Our Disgusting Love of Guns

Last Tuesday after I posted my blog, the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde happened that afternoon. When I heard what was taking place, I searched the news continually for days to try and grasp the whole story of what were the true events.

As everyone knows now, many mistakes were made at the cost of children and teachers lives. I watched Governor Greg Abbott report what he had known at the time, which was inaccurate, giving his standard line like so many NRA supported legislators ( including Trump) that their “prayers and condolences were with the families”. And that it wasn’t the guns that kill people but it’s the mentally ill who kill people.

Okay if that’s really what he believes , why did he cut $211 million in mental health problem program funding just in April of this year? And why is it Texas ranks LAST in the country for mental health services access?

No, I think it has more to do with the fact the NRA spends more money lobbying Texas legislators than any other state. And since the NRA does not support background checks, licensure or training to carry a handgun in public that was eliminated in Texas also. Yet ironically at the NRA a convention in Texas, no guns were allowed inside the event. Hypocrites!

As I am no stranger to being assaulted by a sick person wielding a gun, it brought back that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why do people feel the need to own a gun? This isn’t the 1800’s where you needed to hunt for your food or confront a squatter on your land or have a shootout with some rebel cowboy. I thought society had evolved yet the U.S. has more guns than people and just this year there were 213 mass shootings. We are going backwards, people.

It is reported that guns are the leading cause of death in young people in the U.S. , ages one through 19. Either by accident, suicide, family member, purposeful gang-related shootings or mass shootings such as what happened last Tuesday.

And what has always astounded me is how in the world we ever got to the place where a private citizen needs an assault weapon????

So I did a little research and the AR- 15 assault rifle was invented in the 1950’s. It evolved into the M-16 automatic rifle for military use. It was designed to be used with a high capacity magazine killing as many people in as short a time possible.

In the beginning the company, Colt, made a semi automatic version for the public in the 1960s but gun owners ( mostly hunters) didn’t really buy them. Hunters take pride in using precision and accuracy to kill deer not wanting to just spray bullets. It was looked at as a gun for radical groups so for years it was not accepted in the gun world.

Yet in 1989, there was a mass shooting at a Stockton, California schoolyard where an AK-47 was used. Obviously, someone was buying these guns and this promoted the first national debate regarding the availability of military-style semi automatic weapons.

At the beginning, many Republicans and the Democrats agreed there should be a ban on assault-style weapons. President George Bush banned imports of these weapons but did not include a ban on the AR – 15 because they were made in the U.S. In 1993, the gun control ban finally got support from the police. They were sick of their fellow policeman getting gun down by these assault weapons. President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994 which included a 10 year ban on assault style weapons. But, unfortunately it was so specific as to which weapons were banned, gun manufacturers just modified the guns to get around the restrictions. And this is when the NRA started pouring millions into political candidates coffers who were running against candidates who voted for the ban which proved to be successful in unseating them. Thus came the turnaround when the NRA became a Republicans -only donator.

Before the 1994 assault weapons ban was in effect, there were 400,000 AR- 15 style rifles in the US. Today, 20 million. Did you read that?? 20 MILLION!!! It has become the most popular rifle in America.

This is where we stand today stated by the latest Pew Research Center.

I am being realistic now. I don’t think we will ever see a day when private gun ownership is banned but we must support our legislators who want to ban assault rifles.

When Governor Abbott stated its mentally ill persons who kill people, not guns who kill people… he was wrong. I believe it’s only a mentally ill person who would OWN a semi automatic weapon such as the AR – 15 that shoots 150 rounds in 15 seconds because that person wants to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible before he is confronted, no other reason.