Parkland Shooting- Another Plea For Gun Control Laws

How many kids have to die before we will realize that the problem is not mental health. It’s sickening to see the videos from the Parkland high school shooting. Do they not have mentally ill people in Canada and France? Do you see the same type of gun violence there? Of course not. That’s because they have better gun control laws.

I am tired of having to keep writing a post- did that after Las Vegas shooting, then Texas church… it goes on and on.

The problem is we have way too many guns- and more specifically the types that are designed to kill a lot of people in a  very short amount of time- the type that are often used in these mass murders.

the problem is a lack of legislation to stop the sale of automatic weapons. Why would a 19-year need an A-15?? Why would you sell it to a 19 year old???  (He was actually 18 when he bought the rifle!)

The problem is lack of willingness on the part of our politicians to come up with a meaningful solution to the problem of gun violence. We stand atop in such mass murder cases among the industrialized countries.

The problem is that our politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, love to give lip service when such tragedies happen. Then they go their mary way when the public outcry dies down. They talk about “Oh, this is not a good time to talk about gun control. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.” That’s what we heard after Las Vegas shooting and the Texas church shooting. Then the topic just went away. So when is a good time to talk about gun control?

Never, as far as the NRA-influenced politicians are concerned.

Can we leave the politics aside for a while and come up with some common sense regulations? Can our representatives, for once, work together to come up with something that can help prevent these tragedies.
We all realize nothing will ever eliminate  gun violence? But what about coming up with regulations to help reduce sale of automatic rifles? What about allowing mental health professionals to alert the agencies if someone shows signs of violence ?

What about telling your representatives that they will not be re-elected if they don’t come up with some serious gun control laws. We are not talking about rescinding 2nd amendment here.
I for one, would rather vote for a Republican who will help come up with meaningful gun control laws than a Democrat who is bought by the NRA.

This article by Nicholas Kristof of NY Times wrote a beautiful piece after the shooting which gives hard data on gun ownership and a sane proposal for reducing gun violence, free of partisan and left/right divisive approach that we often see.

• USA has a gun ownership at about 89 guns/100 people! In comparison, Japan has 0.6.
• So it is not surprising that we have the gun murder rate of 3/100,000 compared to Japan’s 0. (Australia, England, France, and Spain were all at 0.2).

He then offers a public health approach that includes background checks, banning certain people from owning a gun such as those involved in domestic violence, under 21, ending immunity for firearm companies. He provides data on how automobiles safety over 75 years resulted in fewer deaths from auto accidents.

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