In an interview with BBC, President Obama admitted that the lack of Congressional action to curtail gun violence in the U.S. has been his greatest frustration as president.
President Obama told BBC’s Jon Sopel that the U.S. needs tighter gun control in order to curtail the ongoing gun violence and lamented that Congress has refused to tackle gun control even after several instances of mass killings such as Sandy Hook in December 2012.
“If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws.”
The president also correctly pointed out that while less than 100 Americans have been killed by acts of terrorism since 9/11, there have been tens of thousand of deaths due to gun violence in the U.S. since that day nearly 14 years ago.
“If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands.”
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy, President Obama pushed hard for gun control legislation, and was met by strenuous opposition from the NRA and other gun rights organizations. Virtually every Republican member of Congress and even some Democrats shot down his proposals, which included universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons, as well as increasing access to mental health services.
As even the president acknowledges, there is virtually no hope for tighter gun control and safety measures being passed by the Republican-controlled Congress. For that, we can thank the influence of the powerful NRA and their lobbyists.
Not only is gun violence a major issue in America, which leads developed nations by a wide margin in violent deaths by firearms per capita, but so too are accidental shootings — in particular ones where children are involved. From December 2012 to December 2013, more than 100 children were killed in unintentional shootings, the majority of them in their homes by guns owned by their relatives which were not properly secured.
And that’s not an anomaly. The statistics are basically the same year after year. In other words, in any given year, there are more children accidentally killed by guns than there have been deaths from terrorism for the last 14 years.
But the NRA doesn’t care. Neither do the politicians who are bought and paid for by them, nor do the majority of gun owners. They will continue to distort President Obama’s and other proponents of gun control’s motives, falsely claiming that they want to dismantle the Second Amendment and take all of our guns. Or they make the argument that taking guns from the “good guys” who legally own their guns will mean that the “bad guys” will be emboldened to terrorize us with their illegally obtained weapons. Both arguments are bunk, of course.
It’s unclear how many more Sandy Hooks or Dylann Roofs it will take before the tide turns and the majority of Americans get behind the idea of passing some common sense gun control measures. But there are two things we can be 100% sure of…
It doesn’t matter what the NRA, Fox News, Republican politicians, or your local gun nuts say, the Second Amendment isn’t going anywhere, nor should it. Even the overwhelming majority of Democrats and liberal-progressives support the Second Amendment — no matter what anyone says. Recognizing that we have a problem with gun violence and negligence in this country doesn’t equate to abolishing the Second Amendment. It’s a ridiculous argument, with no basis in fact.
Not only will they never go away, but they will never stop their fear-mongering tactics which includes scaring their members into believing that the Democrats and liberal-progressives want to take their precious guns away. The other reason why the NRA engages in their grotesque level of striking fear into the hearts of gun owners everywhere is simple: Money and power. Every time a given politician speaks about stopping gun violence or voices their support for passing gun control laws, the NRA realizes that by publicizing those comments, tens of thousands of people will go out and buy guns and ammunition — and join the NRA.
It really is true that every time a Democrat wins the presidency, the suits who run the NRA quietly celebrate. So do the gun shop owners. Because they know that they can gin up fear that the Second Amendment is about to disappear and guns are going to be taken away, which leads to an increase in sales and profits as well as an increase in NRA membership and the accompanying influence they gain.
And believe that they are celebrating the fact that most gun nuts don’t understand that the Second Amendment will never go away. There’s a better chance of Sarah Palin becoming a Mensa candidate.
