Guns ARE the Issue

E. Steinberg

By Emily Steinberg

The tragic mass shooting in Arizona last weekend is the result of a three headed problem which plagues our country. If Americans, as a united whole, do not address the issues of gun control, mental health and hate filled political discourse, then we can expect more and more of these macabre and devastating events.

The proliferation of weapons in our country continues unabated. Sadly, the GOP will not move forward on gun control. It is as easy to buy a gun in America as to get a driver's license. The absurdity of some talk show hosts to say they wish there had been more guns on the scene in Arizona, so the shooter could have been taken out, is beyond belief. We need less guns, not more. This isn't the Wild West, or is it?

The 2004 repeal of the Assault Weapon Law, a federal law in the United States enacted in 1994 by the Clinton Administration, that included a ban on the sale to civilians of certain semi-automatic firearms, or so called "assault weapons", can be directly tied to the Arizona shooting. The perpetrator would have been unable to procure his weapon had the law stood. We need stronger Gun Control Laws now more than ever. With the new Republican led 112thCongress however, we can sadly expect more of the same obstructionist rhetoric on gun control about the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment.

Bob Herbert's writes in today's New York Times editorial Helpless in the Face of Madness, "...this week gave us some insight into just how sick our society has become...What is the matter with us? Are we really helpless in the face of the astounding toll that guns take on this society? More than 30,000 people die from gunfire every year. Another 66,000 or so are wounded, which means that nearly 100,000 men, women and children are shot in the United States annually. Have we really become so impotent as a society, so pathetically fearful in the face of the extremists, that we can’t even take the most modest of steps to begin curbing this horror? Where is the leadership? We know who’s on the side of the gun crazies. Where is the leadership on the side of sanity? For starters, assault weapons should be banned. Their raison d’être is to kill the maximum number of people — people, not animals — in the shortest amount of time."

Tomorrow, Mental Health.