If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
There doesn't seem to be a way out of this conundrum for the Democratic Party. To get enough power to enact gun control, Democrats must not run on their support for gun control. Catch-22.
Turn off the TV. Put down the newspaper. There is only one appropriate response to this horrific gun tragedy and all of its predecessors. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and, most importantly, tell your elected-Representatives in Washington, "Enough."
Colin Goddard was shot four times during 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 people dead. He now works with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
We must push back against the false messages and fear-mongering. Having a thoughtful and rational conversation about gun safety is not an assault on our rights; rather it is an important conversation about public health and safety.
What did the Framers have in mind? How could they have had such a peculiar and idiosyncratic notion of individual freedom?
Does anyone truly think Thomas Jefferson or James Madison envisioned a "right to bear arms" extending to the sale of high-tech combat gear to grad students?
Why is it so crazy to float the notion that the kind of assault weapon used in Aurora (not necessarily the gun itself, but the magazine) might not be the kind of thing that just anybody should be able to stroll into a gun shop and buy?
In no time, Congressmen and candidates who like to talk tough on defense will let the Aurora slaughter slide into the background, and turn back to pushing Americans to pump up military spending.
Humans can live in the wilderness quite safely so long as they don't provoke the wildlife. Sadly, in what we call civilization, we live in greater fear each day of an unprovoked human attack.
Making gun laws even more lax than they currently are, is by no means anywhere near close to the right answer to the plaguing weapons conundrum this country faces every day.
There's been so much said since the horrific shooting deaths in Aurora, CO, Friday. But our nation's leaders, in particular President Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, have been woefully silent on the one subject that counts: gun control.
Gun violence is contrary to the will of God, and thus we are called to do what we can to change the reality of our circumstances so that moviegoers and school children no longer have to be afraid of living in a violent world.
Mass shootings are increasingly common and increasingly deadly. And there's no clear end in sight.
I am sick of hearing the NRA and its supporters say, "Guns don't kill people, people do." Absolutely, but why in God's name do we have to make it that much easier for them to do so?
Though gun homicide has been the leading cause of death for black teens for years, the issue of gun control tends to find itself catapulted to the front pages and the top of political priority lists only when a high profile tragedy takes place.
With Obama's standing among white working class voters at a record low, any hint of concern about the proliferation of weapons, especially in a key battleground state like Colorado, is simply out of the question.
