As I write this, there has been a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a deranged 18 year-old with an AR-15 Assault Rifle went into an elementary school and killed 19 children, ages eight to 10, and two teachers. The killer was shot to death by police.
Just the week before that, another hate filled 18 year old white supremacist traveled 200 miles from Conklin to Buffalo, New York. Driving to a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood, carrying a modified Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic rifle, he opens fire in the parking lot and in the supermarket, yelling racial slurs, and kills 11 people, all Black. This was racially motivated. The killer is still alive and is waiting to be tried.
And now, as I write this, another shooting has occurred at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An outpatient shot his doctor, along with another doctor, another patient, and a receptionist, again, using an AR-15 rifle. The shooter purchased it a few hours prior to the shooting.
If that isn’t enough, as I am typing out the final draft of this essay, on June 6, 2022, over the weekend, there were two more reported mass shootings, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a total of 12 dead, five other mass shootings, and who knows how many unreported ones.
This isn’t another paper about the “why” or “what made the killer do such a thing,” or even the mistakes the police made, and there were many, especially in Texas.
We’ve all been over this time and time again.
There are many killers from many categories of people: those being under the influence of drugs, mainly street drugs, those who are ostracized, life-failing types who could not hold down jobs, flunk out of school, fail at sports, fail at romance, and people in hate groups targeting certain ethnic groups, as well as the mentally deranged. Hate does kill!
All this has to be dealt with, and in the category of Mental Health, treatment must be expanded, and financed. Extremist hate groups also have to be dealt with, but I don’t know how, and that is not the main point of this essay, but it does bear mentioning.
All I can say about all this is that it happened before and it will happen again, especially in the United States. This is what American society has become, a gun crazed society. Strange that this rare happens in other free societies (war zones excluded), just in the U.S.
No, here I’ll talk about the bills that have been passed on gun control in Congress, and why they never pass. This leaves us with no new gun laws, especially with assault rifles and automatic weapons, that continue to fall into the hands of hate-filled and mentally deranged people, and racists, and once again, a shooting occurs, killing masses of people, and again, nothing ever gets done.
Why? It is the NRA (National Rifle Association) and the politicians they support. The NRA pays them off in the form of endorsing them when their re-election comes up. This is especially true with Republican politicians. The NRA contributes literally millions of dollars to endorse these candidates, and in return, they vote against any bill restricting the sale of guns, no matter what kind, to anyone, no matter who they are. The gun lobby then continues to make millions of dollars. The bottom line is MONEY!
The politicians that vote against these bills advocating guns always have excuses. Among them are:
“Passing background checks on individuals won’t do any good.”
“Restricting gun use won’t help.”
“Gun laws won’t help.”
“Guns are not the problem. People are the problem.”
“Guns don’t kill people. People kill people,” and so on. We’ve heard it all, and it’s all nonsense.
There have been cases where gun laws do work. In 1974, Massachusetts passed a gun law were any gun an individual owns must be registered in the state and have a license. In order to get that license, one must take a course on handling guns, and then storing. Possessing an unregistered gun resulted in a mandatory one year jail sentence. Road signs all along the state borderline, from interstate highways to back roads were posted, saying, “Massachusetts state gun law - Mandatory one year jail sentence.” They also went on an advertising blitz in magazine about it.
The law worked. Killings went way down.
In 1994, under President Bill Clinton, there was a nation wide ban on nine categories of semi-automatic weapons, including the AK-47. Killings went way down. When the ban expired in 2004, Congress refused to renew the ban, so when it expired, mass killings tripled.
To repeat, GUN LAWS WORK! It is a proven fact!
The motive behind the NRA is the constitutional right of every American to keep and bear arms. Carrying a gun is a right. It’s true, it is.
The Second Amendment clearly states:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed”
This made sense when this amendment was ratified, back in 1791. America back then was a pre-industrial society, a nation of farmers.
Americans, especially living on farms and the frontier, kept a musket rifle in their homes, back in the corner of their log cabins, to be used only when a threatening force such as invaders, as in the War of 1812, Indians, or outlaws invaded their homestead.
In situations like these, especially during the War of 1812, militia’s were formed, everyone banded together with their guns, fought the enemy, whoever they may be, and when the battle was over, everyone then put their guns away and resumed their normal lives.
To paraphrase Conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, “The purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that the state armies (the equivalent to today’s National Guard), meaning the militia, as it was written in 1791, would be maintained for the defense of the state.
“I was not intended to guarantee every citizen to an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires.”
Since then, the nation, its citizens, and the guns themselves have changed.
Today, there are “militias” nationwide, with collections of literally hundreds of automatic rifles and high-powered assault weapons.
