It’s clear that neither the U.S. Senate nor House of Representatives will pass gun control legislation, mainly because the NRA lines the pockets of so many legislators. Sad but true. How about putting the question directly to the voters in the next election? Let’s put legislation on the table for the American voters to decide on this crucial issue.
There’s absolutely no reason why American citizens need assault weapons, and taking them away certainly doesn’t revoke our Second Amendment rights. It would, however, impede our ability to gun down scores of people in minutes.
America has become unsafe because of fear—our fear of losing the right to defend ourselves. But at what price? Santa Fe was America’s 101st mass shooting this year (an incident with four or more victims). Americans own an estimated 310 million guns, nearly half the privately-owned guns in the world. According to FBI statistics, 64 percent of American homicides are gun-related, while in Canada it’s 30.5 percent and in England 4.5 percent. What’s wrong with this picture?
Other countries have tightened gun laws with great success while still maintaining their citizens’ rights to own guns. Australia took action in 1996, and since that action their gun homicide deaths per 100,000 people have been reduced from 1.6 to 1, a decrease of 38 percent.
According to recent polls by the Pew Research Center, the majority of Americans (both gun owners and non-owners) support legislation to strengthen gun controls and ban assault weapons.
It’s time we stood up to the NRA. If our legislators won’t do it, perhaps the voting public can. Please put gun control measures, including a ban on assault weapons, on the next ballot. Let the voting public decide this issue.
Respectfully, Cook County residents:
Jane Alexander
Paulette Anholm
Lynn Arnold
Jay Arrowsmith-DeCoux
Mary Ann Atwood
Ann Bellemann
Mike DeBevec
Annie DeBevec
Steven Dobbelmannn
Denny Fitzpatrick
Amy Freeman
Lyle Gerard
Jim Hagler
Anna Hess
Diane Hiniker
Jan Horak
Katherine Horak
Diane Howard
Craig Hunter
Marcia Hyatt
Lois Johnson
Judie Johnson
Joyce Klees
Pat Kruse
Jan Lemke
Gordon Lindquist
Ann Marie Mershon
Michael Monroe
Deb Mueller
Margy Nelson
Steve Noble
Chris O’Brien
Virginia Palmer
Phyllis Parker
Tim Scannell
Kathy Sullivan
Dick Swanson
Bonnie Swanson
Lynn Swanson
Sandra Taenzer
Barb Teahen
Kari Vick
Jerry Wilkes
Pat Zankman
Karina Roth
Leave a Reply