There is a reason I named my article after Thomas Paine's 1776 Pamphlet. The United States has faced many issues in the past several years. We've just got out of two wars and are about to get involved with a third in the Middle East. The economy is not in the best state and could be a hell of a lot better. African Americans, Hispanics and Muslims still face racism whether you want to admit it or not. But right now I am going to focus on an issue that has greatly divided Americans: gun violence.

I wish to speak about this in light of President Obama's recent speech in which he announced his intention to use executive action to get some common sense gun control legislation passed. The Republican hopefuls criticized Obama before he even announced his plans on gun control. Right off the bat, they called his moves unconstitutional...even though they had no idea of the details of the gun control policies.

Then the President spoke. He gave forth his plans and they are the following (provided by this Forbes Article).

1. Keep guns out of the wrong hands through background checks.

This first one should be pretty much self-explanatory. The idea is that more thorough background checks be done on a person who wishes to purchase a gun. If you are a gun dealer, you need a license and would be required to carry out background checks on people who try to purchase a firearm from you.

2. Make our communities safer from gun violence.

This point deals with laws that are already in effect and would have law enforcement ensure these laws are enforced much stronger than they already are.

3. Increase mental health treatment and reporting to the background check system.

I'm not saying every person with a mental illness is going to shoot up a school or movie theater (just like every gun owner isn't automatically a bad person), but in the past we have seen that the perpetrators (with the exception of a few cases) of these attacks had some mental issue going on. This part of the law would make it legal for said issues to be reported in background checks.

4. Shape the future of gun safety technology.

The President is urging that the development of technology also focus on making guns a lot safer. As he put it, if our phones can only be activated with a certain fingerprint (in some cases) why can't the same go for our firearms?

While reading these points and hearing President Obama speak, never once did I hear the words, "I'm sending federal agents and soldiers to your homes to take your guns away." I watched the speech several times and didn't hear this as part of his plans. If you are that cynical and that conservative that your hatred of this man has blinded your eyes and covered your ears, then maybe you misinterpreted what he has said. The media (especially FOX News) has not been helping in this matter, but I digress. Obama has less than a year left in office; if he were really going to try to take your guns away, why wait until this late in his presidency? If a bill to make stricter gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Shooting (2012) couldn't go through, what makes you think he would succeed in taking your precious guns away now?

For those who are angry over his use of executive action, don't get your panties all twisted; these common sense laws have not been legalized yet. But think about this, you are president of the United States. The country has seen a rise in mass shootings in the time of your administration. In an effort to curb the violence, you wish to pass a series of bills that would help stymie the growing death rate, but a gridlocked Congress won't budge on this. With people still dying at the rates they are, wouldn't you use executive action? If you say no, it's very easy to say that from where you are. You are not the president.

I think the most disgusting part of this whole thing was when President Obama spoke on Sandy Hook Elementary School. He shed tears as he said, "Our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were violated for college students in Blacksburg and Santa Barbara...for high school students in Columbine...for first graders in Newtown..." Many Republican candidates, politicians and media outlets openly criticized the president...for showing emotion...for being human. The morons at FOX News have to be paid to say stupid shit like "The tears...they're just not believable..."

I am disgusted by this. I know very well that not all who call themselves Republicans feel this way, because the thought of dead first graders hurts a little inside as I write this. It baffles me that many Republican leaders and politicians value the life of an unborn fetus more than they do a living human being. I don't care if pro-life is strictly for the issue of abortion; to me, how can you truly be pro-life when after a mass shooting takes place, you just shrug your shoulders and say, "Shit happens"?

As Americans, we are granted many rights, including the right to bear and carry arms. It's in the Constitution. But we are also granted the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a document that came eleven years before on a hot July day in 1776: the Declaration of Independence. By the way, had it not been for the Declaration, we wouldn't have gone to open war with Great Britain, and we wouldn't have been able to draft our Constitution, which gave us the Bill of Rights. American citizens have the right to own and carry guns, but we also have the right to life.

I have not publicly said this and it may come back to bite me in the ass, but at this point, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of people being killed for no reason and our own government leaders blocking the president's attempts to do something about it at every turn because of his political affiliations. I am a Republican...and I am ashamed of my party. I am ashamed to call myself a Republican. Again, not all Republicans are like this, but look at what is happening to our party. I don't know what happened to the Republican Party of old, but I want it back.