The are stubbornly against these “Liberals” and “Democrats,” note the quotation marks, in which the militias believe that these left wingers want to take away ALL their guns.
This is not true.
It is true that the anti-gun lobby wants guns controlled, first by making assault weapons, used only in war, not be available to the general public, as are tanks, hand grenades, and other weapons of war. Tanks are not sold to the public, and neither are cannons, nor certain types of bombs, nor chemical weapons. Why should machine guns be available?
Of what use are weapons of war to the general public; not for hunting or even protection.
I have been in Maine, where hunting is a way of life. Hunters, both men and women, teach their children how to hunt. Guns, mostly hunting rifles, are handled in a professional manner. After a day of hunting, the rifles are locked into a case.
Children handle these guns only under adult supervision. I have talked to these hunters, so I know.
I can also understand having a gun for protection against intruders. When someone breaks into someone’s home, threatening that person and their family, it would be good to grab a hold of a gun and fend off the intruder or intruders, and if necessary, kill them. In this case, one would have to have a gun license, and a permit, with instructions on how to use that gun.
Rhode Island, for example, do require gun permits.
Gun control advocates only want each gun owned by anyone to be registered and the gun owners licensed, like one needs a license to drive a vehicle.
We do need a waiting period before one is able to buy a gun, to investigate his or her background to search for any signs of instability, before deciding to sell the guns. Any signs of mental illness, or being in hate groups of similar groups, would not permit that individual to buy a gun, and my gun dealer caught doing so would risk a stiff fine and a jail sentence.
We also cannot permit assault weapons to be sold to the general public, for risk of the user turning on the general public, as it is happening now.
Assault weapons are to be used in war, and war only. They are not needed for hunting and they are not needed to protect against intruders. Using an assault rifle in this situation may kill the intruders, but there is also a chance of killing one’s own family.
Usually, in homes, the gun owner carelessly leaves a gun lying around, and someone else, usually a child, picks it up, and pulls the trigger, sometimes killing another member of the family, and the cry is always, “I didn’t know the gun was loaded.”
Any owner of any type of gun must always learn how to use it, and store it safely away from children.
I favor the Second Amendment of the Constitution, but I also favor gun control. Guns have changed, greatly, since the 18th century, and laws to protect the general public must change along with them. What happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York; and at the Natalie Medical Building in Tulsa, Oklahoma were not the first such incidents, nor will they be the last.
Mass shooting occurred for over 25 years, and most of them never made national headlines, and they have been happening in schools, churches, supermarkets, restaurants, and public gatherings, including political rallies and rock concerts.
When a mass shooting occurs, be it killing young children or a congregation in church, bills on gun control are proposed in Congress.
Here are a few, listed in The New York Times, in an article titled “Bills Come, and Then Quietly Go (May 26, 2022; p. A13); taken in context. Some sections are copied word for word:
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed 20 six and seven year-old children, and six teachers.
This was a Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Senator Joe Manchin III and Senator Patrick J. Toomey proposed a bill to strengthen criminal background checks on gun buyers. Democrats expanded the measure to include expanded background checks, an assault weapons ban, and a limit on the size of gun magazines one can buy.
This bill had bi-partisan support and chances looked good that it would pass, but talks stretched on for months, and the NRA stepped in, charging that it would create a national gun registry, even though the bill outlawed a creation of one.
The Senate voted 54-46, in favor, but six votes short of the required 60 votes for the bill to pass. Five Democrats joined the Republican majority in opposing it.
It must be noted here that many of these Senators are supported by the NRA.
Here are some other examples:
On June 17, 2015, a white gunman killed nine Black people during a Bible study at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Democrats proposed closing the “Charleston Loophole” allowing the dealer to immediately sell the gun to the buyer if the background check takes longer than three business days.
The closing of the loophole would be that the buyer would have to wait until the check was completed, regardless of how long it would take.
However, the Republicans controlled both chambers of state Congress in South Carolina, so no hearing or vote was ever held.
The bill was dead on arrival.
On February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, a former student killed 14 students and three adults.
Senator Marco Rubio introduced a “Red Flag Bill” seeking to give law enforcement the ability to restrict gun access to unstable and potentially violent people.
Here, the students formed protests that gained national attention, and many were interviewed on talk shows.
With Republican control of Congress, the bill made little headway. Mr. Rubio introduced the bill two more times, but never received a floor vote.
These are just three of the most infamous mass shootings, and the reactions by Congress. Many others occurred, many bills were passed after each one, but either the bills never received a floor vote or they were defeated.
There was one exception to all this, and that was at Sutherland Springs, Texas, at the First Baptist Church. There, a gunman opened fire in the congregation, killing 26 people. The gunman was able to purchase his weapon despite a domestic violence conviction.
