Whenever there is a mass shooting in America, and unfortunately that is a too frequent occurrence, rational people call for better gun control. But because of the politics of guns in this country, nothing changes.
So people keep getting slaughtered in mass shootings. Bullets in America keep earning frequent flier miles. Violence broods in the air as we all nervously perch on the precipice of carnage.
How long will America tolerate people being shot like fish in a barrel?
Yes, people, not guns, kill people. And every country in the world has bigoted extremists and folks with serious mental health issues.
The difference is in America it is uniquely easy for one of those people to obtain a gun and carry out a horrific tragedy such as the one that killed 11 people and wounded six more in a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday.
Mass murder in a synagogue on the Sabbath, another infamous and senseless bloodbath to join Las Vegas, Orlando, Blacksburg, Sandy Hook, Sutherland Springs, Killeen, San Ysidro, Austin and Columbine in the annals of gun horror.
When extremists and/or the mentally ill reach the snapping point, it would be much more preferable if they went to the hunt without a gun.
It’s way past time we pull the trigger on America’s gun problem.
America has weak gun laws. Tapioca pudding is stronger.
Other developed nations at the very least require one or more background checks and often something more rigorous — ranging from specific training courses to rules for locking up firearms to more arduous licensing requirements to specific justifications beyond self-defense for owning a gun.
In the U.S. even a background check isn’t a total requirement. The current federal law is riddled with loopholes. Poor enforcement compounds the problem, enabling many ways around even a basic background check.
There simply are very few barriers, if any, to getting a gun in America.
Then there is the multiplicity of guns in the U.S. We have far more guns than any other country period. According to 2017 statistics, the number of civilian-owned firearms in America was 120.5 guns per 100 residents.
Yep, more firearms than people.
The world’s second-ranked country was Yemen, a quasi-failed state torn by civil war, with 52.8 guns per 100 residents according to an analysis from the Small Arms Survey.
The resultant death rate in America is appalling. The U.S. has nearly six times the gun homicide rate of Canada, more than seven times that of Sweden and nearly 16 times that of Germany, according to United Nations data.
In fact, 96 people are killed by guns every day in America and hundreds more are shot.
With numbing numbers like that, Americans may start walking around layered in sheet metal.
America has an absolute grease fire on its hands and it will not abate until we put a muzzle on the abundance of guns. Why our legislators do not address this is an enigma wrapped in a riddle sponsored by the NRA.
Until they put some firepower into our gun laws, the bullets will continue to zing the air and massacre innocents.
