I want the next President to do something about gun violence

We all know that would not be Mitt Romney, particularly with Paul Ryan as his Vice President.  And President Barack Obama has been sorely lacking in his support for even banning assault rifles again along with high capacity magazines.  So what do we do?  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is this nation’s strongest advocate for gun control through his organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but he already turned the job down in the past.

The NRA "elephant in the room"

I am a solid supporter of Barack Obama but if he doesn’t get the balls to come out of the closet for gun control after the recent mass shootings, I have to reassess my support.  Enough is enough and the President knows it but is afraid the NRA will doom his second term if he suddenly does what is right.  I did two posts on confirmed results that the NRA really cannot influence an election to the extent they claim.  You can see Part 1, Part 2.

Anyway there is additional evidence that the NRA myth isn’t true.  Gun control supporters from both parties have won Senate and House seats: 

Republicans include Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois, Sen. Dan Coats in Indiana; these two even picked off Democratic seats.  For the Democrats, Senators Barbara Boxer in California; Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand from New York.  Ron Wyden in Oregon, Barbara Mikulski in Maryland and Daniel Inouye in Hawaii; Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut, Michael Bennet in Colorado and Chris Coons in Delaware.

Why Mitt Romney, especially Paul Ryan, must be defeated:

Erin Capuano in a Digital Journal op-ed asks how the 2^nd Amendment has been distorted to “commit crimes and make money for the gun lobbyists?”  And the answer to that I have been talking about for years is that the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) led by Wayne LaPierre has put the fear of God in Congress and the White House that they can be easily replaced if they don’t play wacky Wayne’s game. 

She claims that amid yearly increases in gun violence and homicides, “gun laws are stripped away state by state.”

Capuano reviews the arguments over the 2^nd Amendment and how the Bill of Rights was written at a time when a new democracy was being created and there were threats of tyrannical governments and military run states, all of which has long since vanished years ago.  But wacky Wayne has hung his hat on the 2^nd Amendment and will no doubt hold on until they take it from his cold dead hands.  Yes, Charlton Heston was just as looney as LaPierre is.

The op-ed writer says “The NRA has been the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing for generations…” talking about their support for the rights of gun owners in a crusade that has repeatedly placed the right to own a gun and take it anywhere over human life.  Just look at the figures she provides from the latest year broken down, 2008, of firearms murder victims:

·       Handguns – 6,755

·       Rifles - 375

·       Shotguns - 444

·       Other not specified or type unknown - 79

·       Firearms, type not stated – 1,831

Grand Total 2008 – 9,484 deaths by firearms.

In 2010 there were 8,775 murders using guns and none of the above includes the wounded.  Take a look at my U.S. Shootings Report for July which started listing “woundings” in June, and also with links back to March.  There’s more in Capuano’s op-ed comparing gun homicides in the U.S. with those in Canada where the gun laws are much stronger. 

She closes with, “We can have stricter gun laws while still allowing people to own guns, we can limit the amount of guns that people own, the type of guns that they are able to own and where and when they are able to have those guns and use them.”  This statement should be an excellent place for the White House or someone in Congress to start the drive for more gun regulation. 

There has to be an American public now that sympathizes after the recent mass shootings.  If not, American gun deaths will continue to escalate.