U.S. Congress proposed the Fix NICS Act, a rare, bipartisan piece of legislation backed by the NRA, making modest (emphasis mine) improvements to the background checks system, requiring states and federal agencies to do a better job reporting legal and mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The measure, which gun safety advocates describe as important but extremely modest, passed as part of a giant 2018 catchall spending bill.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 256 to 167 and the Senate by 65 to 32.
President Trump signed it into law.
It was better than nothing, but only slightly. These laws were already in effect, this bill just “improved” them by strengthen what they already had.
Other shootings occurred, more innocent people were killed, more bills were proposed, and they all went nowhere.
The excuse is always the same.
“This isn’t a good time to discuss gun control laws.”
This is coming from the NRA. To them, there is never a good time to discuss gun control, and when a bill is proposed, they vote it down, so nothing ever gets done.
Will anything get done now, after the latest (so far) school shooting in Texas? Probably not.
The weekend after the shooting, the NRA held a convention in Houston, Texas, with guest politicians such as Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Governor Abbott of Texas. The irony is that the convention was held in the same state 300 miles from the shooting.
Here is a list of gun reform proposals that should/must be passed into law:
Ban ALL assault weapons. They are military weapons only, and they are to remain in the hands of the military. Illegal possession of any assault weapon will result in a stiff and mandatory jail sentence.
Machine guns has been federally regulated for 90 years, and the U.S. is still a free country, and we still have our Second Amendment rights.
Ban the sale of high capacity gun magazines.
It must be noted here that the Second Amendment in NOT absolute, nor unlimited. It never has been.
All legal guns must be registered and each owner must have a license to use one. This is just common sense for a responsible gun owner.
Once a person owns a gun, they are totally responsible for it. It that gun falls into the hands of a killer or any type of criminal, that owner must account for it.
Any individual or gun supplier that provides weapons to criminals and others unfit to use them shall be subjects to stiff penalties, including fines and mandatory jail sentences.
Before anyone buys a gun, there must be a strong background check, with no loopholes, exceptions, or favors. Any signs of instability or any history or presently being a member of an extremist hate group shall be denied. Any felon, fugitive, and an individual under a restraining order shall be denied.
Red Flag laws are required. A parent, teacher, or counselor can notify the law and courts is the child is exhibiting violent tendencies, including suicide.
Also, remove guns from people in crisis.
Safe gun storage laws are required. People who fail to secure guns from children and criminals shall be subjected to punishment by stiff fines and/or jail sentence.
Raise the legal age of buying a gun to 21.
Mental health resources must be available to gun sellers and investigators.
Gun manufacturers will have no immunity in the event that one of their guns be used in a mass shooting. Gun manufacturers will be subjected to lawsuits should one occur.
All guns, whether purchased in gun shops or on the internet, or any other source, shall be held to the same laws, and each individual wanting to buy a gun shall be subject to the background checks previously mentioned. Any gun to be given to another person must register the transfer to the courts, as one registers an automobile when it is sold.
Once a gun is manufactured, it shall have a serial number.
Ban ghost guns; that is, any gun that does not have a serial number that can’t be traced.
Initiate gun buyback programs. They do work!
The above mentioned proposals will not be popular with the NRA.
Even if these laws are passed, one single package of gun laws will not solve the problem. This is what the Republican Party and the NRA are counting on to continue to vote against them. There will be potential mass murderers who will find a loophole and take advantage of it, so there will be more killings. It will be less then before, but they will still occur.
Pass gun control laws to eradicate the plague of killings will have to be an ongoing thing, a matter of trial and error. The way to deal with this is that when another does occur, examine the way it happened and take the necessary precautions on how to prevent it from happening again, and they may range from more security to passing more gun control laws.
The killings will decrease, but it will take a while, and the passing of laws before we can perfect the prevention of mass killings completely. This will take years, but it is possible.
All this is NOT a violation of the Second Amendment. The right to keep and bear arms needs to apply to those who have the knowledge and responsibility of handling them. It does not mean one has the right to keep, to quote the military, “weapons of mass destruction,” and that is exactly what assault rifles are.
The NRA will no doubt object to this because this will result in them losing both their wealth and power. The loss will be in the millions of dollars.
Politicians who depend on the NRA for support, and being re-elected time and time again will lose a valuable source of income.
This is WHY nothing ever gets done after a massacre. Any politician support by the NRA has a chance of losing money and their office. Instead, they cry crocodile tears, extend their “thoughts and prayers,” and then comes up with an excuse on why they can’t support any bills proposing new gun control laws. They simply don’t want to lose their money or their livelihood.
There were 45,222 gun deaths in the United States in 2020. More children are killed by guns than by any other cause. More children are killed by guns than American soldiers in recent wars. This means nothing to the NRA, or their supporters.
