THE SLAUGHTER CONTINUES

Seventeen more. The bodies pile up, families are forever shattered, all the promise of youth squandered, and politicians, gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association (NRA) put more guns in circulation.

It is always same—protect the gun industry, even if it means mowing down concertgoers, high school and elementary school students, people in movie theaters, nightclub goers, or church worshipers—all targets in this nation turned shooting gallery. The self-proclaimed greatest nation on the earth cannot or will not protect children and unarmed adults.

Second Amendment proponents have pushed gun ownership so far that the Trump administration, on February 28, 2017, signed a bill making it easier for mentally disturbed people to buy firearms. That in and of itself is lunacy. Politicians and gun manufacturers’ greed has blinded them to what they are doing—destroying American families.

The lies coming from the gun manufacturers, the NRA, and many in Congress include: “Now is not the time to discuss gun violence.” Now most certainly is the time! If now is not the time, then tell us when.

Another doozy is, “They are coming to get your guns.” Who is the “they?” Are these people so paranoid that they think someone is out to get them all the time?

And the granddaddy of all, “Nothing can be done to stop the killings, no one can stop anyone’s intent to murder.” They are flat wrong. Of course you cannot stop all shootings, but to make that broad statement is just plain lazy and ignorant. You cannot cure all diseases, but that does not mean we stop trying to cure as many as possible.

Look at what Australia has done to curtail gun violence:

On April 28, 1996, a gunman opened fire on tourists in a seaside resort in Port Arthur, Tasmania. He killed 35 people and wounded 23 more; the worst mass murder in Australia’s history.

Australia’s government acted. Led by conservative Prime Minister John Howard, it announced a bipartisan deal with state and local governments to enact sweeping measures to keep firearms out of the hands of people who are threat to themselves and others. These policy changes have worked well.

At the heart of the push was a massive buyback of more than 600,000 semi-automatic shotguns and rifles. That figure amounted to approximately one-fifth of all firearms in circulation in Australia. The Australian laws also prohibited private sales, requiring all weapons be individually registered to their owners, and requiring that gun buyers present a “genuine reason” for needing each weapon at the time of the purchase. Self-defense was not considered a valid reason to buy a weapon. Polls showed public support for these measures at upwards of 90 percent.

According the New York Magazine, “in the decade after the (Australian) law was introduced, the firearm homicide rate dropped by 59 percent and the firearm suicide rate fell by 65, with no corresponding increase in homicides and suicides committed without guns.” 

Young people, such as those at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are not buying the argument nothing can be done. Students are fed up with politicians being bought off by the NRA and gun manufacturers, they are organizing and will hold elected officials accountable. All of us need to support their March for Our Lives March 24^th.

If you have no ideas on ways to curb the slaughter of children and innocent citizens, then please get out of the way. Some of us do have ideas, and proof, these measures work—they reduce mass killings. (To be continued)