Well-read, sensible Americans are fully aware that some changes in our nation’s gun laws are mandatory. The safety of the majority must outweigh the louder voices of the few.

The fact: So far in 2015, there have been 307 days, and 318 mass shootings.

Another fact: “States with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths.” (President Obama)

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a report card for all states; 27 received an ‘F’ for their lack of gun security. These states often do not require any background checks for purchase other than at gun stores; they do not require gun registration; owners are not required to report a stolen or lost weapon; and the sale of assault rifles and high-output magazines is unlimited.

The ‘low’ ten in the rankings are Wyoming, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama, Montana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and South Carolina.

The NRA Lobby will make up statistics to counteract these ratings and the facts, but they will have zero validity. The truth is that other than these mass shootings, approximately 35,000 innocent people die from the use of a gun every year in the United States, the majority are women and children. Most of these deaths are at the hand of a family member or someone well-known to the victims; the others are accidental deaths and suicides. There are no statistics available representing injury or death when a child gains access to a loaded weapon. Local newspapers report unsettling numbers; all the result of improper gun storage.

The screaming from ‘gun nuts, is always about their ‘second amendment rights.’ The wording in the Constitution is ambiguous, but the NRA claims it is not. It fails to admit the truth; if our founding fathers could have foreseen the weapons available today, some restrictions would have been added to the wording.

No one, no true American wants to repeal the second amendment, but no true American would ignore the fact that our nation is ‘nuts’ about its guns. No other developed nation in the world has gun ownership in the numbers of the United States. Other nation’s care more about their people than the billionaires who make guns, and the millionaires who sell them.

The fault lies within our GOP legislators, who receive campaign contributions from the NRA Lobby. They fail to protect those who vote for them in favor of a billion dollar industry. Another special interest failure.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of Kevin Dooley

Author’s Page http://www.amazon.com/By-James-turnage/e/B00LOCJ2Z2