Congress is out of (gun) control

If there is one example that clearly exposes the horrendously mangled state of our lawmaking system, it is that of gun control.

On June 7, a gunman in Santa Monica, Cal., murdered five people on a shooting spree before being shot and killed by police on the campus of Santa Monica College.

His weapon of choice was a semi-automatic assault rifle which he legally bought with no background check because it had a few pieces missing — pieces he was able to later find and install himself.

The most disturbing part about it, besides the crime itself, is how numb we are to it. Mass shootings are nothing new to us.

In the past two years or so, we’ve witnessed the killing of a federal judge and five others in Arizona, as well as the point-blank shooting of a member of Congress. We’ve seen a massacre at a Colorado movie theatre and the murder of 20 school children and six teachers in Connecticut. And these are just high-profile examples.

But after the blood and dust have settled, we hear the same lines being spewed by politicians: “This is not the time to address guns. Don’t politicize a tragedy.” I cannot even begin to describe how much that answer disgusts me.

It is absolutely the time to talk about guns.

It is absolutely the time to talk about background checks.

It is absolutely the time for the U.S. government to take any steps it can to prevent the
needless deaths of its citizens.

It’s absolutely time for Americans to take offense at the total inaction of their elected officials to protect them and their children.

Obviously, gun control legislation is a hot-button issue, and passing anything related to it is not easy to accomplish.

The Constitution guarantees the right to possess firearms, so protecting innocent lives while maintaining this right is quite difficult.

There is at least one thing we can do.

Earlier this year, President Obama and members of Congress from both parties pushed for a law requiring a background check before purchasing any gun at all. The law had unbelievable public support. A CBS/NYT poll last month found that 88 percent of Americans support background check requirements for gun purchases. As the president pointed out, there is almost nothing that garners that kind of bipartisan backing.

Such a law would keep more weapons out of the hands of those who have a history of mental instability or previous violence without infringing on the rights of gun owners.
According to CNN, Friday’s shooter had been hospitalized for those reasons in the past.

But thanks to the atrocious influence of the lobbyists and backwards thinking for which our legislative branch is famous, even that measure couldn’t pass in the Senate.
If Congress can’t manage to pass a common-sense law that has bipartisan sponsors and nearly unanimous support, all with the intention of saving lives, I don’t know what it’s good for.

Until we get it together and act like the developed and enlightened nation we are, I will continue to be embarrassed by our lawmakers’ utter refusal to protect their constituents.

I think everyone else should be, too.

­— sreddiga@indiana.edu