are greatly limited. Right now, having both semiautomatic weapons and bump stocks legalized is basically as good as fully automatic weapons still being legal. We need to take actions to quickly ban both semiautomatic weapons and bump stocks.
We also know that the Vegas shooter had several bump stocks in his possession. Bump stocks are completely unnecessary because they can be used to turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons just like the Vegas shooter did. Had bump stocks been illegal, the number of victims in the Vegas shooting would be much less. Thankfully, according to an article by TechCrunch, Youtube has banned bump stock instructional videos in response to the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Also, according to an article by the New York Times, stores like Walmart and Cabelas have banned bump stocks from being listed on their websites as a response to the massacre in Vegas. This is a start but this is not good enough.
According to an online press release, Senator Dianne Feinstein and colleagues have proposed a bill, called the Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act, which would “ban the ban the sale, transfer, importation, manufacture or possession of bump stocks, trigger cranks and similar accessories that accelerate a semi-automatic rifle’s rate of fire.” We need to ban the manufacture and possession of accessories that accelerate a semi-automatic rifles rate of fire or the ban on automatic weapons is ineffective and almost useless.
I strongly believe is that we need to limit the number of guns one can purchase in their lifetime. We constantly debate over the types of guns people should be allowed to purchase legally, but after the Vegas shooting, I believe there is absolutely no reason for one individual to be in possession of so many guns. According to USA Today, the Vegas shooter had 23 guns with him in his hotel room and another 19 in his home. I firmly believe there is never a justifiable reason for any one person to be in possession of so many firearms.
Many of you have probably heard about the gun show loophole and how it needs to be closed immediately. However, many of you might not know exactly what this means.
Gun shows are temporary markets for guns and ammunition. These are different from gun shops which are licensed gun dealers. The difference is that unlicensed sellers can legally sell guns and ammunition at gun shows. The difference between licensed gun dealers and unlicensed dealers is that unlike licensed dealers, unlicensed dealers do not earn a living selling guns.
The gun show loophole refers to the private sales of guns and ammunition by unlicensed private gun owners. Because they are unlicensed, they are not required to keep records of who they sell guns to and not required perform background checks on potential gun buyers.
The gun show loophole specifically refers to the fact that people prohibited from purchasing guns can avoid background checks by going to these gun shows. Many people who have gone to gun shows have said it is very easy to obtain a gun. They said that they are usually able to successfully purchase a gun at a gun show in about 15 minutes, and they are usually not asked to provide any identification or go through any background checks.
We can close the gun show loophole by requiring sellers at gun shows to perform the same background checks required of licensed gun dealers. According to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act has prevented more than 1.3 million criminals and other prohibited purchasers from buying guns. The CSVG also says that the law has a deterrent effect-felons, domestic abusers and other prohibited purchasers are less likely to try to buy guns when they know comprehensive background check requirements are in place.
Many of you may be reading this article and agreeing with my statements. An overwhelming majority of US citizens agree we need more gun control. According to a Gallup poll, in 2016 majority of US citizens felt that laws covering the sale of firearms should be made more strict. So why does stricter legislation regarding the sale of firearms never seem to pass?
This is because many of our lawmakers are bought by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Every year, the NRA donates millions of dollars to Republican lawmakers in Congress, and those same Republicans continuously block proposed gun control legislation. According to the Washington Post, current members of Congress have received $4.23 million in donations from the National Rifle Association since 1988. It is my belief that more congressmen would vote in favor of proposed stricter gun laws if we eliminated the funding they received from the NRA.
While direct contributions to congressmen from the NRA may seem low, the NRA injects far more money into our politics in other ways. According to The Center for Responsive Politics, the nation’s premier nonprofit and independent research group for tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections, The NRA gave the 54 senators who in 2015 voted against a measure prohibiting people on the government’s terrorist watch list from buying guns with $37 million in support. The NRA also gave $27 million in direct and indirect support to 50 senators who voted against a bill to require universal background checks for firearms purchases.
We need to stricter laws covering the sale of firearms here in the United States. The reason our congressmen always feel that “now is not the time to talk about it” is because they hope that it will go away before people do talk about gun law reform. Perhaps we could have less of these massacres that occur far too often if our congressmen were more concerned with what our nation's citizens wanted instead of lining their pockets with money from the NRA.
The only way to get our congressmen to enact common-sense gun laws is to stop the funds that are coming to them from the NRA. Let's make a change for the better so that we may see massacres like Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook, and so many more become a thing of the past. Let's begin to take the steps necessary so we no longer have to be the nation with the highest rate of firearms-related deaths.
