What will it take to change? What will it take for the US to move toward the tighter gun laws that we have in Australia, where the freedom to own guns is balanced against the greater public good? First and foremost it will take a political leader who is willing to sacrifice their career to do what’s right. Until politicians in the US are prepared to risk their own political scalp, stand up to the powerful gun lobby and even anger their own voting base to limit the general public’s access to certain types of weapons, America will continue to drown in gun blood. As an idea of how far behind the US is on meaningful gun control, earlier this year, President Obama was still fighting to have ‘armour piercing’ ammunition removed from the shelves of gun stores. Some call it baby steps. Others call it meaningless tinkering at the edges.
Having recently spent two weeks in Iceland and Norway, it was interesting to have been exposed to different viewpoints of America. Iceland, one of the most heavily armed (per capita) nations in the world, doesn’t even allow its police to carry weapons…and yet it has an exceedingly low rate of gun violence. Norway allows gun ownership, but every weapon is registered with the government. Those with criminal records, domestic violence histories, and/or mental health issues aren’t allow to own weapons. Norway also has a very low rate of gun violence. What these two examples tell me is that it IS possible for a country and its people to have a healthy relationship with firearms. Unfortunately, here in America, gun violence has exploded to the point where the Surgeon General now considers it a public health issue.
Think about that for a moment.
We Americans have allowed the debate to be dominated by those who traffic in bloodshed and suffering. Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © have worked to foster an atmosphere in which calling for common sense gun control is defined as wanting to curtail our 2nd Amendment rights. That these “rights” have nothing to do with what the 2nd Amendment actually says is evidence of how monstrous Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © have become in their pursuit of Guns uber Alles.
Blood and tears is implicity viewed and defined by Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © as the cost of freedom, and the only acceptable answer to gun violence is yet more guns. Effecting change has proven impossible because the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the gun lobby have purchased enough Congressmen to ensure they won’t have to worry about anything that runs counter to their interests getting through Congress. And we- the vast majority of Americans who favor common sense gun control- have stood by mutely as our homeland has become awash in the blood of innocents.
Until political leaders in the US are willing to lose political skin to change their gun laws, we will not see an end to gun massacres in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
So how can we have any hope that things will change, that we’ll be able to figure out a way to stop, or at the very least curtial, the senseless, random mass shootings that have claimed so many thousands of lives (e.g.- 137 school shootings since Sandy Hook)? It looks increasingly likely that it will require a sacrificial lamb- someone willing to take on the NRA and their fellow travelers and put their political career at risk by doing so.
Right now, it appears there is no one in Congress willing to put their career on the line in order to save lives. To call this cowardice wouldn’t begin to describe a political environment in which those addicted to guns and willing to countenance bloodshed as the price of freedom rule without question.
Change is certainly possible, but it’s going to take those of us who believe in common sense gun control to demand of our elected representatives that they stand up for the will of the people who’ve elected them- and not the NRA and the rest of the gun lobby that owns them lock, stock, and barrel.
Or are we to be OK with an environment that witnesses a school shooting on average once a week?
We’re better than this…aren’t we??
