Our Recurring Problem with Guns
04/21/2021
Our Recurring Problem with Guns
Robert A. Levine 4-21-21
How can America solve its problem with guns? Our nation has more deaths and serious injuries due to guns than any other nation in the world. In fact, we probably have more gun deaths than all the other nations in the world combined. Recently, we have seen mass killings by guns on at least a weekly basis. Yet we can’t seem to get a handle on the gun dilemma and cut down on gun deaths. Perhaps that’s because we have more guns in civilian hands than any other country, greater than our population itself. Estimates are that there are about 400 million guns in America.
The obvious way to cut down on deaths due to guns is to cut down on the number of guns in civilian hands. However, even the thought of that action enrages gun owners who point to the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution as the basis of their right to have guns. While the 2nd Amendment is open to interpretation, we will not address that here. There are other ways to approach this problem that the majority of Americans seem to agree on.
Enhanced background checks are first and foremost and there are no valid reasons why these should be thorough and intrusive. Any criminal history, domestic abuse, suicide attempts and so forth should prevent a person from owning a gun. Civilian gun ownership should be approved for one of two reasons- for hunting, or protection in the home or on a dangerous job. This means that automatic or semi-automatic weapons should be banned. These are weapons of war and there is no reason they should be owned by civilians. Gun buyers should also be at least 21 before being allowed to buy guns.
For ten years, 1994-2004, assault weapons were federally banned, supported by Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter among others. Enhanced gun clips should also be banned, forcing people to reload after firing a number of shots. The majority of our population favors all the measures mentioned above. Though some states have passed restrictions on gun ownership, nearby states may have no limitations and buyers travel to these open states to buy guns. Or they get them at gun shows or over the Internet which are not tightly monitored.
Though the measures above are all common sense, the NRA has been opposed to any restrictions and the GOP in Congress and the Senate is afraid of the NRA. They should no longer be as the NRA is a bankrupt organization with little remaining power. Now is the time to get a bipartisan gun law passed in Congress to cut down on civilian gun deaths.
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