One more tragedy
The mass shooting that took place on Monday in Washington D.C. has again moved the on gun control and the Second Amendment to the forefront. This was another avoidable tragedy, which occurred because of lax gun control laws and inaction in Congress. The suspect, Aaron Alexis, bought his weapons legally, despite having a criminal record that included two gun-related arrests and a history of mental problems. He carried out this massacre with a semiautomatic gun and a shotgun.
What needs to happen for people to take this issue seriously? More than enough has happened, but the incidents have fallen on deaf ears.
These massacres are far too common. This is the seventh mass shooting since 2009including Sandy Hook in Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were murdered. On Monday, 13 people lost their lives, including the alleged shooter.
Early this year, legislation was introduced to fight this type of violence, which included mental health reforms, background checks and high-capacity magazine restrictions. However, that measure failed in Congress. This is the same Congress that would rather waste its time and resources fruitlessly trying to repeal the Health Care Reform instead of tackling this national epidemic.
Although the Obama administration is already working on executive actions to close several loopholes without the consent of Congress, that’s not enough.
Each day, 33 Americans die because of gun violence. How long do lawmakers think they can stay in office, without taking any action to help their constituents, while at the same time helping the very groups that lobby to put more weapons on the street?
Congress’ inability to pass common-sense measures to decrease gun violence is a ticking time bomb, that’s as dangerous as the gunmen who carried out these tragedies.
It’s time for action. The President must exhaust all his executive options. Congress needs to carefully review its dependent relationship with the gun industry and make up for lost time. Ignoring more than 30,000 gun deaths per year, will not go unnoticed, especially when congressional elections are only a year away.
