Is this our new normal? Seven mass shooting in seven days. As GOP politicians again offer their trite “thoughts and prayers,” we continue as a nation to bury our collective head in the sand while we bury our dead. As a society, should we live in fear of a mass shooting if we go to a theater, visit a day spa, do our grocery shopping, send our children to school or go to worship?
What is most egregious is that the vast majority of Americans support significant gun reforms.90% of Americans favor background checks, 81% support taking guns from at-risk individuals and 67% support an outright ban on assault weapons, the very weapon at the heart of the vast majority of mass gun shooting. (Source: Fox News poll)
But while Americans clearly yearn for common sense gun control the GOP continues to block any substantive gun reform laws. Which means that the elected officials Americans have sent to Washington to represent our voices refuse to heed our call for putting in place common sense gun reform.
Calls for protecting the 2nd Amendment are based in a flawed interpretation of the Constitutional law that is fatuous at best and deadly at worst. Let’s look at the language of the 2nd Amendment.
It is just one sentence.
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.
What gun rights advocates continue to ignore is the concept of a “well-regulated militia” as the cornerstone of the 2nd Amendment. This did not mean that an individual was given an unfettered right to bear arms, it was that individuals as part of a “well-regulated militia” would be granted that right.
We cannot allow our politicians to continue to ignore the very real need for substantive gun reform. We can’t just forget the toll and damage that gun violence continues to wreak on our society until the next tragedy occurs where once again politicians say all the right things but do nothing in terms of actual legislation. Renewing the assault weapons ban would be a step in the right direction to removing these weapons of mass destruction from our streets. H.R. 8 calling for background checks is sitting ready to be voted on – call your legislator now and demand that they take action immediately.
Let politicians know that daily mass shootings must not become our new normal.
Barbara Kittridge is Founder / Partner at Motive LLC, an integrated political agency that brings modern marketing techniques to the political and non-profit worlds.