Why no action on guns?

Comments Off Islam

Feb 20

Florida Times Union Feb 20, 2018

Following the tragic and violent gun deaths of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, our home state Sen. Marco Rubio insinuated that gun laws would not have prevented this tragedy.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told a radio station, “We need to take a breath and collect the facts.”

While Rubio was making a case for fatalism, Ryan was making a case for collective ignorance. But the facts are overwhelming.

School shootings are a uniquely American problem. This year there has been seven school shootings, more than one per week.

According to the Washington Post, since 2000 there have been 188 shootings at schools and universities, killing more than 200 students and injuring another 200.

According to a study from the University of Alabama, between 1966 and 2012, America witnessed 90 mass shootings. The next country on that list has fewer than 20.

According to data compiled by Mother Jones, since 2000 there have been 66 mass shootings in the U.S., killing 578 people and injuring over 1,000. No other country comes close to matching these gruesome statistics.

Mr. Speaker, we have the data. What explains your inaction? Sen. Rubio, we also know that gun safety laws help.

After a deadly mass shooting in 1996, Australia passed common-sense gun safety laws. Australia also had a gun culture. Australia essentially banned rapid-fire guns. Mass shootings dropped, as did gun-related deaths.
Why has the U.S. Congress not conducted open hearings? Why have we refused to learn the best practices of other countries? Money from gun lobby may offer an answer. Rubio and Ryan are listed as the second and the third largest recipiens of money from the gun lobby. At the top of the list is Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas. It appears that our elected representatives have traded away the lives of our children for a fistful of dollars.

Speaking about the tragedy, President Donald Trump gave a 740-word speech. The word “guns” did not appear once in that speech.

The Anti-Defamation League is reporting that Cruz had ties to a white supremacist group and he hurled slurs at blacks and Muslims. Yet the Trump administration has slashed budgets on countering violent extremism, particularly the extremism emanating from the right-wing white nationalist and supremacist groups.

How many young people will we have to bury before our nation acts?