Gun control in the United States has been an ongoing issue for as long as I can remember, however, as of recent it has become an issue that takes center stage. One of the first events that brought gun control to our attention was the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old shooter Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School with an assault rifle and killed 20 school children, six school staffers, his mother, and himself.
Since the shooting Democrats and President Obama have tried everything to come up with stricter gun policies. Some of their initiatives consisted of coming up with gun laws that would change the sale and use of guns in America. However, the ban on assault rifles didn’t pass in the Senate, therefore no gun initiatives were passed since the mass shooting. The Senate also shot down an Amendment that would prevent people on the FBI’s watch list from purchasing assault rifles.
Next, 49 people were killed and 53 hospitalized after terrorist Omar Mateen shot up Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016. Soon after this brought the gun control issue to the forefront where we needed to not only address gun control but lone wolf terrorists in the United States and the international terrorist organization ISIS.
During this time Presidential candidate Donald Trump found time to poke fun at the gun control issue by saying “if you had some guns at that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had.”
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton went on to call gun control a civil rights issue.
Democrats posed new laws asking for a national gun watch list, similar to the no-fly list in the U.S. They introduced four gun measures that would bar the sale of guns to terrorism suspects who appear on either the government’s no-fly or the selectee list. Democrats even forced a sit-in in the Senate to force Republicans to take a vote, however, failed in their attempt.
People in the United States need to realize that our President’s, Senate leaders, and Representatives are elected officials. They are elected by us and truly the power rests within our hands. We have the opportunity to select members of our presidential and congressional platforms that will ensure that we are represented in the best light and our safety is first.
We have to mobilize as a community to ensure that these gun laws are passed. Think about who owns these guns and the people who don’t want stricter gun laws. Think about who the funders are for the promotion of guns. The NRA is filling the pockets of Republicans and until we destabilize the NRA we will never see a difference. We need to again work together to see a difference, otherwise, everything is for nothing.
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