I don’t want to write about a mass shooting every month. Twenty-six more people were killed Sunday by that same AR-15 type assault rifle that had once been banned. The Republicans, once again, are dismissing the need to deal with this growing crisis. They are spinning the same old story about how “mental health” is the problem, not the guns — as if they are not also hard at work cutting mental health funding!
Americans need to wake up about this and learn the facts. Everyone needs to study and understand this chart.
There are more more mass killings in the US because there are more guns — far more guns. It is that simple.
There are any number of ways to start solving the problem. Just banning (again) this one type of gun would save many lives. It baffles me why any civilian would want a rapid-fire, military-type assault rifle. They are not designed for hunting game, and are far too unwieldy for in-home defense — the two most commonly expressed reasons for gun ownership. An assault rifle is designed to kill multiple people quickly. That is its purpose. It is a military weapon. Such a device has no place on our streets or in the hands of civilians.
Those members of Congress who prioritize the profits of the merchants of death over the innocent lives of our citizens must be replaced. Voters need to become scarier to our politicians than the NRA.
How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished! (2 Samuel 1:27)
Source: Max Fisher and Josh Keller, “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer”, New York Times, November 7, 2017.