This Sunday, Americans experienced the worst mass-shooting in the modern history of the country, with 59 dead, 500-plus injured when a now-deceased shooter attacked the attendees at a country music festival in Las Vegas.
In an act of domestic terrorism, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock unleashed an unfathomable amount of bullets into a crowd and then finished it off by killing himself.
Every time a mass shooting happens, the topic of gun control comes up. Everyone from the NRA to people bringing up the Second Amendment will argue to the grave that guns are their American-given right and no one has the right to take them away. On the other hand, some people want to build a large fire and toss every weapon ever mad in there and start completely ostracizing and outlawing guns in America.
These opposite ideologies show how difficult it is for the two sides to meet in the middle.
Both sides can probably agree that this man should not have had over 20 rifles, some of which were AR-15-style assault rifles in his hotel room. Both sides can definitely agree that if someone were to obtain a gun, it should be done legally, which according to ABC news, the shooter did not.
This unfathomable act doesn’t call for a termination of every gun imaginable, rather it’s a deep cry for a complete makeover of gun control laws.
It’s completely insane that any random person can walk into a sporting goods store with an empty wallet, get approved for a sporting goods credit card and purchase a deadly weapon on the shelf with little to no background check.
The second amendment was written over 228 years ago, when muskets were used to literally blow someone’s face off and the country was tasked to get rid of the overabundance of British soldiers. We haven’t had war on United States soil since the salt wars in the late 1800s.
In the last decade, we have seen an increase of Americans favoring stricter gun laws, but what will it take for restrictions to actually be applied?
In the meantime, it seems safe to say that gun laws will see no change under Trump as he has expressed his support for the second amendment and the current gun laws.
Back in April, during a rally in Atlanta, he credited the NRA and gun control advocates for helping him take office.
“You have a true friend and champion in the White House,” Trump said. “No longer will federal agencies be coming after law-abiding gun owners. No longer will the government be trying to undermine your rights and your freedoms as Americans. Instead, we will work with you, by your side.”
The NRA is responsible for contributing $30.3 million to Trump’s campaign during the election.
Bill O’Reilly said on Monday that the shooting was “the price for freedom.” The Trump administration said that this is not the time to debate gun laws. And there are probably gun advocates explaining to someone right now that if everyone had a gun, the shooting would not have occurred.
These points are brought up every time there is a mass shooting, and they change nothing. But that is their goal, they are not meant to change anything because gun rights advocates do not have a solution to the problem. Instead, they bow their heads and pray until the next news cycle begins.
It is not the time to think that the current administration will do something, because to think that the current administration will do so is to make the same mistakes that lead to Las Vegas. We elect senators and representatives who uphold the same laws that led to Sandy Hook, and then ignore the same demands for change, which led to Orlando.
It is not the time to demand that a gun rights president go against the NRA.
It is time that citizens learn how to elect representatives and senators who will take the issue seriously. Elections are always on the horizon and if people want to make a lasting change that will slow the needless violence, then we need to learn how to vote.
