Senators Quietly Seeking New Path on Gun Control
” Talks to revive gun control legislation are quietly under way on Capitol Hill as a bipartisan group of senators seeks a way to bridge the differences that led to last week’s collapse of the most serious effort to overhaul the country’s gun laws in 20 years.
Drawing on the lessons from battles in the 1980s and ’90s over the Brady Bill, which failed in Congress several times before ultimately passing, gun control supporters believe they can prevail by working on a two-pronged strategy. First, they are identifying senators who might be willing to change their votes and support a background check system with fewer loopholes.
Second, they are looking to build a national campaign that would better harness overwhelming public support for universal background checks — which many national polls put at near 90 percent approval — to pressure lawmakers.”
Illustration By William Warren
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- Senators Quietly Seek a New Way Forward on Gun Control (blackchristiannews.com)
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Reblogged this on ΝΕΑ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΦΙΛΤΡΟ ΦΕΛΛΟΥ.
They aren’t giving up. Can’t let the murdered children go to waste.
Absolutely right .
When can we disgrace the Constitution and when can we not? It appears to be a discerning question, but it happens nearly everyday behind the mysterious doors of our executive and legislative branches. Now, this question has arisen once again in the face of our very own Second Amendment. Disregarding the Constitution, which each citizen of this nation holds dearly to their being, federal and state government officials are negotiating talks of banning large magazines along with nearly any assault weapon imaginable. Many of these bills do not stop at that though, so many states across the country are debating bills that would ban even the smallest of firearms such as pistols that many citizens own. In some cases, additional rider provisions are added on to these bills as well. In most of these incidences, many of the rider provisions are just as absurd as the main provisions themselves and nearly all show unconstitutionality within their bills. Not only should these bills not be passed, this debate over banning guns should not even be entertained. A ban on guns is a direct violation of the Second Amendment and a violation of our citizens’ Constitutional rights in this country. Now Let’s explore why so many U.S. citizens hold firearms so closely to their being.
“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence….”(George Washington). One of our founding fathers himself makes the claim that owning a gun in our country is of equal importance to the Constitution this country was founded upon and which this country upholds. The reason Washington made this claim is because owning a gun is how this country was founded in the first place. One of the many supporting reasons holding that claim afloat is how our nation gained independence through the use of guns to stand up to a tyrannical and oppressive government. Although there is not much evidence of tyranny in our government of today, the threat of an oppressive government will outlast any living person. The Second Amendment has not only given the average citizen the ability to stand up against an oppressive government, but the ability as a whole nation of gun-owners to ensure limited power within our government. Not only that, but the Second Amendment protects nearly every other amendment in place. Without the Second Amendment, our government could easily repeal any other amendment in place without any opposition. Furthermore, the writer’s of the Second Amendment entrusted us with the capability to have such firearms so it may never be infringed in the future. To neglect our citizens this highly valued right in the United States of America would be to neglect one of the key supporting reasons for why this nation is claimed to be so great and free.
Among the various justifications for gun ownership, in this country at least, and one of the most crucial intentions is that of the protection of life. Did you know that “since the outset of the Chicago handgun ban, the percentage of Chicago murders committed with handguns…averaged about 40% higher than it was before the law took effect”(Agresti/Smith)? The banning of handguns was later proclaimed unconstitutional and was repealed in 2010, 28 years after it’s original establishment in 1982. This being said, the streets of Chicago were actually more violent when the gun ban took place. Many claim this is because law-abiding citizens were respecting the handgun restrictions while criminals were taking advantage of the opportunity they were given. In 2005, a nationwide Gallup poll showed that of the reasons those polled owned a firearm, 67% stated that it was for protection against crime. Those citizens of Chicago weren’t allowed this very necessary protection and many paid their lives for it where the acute knowledge of them even owning a gun was so much more likely to skew a criminal willing to commit a violent crime. A survey published in 1982 found that of all the in-mates questioned, about “40% had decided not to commit a crime because they “knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun””(Agresti/Smith). In 2008, an estimated 67% of homicides were committed using a firearm. Given somewhat rational evidence that the mere possibility that an individual owns a gun for protection may obscure a criminal from committing a crime; it is near safe to say that it is wiser to own a gun than not to.
It should be unconstitutional to even question gun rights in this nation, let alone actually repeal these rights. If it weren’t for guns, then our rights, our society, our culture, and our nation wouldn’t even exist. Our firearms aided in the founding of this country and limiting any type of tyrannical control in our government. Our guns still help protect our citizens from that very same thing today. Not only is it our right to protection against an unruly authority, but it is our right to protection against any crime that threatens an individual’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. To take away the people’s firearms is to take away the very symbol of unparalleled freedom in our world. It is not only our duty as citizens of the United States of America to defend this country from both foreign and domestic threats, but it is our duty to defend the very ideals that this still great nation was built upon. If any bill passes resulting in the banning of firearms, it is a bill stabbing right at the heart of our own heritage as a country and as a culture. To pass a bill of this magnitude would only result in an enabling of additional opposition and distrust towards those who represent our people in our Republic government. These talks must be negotiated without the “knife in the back” of taking our citizens’ only real protection against those who threaten their very being. If the Second Amendment does not withstand this trying time in political history, then the continued freedom this nation shares as a whole may come to an end.
Brekon It’s looking good!
If I am not mistaken, it was Benjamin Franklin who proclaimed that being ignorant isn’t to be ashamed of.
Being unwilling to learn is. Thank you for helping me learn.