While our President is preoccupied with Iraq, a sniper is on the
loose near the nation’s capital, using a legally attainable
weapon to murder innocent victims.
The sniper has killed nine people since October 2, sending a
shockwave of fear through suburban Washington and the nation.
Stories of moms keeping their kids home from kindergarten and of
people being told to duck down while getting gas fill the news.
Anyone would agree that if there were a way to eradicate this
fear, it should be done. Then why are so many people in this
country resistant to controlling the ownership of the weapons that
help people like this sniper carry out acts that are so
heinous?
One of the main reasons the sniper has not been caught is that
there is no federal database of ballistic fingerprints from guns
like the one the sniper is using.
And why hasn’t legislation been approved to put together a
database, one that would help in solving and preventing many
murders in addition to the sniper case?
Because the NRA has too much influence and has prevented
Congress from passing the necessary legislation.
During the 2000 presidential campaign, NRA First Vice President
Kayne Robinson made the NRA’s aims clear: “If we (Bush
and Cheney) win, we’ll have a president where we work out of
their office.”
How is a president with such relations with the NRA supposed to
objectively evaluate current legislation before Congress? No wonder
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer blatantly dismissed new gun
legislation the other day, commenting that the issues are the
“morality” and “values” of the killer.
Well of course. If everyone had perfect morality and values, the
only problems related to guns would be accidents. But
unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world.
The NRA works hard to make sure guns are available to just about
everyone in the country. It pours thousands of dollars into
campaigns for people who are sympathetic to its views, knowing that
once they are in office, it can exert control over their
agenda.
The NRA bases their argument on the Second Amendment to the
Constitution, which states “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.”
There are many different interpretations of this amendment.
That’s fine, since the only undisputed answer could come from
the founders, who aren’t available for comment.
Isn’t it Bush himself who constantly points out
“evil in the world?” We need to accept the truth and
try to prevent certain people’s warped attitudes from causing
terror and fear in the citizens of this country.
People are always touting the “guns don’t kill
people, people kill people” mantra. Even if one believed
this, what is the point of stubbornly holding fast to this idea
when all it does is create a culture where guns are available to
the people who do want to kill? Why not remove the weapons from the
equation?
Of course there are no hard and fast ways to ensure complete
security from gun violence in America. Our leaders should prove to
the public that they are trying prevent people like the sniper from
easy access to weapons. Passing legislation to make a ballistic
fingerprint database ““ despite the NRA’s objections
““ is a good place to start.