NRA Paranoia Is Silly, Dangerous; No Need to Outlaw Guns, Just Loopholes
Paul Helmke, a former three-term mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and past president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Surveys consistently show over 80 percent of Americans favor criminal background checks for every gun sale. Almost 80 percent of Americans favor requiring gun owners to register their firearms with the local police. More than 60 percent of Americans favor restricting civilian access to military-style assault weapons. Gun owners and McCain voters support the same things.
Congress should enact these policies into law as soon as possible, rather than wait for the next Columbine or Virginia Tech to do something about the epidemic of gun violence in America.
Reader Comments
gun cotrol
It is very odd, that there are a lot of people out here screaming about gun control. I have news for you, the guns don't need to be controlled. The idiots of society, need to be controlled. How about passing some laws that make it illegal to be a moron. Even better, how about passing some laws that make it illegal to own a gun if you have no social skills, or are a sociopath. the best thing they could do is require a psych evaluation, before purchasing a weapon. I own several. Mine are for target shooting, hunting wildlife, and protecting what is mine. The thing most people don't think about is, if this country gets invaded by a foreign military force, it is people like myself, that will be able to help defend our great nation. Without my weapons, I'm just another victim. I'll be damned if I'll get rid of my guns. Personally, I think every American over eighteen, should be required to take a course in firearms use and safety, even if they don't own one.
Continued
We need to empirically look inside our nation and understand what societal factors enables a person to develop a moral philosophy that says to them it is just to steel, it is just to rob, it is just to inflect pain on others, and finaly it is just to take a way someone’s’ right to live. Until the moral consciousness of this nation rises to a higher plan of existence no law will ever protect us from violence.
You are ill informed if you think gun bans will stop crime
First of all the NRA has every right to be weary of the Obama administration when it comes to gun legislation from his past history and attitudes towards guns. However the past is the past so let’s focus on what gun bills are currently making their way through congress. Although there are currently many gun bills making their rounds in congress, the most alarming and dangerous bill is known as HR2159. All of you should read this bill for yourselves at Thomas library of congress or govtract.us and of course form your own opinions on these matters. In a nut shell this bill will deny gun rights to suspected terrorist or known terrorist. At first glance this bill obviously seems to be a no brainer nobody wants crazed terrorist legally armed and supplied with weapons in which they can use to carry out malicious attacks on our nation. However there exist a stark difference in opinions between what we the citizenry perceive to be potential terrorist and what the DHS and other government agencies consider to be potential terrorist. According to the MIAC report and DHS’s “Extremist” Lexicon a plethora of U.S. citizens fall into the suspected terrorist category. People ranging from Ron Paul supporters all the way to environmentalist and everyone in between, in the eyes of DHS; pose a potential threat to homeland security. Already one million Americans have found themselves on a terrorist watch list. That’s about one in every 300 Americans are on this watch list. If this piece of legislation becomes law millions of law abiding citizens will lose their constitutional right. However there always exist a larger picture this situation is no exception and the negative ramifications form these types of bills goes far beyond denying some “right-winger” his right to buy a hunting rifle. Take the Ron Paul example, a person by just simply taking part in the political process and supporting a governmental figure who reflects their political belief system, have effectively become a potential threat. If this bill becomes law the federal government will have the unprecedented ability to force people through fear of losing their constitution rights into accepting a singular political belief structure. This goes against the very grain of a nation who prides itself on political freedom and liberty. More worrisome is when all of this is combined with president Obama’s push for a “prolonged” a.k.a indefinite detention policy for U.S. terror suspect who cannot be tried under a regular court system. Which basically means people who have been arrested without enough hard evidence to prosecute them in a regular court of law will be forced to rot in prison until they admit their guilt. Furthermore it grieves me to see that the vast majority of my fellow Americans are ignorant and only follow simple ideologies and two-bit rhetoric slogans. The solution to solving the violence in America is far more complex than just limiting access to guns.
advertisement
