After being shot in the head two years ago, after 200,000+ people were shot in this country since then, and after Sandy Hook, Gabby Giffords decided to stop putting out press statements and start doing something to prevent the gun violence.
The other day she publicly announced that she and her husband Mark Kelly would start their own political action committee. Their goal in doing so is this: "Americans for Responsible Solutions will encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership by communicating directly with the constituents that elect them."
They call the PAC Americans for Responsible Solutions. And although the name is terribly vague, boring, and unintentionally nearly cliché, I gave them the last $100 I had in my checking account last night (I'll be brown-bagging it for lunch the next couple days). Their group will hopefully help to influence meaningful legislation to reduce the 31,000 gun related deaths we have each year.
Thirty-one thousand deaths a year from guns is more than ten times the amount of people we lost on September 11th 2001. It's more than if we had 23 Sandy Hook massacres every week.
And there are so many things that we can do that don't involve punishing law abiding citizens, or taking away anyone's right to bear arms, such as broadening those who can't legally buy guns to violent offenders who plead down from felony charges to misdemeanors, and people who are violent felons as juveniles. And these restrictions could even be time sensitive. If a person is 17 and beats the shit out of their teacher, maybe it's not a great idea to let that person own a gun at age 18. I'm not saying they can never, for the rest of their life have a gun, but there are some common sense restrictions we could put in place. If you beat the shit out of your wife and she reports you to the police, but you plead guilty of lesser, non felony charges so that you are instead charged with misdemeanors, maybe we should wait a little bit until you're allowed to buy a gun again.
The drinking age was raised to 21 to protect youth from their own risk taking. But in 45 states, people 18-20 years old are allowed to posses as many guns as they'd like, which leads to more homicides in that age-group than any other.
We should have better oversight of gun sellers to reduce the number of straw purchases, to make reporting gun thefts mandatory, and require background checks on all gun purchases.
We don't need assault weapons, or magazines with 20, 30, or 100 rounds each.
There is a lot we can do, and above are just a few examples. I've been reading a lot, and of the articles I've read so far, the one I've found the most well written, thoughtful, and concise is The Case for Gun Policy Reforms in America from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. So far, the books I am looking to purchase from Amazon are all out of stock, so maybe I'll see if the libraries around here carry them. It looks like I may not be the only one who's reading up.
Also, if you didn't see The Daily Show last night, it is absolutely worth watching. It's Jon Stewart at his best, even with a cold.
The other day she publicly announced that she and her husband Mark Kelly would start their own political action committee. Their goal in doing so is this: "Americans for Responsible Solutions will encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership by communicating directly with the constituents that elect them."
They call the PAC Americans for Responsible Solutions. And although the name is terribly vague, boring, and unintentionally nearly cliché, I gave them the last $100 I had in my checking account last night (I'll be brown-bagging it for lunch the next couple days). Their group will hopefully help to influence meaningful legislation to reduce the 31,000 gun related deaths we have each year.
Thirty-one thousand deaths a year from guns is more than ten times the amount of people we lost on September 11th 2001. It's more than if we had 23 Sandy Hook massacres every week.
And there are so many things that we can do that don't involve punishing law abiding citizens, or taking away anyone's right to bear arms, such as broadening those who can't legally buy guns to violent offenders who plead down from felony charges to misdemeanors, and people who are violent felons as juveniles. And these restrictions could even be time sensitive. If a person is 17 and beats the shit out of their teacher, maybe it's not a great idea to let that person own a gun at age 18. I'm not saying they can never, for the rest of their life have a gun, but there are some common sense restrictions we could put in place. If you beat the shit out of your wife and she reports you to the police, but you plead guilty of lesser, non felony charges so that you are instead charged with misdemeanors, maybe we should wait a little bit until you're allowed to buy a gun again.
The drinking age was raised to 21 to protect youth from their own risk taking. But in 45 states, people 18-20 years old are allowed to posses as many guns as they'd like, which leads to more homicides in that age-group than any other.
We should have better oversight of gun sellers to reduce the number of straw purchases, to make reporting gun thefts mandatory, and require background checks on all gun purchases.
We don't need assault weapons, or magazines with 20, 30, or 100 rounds each.
There is a lot we can do, and above are just a few examples. I've been reading a lot, and of the articles I've read so far, the one I've found the most well written, thoughtful, and concise is The Case for Gun Policy Reforms in America from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. So far, the books I am looking to purchase from Amazon are all out of stock, so maybe I'll see if the libraries around here carry them. It looks like I may not be the only one who's reading up.
Also, if you didn't see The Daily Show last night, it is absolutely worth watching. It's Jon Stewart at his best, even with a cold.
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