I am going to Colorado in a few days to visit my children and grandchildren. The excitement over seeing them for the first time in a year has been replaced with such sadness over the tragic mass shooting in Boulder a few days ago. So random, so unexpected, so unnecessary. We all thought gun reform would come after 20 elementary school children and 6 of their teachers were murdered in Sandy Hook a few years ago. But no, nothing changed. Now we have two mass shootings in a week, Atlanta and Boulder. Will anything change? I'm not optimistic.
Here are some basic facts about gun violence:
1. Gun violence kills about 40,000 Americans a year.
2. More guns mean more deaths. americans have a unique problem with gun violence mostly because we have unique gun availibility. Not only do countries like Japan, Germany, Australia and Canada have have fewer guns and fewer deaths, but states like California, Illinois, and Iowa, where local government has restricted gun access, have less deaths.
3. The filibuster is pro-gun.
4. The main reason that members of Congress feel comfortable blocking gun control is that most Americans don't feel strongly enough about the issue to change their votes because of it.
Until lawmakers step up, mass shootings will continue to stain America. Who in their right mind think assault weapons should be used for anything but war? Who in their right mind wants mentally ill individuals to own weapons that kill? If people want to use guns to hunt and kill animals, so be it. That's not anything I would do, but I wouldn't take that pleasure away from those that do like to hunt. But to hunt and kill people at random just because the shooter had a bad day, well that's something else. This has got to stop.
As I fly to Colorado in a few days I will think of the lives just lost in Boulder, and all the lives lost in mass shootings over the years. Last year had an extraordinary number of mass shootings. I can only hope lawmakers will do something to turn the tide.
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