Just who is our U.S. Congress representing – the gun lobbyists or the 90 percent of Americans who, in poll after poll, are strongly in favor of universal background checks for prospective gun buyers?
It’s understandable, to some degree, that many people are opposed to banning the sale of military-style assault weapons, even though arguments against banning them are specious, at best. They should be banned; and there should be government buy-back programs to destroy those that now exist.
Still, a ban on those kinds of weapons, designed to kill people, is not in the cards. Gun-lobbying groups, using scare tactics and threats, have convinced many politicians if they dare to vote to ban assault weapons, they will be defeated in the next election. Gun organizations like the NRA have long held sway over gutless politicians who tend to dance a tight two-step to any demands gun lobbyists put forth. If gun lobbyists think the Second Amendment is sacred, one would think intelligent legislators and Supreme Court justices (as has happened) would understand a ban on assault-style weapons is absolutely not an infringement on the “right to bear arms.”
In this current Congress, a ban on those weapons is almost certainly not going to happen, leaving the NRA and other gun lobbyists to celebrate what may prove to be, in years down the road, a Pyrrhic victory.
Now, getting back to background checks. The absurd gun-lobbyist arguments against them continue to be churned out. We hear such background checks are not constitutional. They’re the first step in taking away everyone’s hunting guns and self-defense weapons. Criminals and the mentally deranged won’t obey the laws anyway. Background checks, like banning guns, won’t stop violence. Ever since the slaughter of children at Newtown, Conn., it has become increasingly clear these gun-lobbying groups will fight against absolutely ANY gun restrictions, even the most sane and reasonable, such as universal background checks.
These groups never bellyache about background checks on people who board airplanes, and they never make a stink about any kinds of the many checks we American citizens have to go through in so many other aspects of life: getting a driver’s license and other kinds of licenses, driving a school bus, working with children, applying for jobs and more.
But when it comes to guns, “Whoa!” That’s treading on our rights!
Despite the hollow arguments against background checks, the American people are not convinced by such nonsense, and they have not changed their minds. At least 90 percent think still there should be background checks, and millions of NRA members think so, too.
Now, wouldn’t it be nice if all elected legislators sided with the American people for a change and not with the all-too-powerful gun lobbyists and gun manufacturers? Wouldn’t it be nice if those legislators showed some guts, some true political courage and integrity, for a change?
It now appears the U.S. Senate is going to do yet another political smokescreen (called a filibuster) so any gun-control measure can’t come up for a vote. That way, those beholden to the gun lobby won’t be held accountable because no one back home will know how they would have voted. A pack of cowards.
Let’s contact them. Let’s remind them their pro-gun-lobby voting records just may backfire on them sooner than later.