There have been 355 mass shootings in the United States this year. That’s more mass shootings than we have had days in 2015. How much higher will that number have to be for Congress to enact real gun control?
In 1996, Australia was the victim of one of the worst mass shootings in recent history. Martin Bryant went on a killing spree in Port Author, killing 35 people and wounding another 23. Australia’s response was swift as they banned the private ownership of semi automatic rifles, semi automatic shotguns, and pump action shotguns as well as reforms in gun licensing. Australia has not had a single mass shooting since then.
Here in the United States, on Dec 14, 2012, Adam Lanza went on a killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School with an automatic rifle, killing 27 people. 20 of those people were children. In the wake of the massacre, President Obama called for gun control reform. The GOP and the NRA called for the complete opposite. The NRA has often stated that they believe that the more guns people have the safer we all are. Wayne LaPierre, the President of the NRA has often said, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Statistically, that could not be more wrong.
The United States has 4.4 percent of the world’s population and almost half of civilian owned guns in the world. The United States also has about nine gun related deaths per 100,000 people, which is a much larger number than Australia’s one per 100,000 people. In states that have less people who own guns, there is a considerably lower number of gun related deaths compared to states with high gun ownership levels. Massachusetts where only 10 percent of people own guns, there were only three gun related deaths per 100,000 people as compared to Wyoming who has the highest percentage of gun ownership with its 18 gun related deaths per 100,000 people.
Most recently, 14 people were killed when a husband and wife entered a holiday party in San Bernardino, California with automatic weapons. The GOP has continually blocked any efforts to introduce gun control legislation in these past years and nothing has changed after this shooting. Speaker of the House, and former member of Congress who happened to represent Wisconsin, the state with the most gun related deaths per 100,000 people, blocked new legislation. “We’re just trying to get it right,” said Ryan. The proposed legislation that was blocked would have stopped people on no fly lists from purchasing guns. Seems like a common sense law. Why would you trust someone with a gun if you don’t trust that person on a plane? That doesn’t seem to matter to the GOP.
Until the GOP and Congress stand up to the NRA and its money. The United States will continue to be a place where gun violence rises. A place where you cannot go to a movie theatre, work, or school without the thought of getting shot and killed is in the back of your mind. It will remain open season on the American people. "The worst thing we can do is do nothing," Says Sen. Charles Schumer.
