A lone gunman, armed with a .45 caliber pistol and several high output magazines shot and killed 12 people in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Friday. The assassin then engaged in an extended “shootout” with law enforcement until he was fatally wounded. This could have been prevented.
Virginia’s Republican legislature killed a bill in January which would have prevented the sale of the same magazines used by the murderer.
The most recent number revealing mass shootings in 2019 was 189. During Trump’s illegitimate presidency seven of the largest mass shootings in American history happened; the largest being in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 when 58 men and women lost their lives.
After each slaughter of innocents, Trump and his cowardly party offered “thoughts and prayers,” and nothing else. They defended the NRA on each occasion.
Trump received a record $30 million from the NRA for his election campaign in 2016; Hillary Clinton received zero dollars. All Democrats combined received approximately $105,000.
My motto, “The Truth Lives Here,” is a promise. It is a fact that the Republican Party is owned by big business who use lobbyists to buy votes. Among these criminals are the pharmaceutical companies, the petroleum industry, Insurance companies, the food industry, the airline industry, the NRA, and the Christian religious right.
Finally, I am positive that allowing lobbyists to campaign for their billionaires is unconstitutional. The fourteenth amendment demands equal treatment under the law. Working class Americans do not have lobbyists. We do not have representation in the House or the Senate. Our Constitutional rights are ignored by greedy Republican  legislators.
“The Truth Lives Here.”
Op-ed by James Turnage
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