Every day I pick up the newspaper, I read about a shooting that has taken place in this country. Not just any shooting, usually a mass shooting where several people were either injured or killed.
So, it amazed me when I picked up USA Today and read on the front page that the National Rifle Association has toughened its stance against background checks.
Simply put, the NRA plans on spending millions of dollars on lobbyists to fight any bill that will require individuals to go through background checks before obtaining gun permits that may surface in Congress.
I wholeheartedly support and believe in the Second Amendment, which grants all citizens the right to bear arms. I have even considered attending a few gun shows and have contemplated purchasing a handgun.
However, I do not suffer from any mental illness, nor do I ever plan to carry the gun around just because I can. I want to purchase a gun for two reasons: to protect myself and to have my own gun when I go to gun ranges.
But just because citizens of this great country have the right to own a gun does not mean they should.
No one needs an assault rifle. This is not 1860, and we are not on the brink of a civil war. There are no soldiers barging into homes or militiamen running amuck.
But there are children taking guns to school, mentally unstable individuals killing innocent people and those murdering their mothers and fathers because there is no federal law that requires a background check before obtaining a permit.
Just this week, a young boy from Sarasota took a handgun to school.
I am not a parent, but I am an aunt. The thought of a 13-year-old child at school with a gun is ludicrous.
But the NRA does not share my view. Well, at least not this year. According to USA Today, in 1999, the NRA stated it was “reasonable” to require background checks before obtaining a gun.
Today, that stance has changed. According to the article in USA Today, “The gun-show loophole allows some sales at gun shows without the buyer’s name being checked against a federal database of convicted felons and the mentally ill.”
The NRA cannot fathom losing any revenue, even if it means saving lives.