The killer at Robb Elementary School purchased two assault rifles on his 18th birthday, days before he committed this atrocity.
Last, notice that the rest of the world has guns, but not as many gun deaths (except in war zones, but that is a different story).
Why is that?
The U.S. is the only country in the world where the number of guns owned by civilians is greater than the entire population of that country.
There are 120 guns for every 100 Americans, according to the Switzerland based Small Arms survey.
First, this is how Canada requires each individual on purchasing a firearm (from CNN).
Obtain a Firearm License (Mandatory 28 day waiting period).
Submit a photo and signature of photo guarantor.
Complete a Multi-day Gun Safety Course and pass written and practical tests.
Complete background check that considers criminal record, mental health history, domestic violence history, and whether applicant poses risk of harm to anyone.
Provide two references.
Provide signature of conjugal partners with the last two years.
Because of this, mass shootings are an extreme rarity. One did occur at the University of Toronto in 1989, and another in 2020 in Nova Scotia. These explain the requirements just listed.
These requirements are stricter than the United States, but looser than most other countries.
Homicides still occur in Canada.
In response to the mass shooting in Buffalo, Uvalde, and now Tulsa, the Canadian government imposed new regulations requiring owners of military style weapons to turn in these weapons in a new “buy back” program starting in December 2022.
The Canadian government are also considering banning handguns, forbidding their sale, purchase, importation, and transfer from one owner to another.
Owners of 1500 models of semi-automatic weapons, originally to be banned, were allowed to keep them but not use them.
Prime Minister Trudeau, in 2020, did impose a list of military style rifles to be banned, and the RCMPs (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) continues to evaluate any new rifle that comes on the market to decide whether or not to put it on the banned list. (Austen, Ian and Vjosa Isai; “Canada Might Force Buyback of Assault Guns,” The New York Times, May 31, 2022, p. A7.)
Note that there have been gun buybacks in the U.S., and they worked. Many, in the thousands, have responded to it.
In Britain, in 1987 in what is known as the Hungerford massacre, a 27 year old local man used two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, which he legally owned, to kill 16 people. Britain responded by banning all semi-automatic weapons. There were no more mass shooting until 1997, where a school shooting in Scotland by a local man occurred killing 15 students and a teacher. Most handguns were then banned. It worked. Britain now has one of the lowest gun-related deaths in the developed world.
In Australia, in 1996, in the town of Port Arthur, a gunman killed 35 people. Sweeping new restrictions were imposed. Would-be gun buyers now face a 28 day waiting period and a licensing process in which the gun buyer has to give a valid reason why he wants to own a gun.
There was also a mandatory gun buyback program, and from it, one million guns were melted into slag.
Norway has banned semi-automatic weapons and requires mandatory gun safety classes and an involved licensing process.
Germany and New Zealand have both tightened their restrictions after a mass shooting, also. (Fisher, Max; “After Mass Shootings, Other Countries Acted to Change Direction;” The New York Times, May 26, 2022, p. A15.
Even though mass shootings have occurred world-wide, they are an American phenomenon because of their frequency.
The reason for this is that in other countries, action is taken after one occurs. Laws are passed restricting the sale of firearms, automatic weapons are outright banned, background checks are intense, the buyer has to obtain a license, and attend classes on how to handle a gun. As a result, killings go way down, and this includes murders, suicides, and accidental killings.
Problem here in America is that many similar bills have been proposed in Congress, but those who vote against them alway come up with the same excuses and justifications.
“We don’t want to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
“Nothing will change.”
“Background bill seems a little out of place based on what happened in Uvalde.”
“Expanding background checks would not be acceptable for the state of Wyoming.”
“I’m a Second Amendment person, period.”
“Guns are not the problem. People are the problem.”
“We cannot violate one’s Constitutional rights.”
I am leaving out the names of those who made these quotes. ALL of these quotes have been disproven, from what I have written in this essay.
The truth is, these politicians receive money from the NRA, and they don’t want this source to end, regardless of how many mass killings there are, regardless of how many people die.
They just don’t care!
Passing strict gun laws, without violating the Second Amendment, can be done. Also, as previously explained, the Second Amendment isn’t what the NRA or most gun owners think it is. It doesn’t apply to weapons of war, nor does it apply to those who have the potential to commit mass murder with them. Many of these people who support the Second Amendment have never even read it. Yes, this is a proven fact.
In gun control, there is a fine line between having a gun for protection and possessing high powered automatic weapons that could fall in to the hands of potential killers. We must recognize both sides of the story, and we have to know the difference.
It is all right to keep a gun to protect one’s family or business. It does not mean risking the lives of the American public, and that is the point of this essay.
Alastair Browne
