It’s The NRA’s World And We’re All Living In It — The Gun Lobby’s Policies Are A Miserable Failure

We have experienced three mass gun slaughters in just the last few days. There were massacres in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio. There have been a total of 250 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019 in only 217 days. The U.S. is the only first world industrial country that is plagued by an epidemic of constant gun massacres.

Let’s take a look at the numbers and see how the U.S. compares to other 1st world countries when it comes to mass killings.

Mass shootings, 2019:

Germany: 0

Italy: 0

UK: 0

Australia: 0

Spain: 0

Saudi: 0

France: 0

Canada: 1

Brazil: 1

Netherlands: 1

Mexico: 3

US: 250

UK: Pop. 65 million

US: Pop. 330 million (5x)

UK: Gun homicides (2017): 31

US: Gun homicides (2017): 14,542 (469x)

From the NY Times: “Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns. From 1966 to 2012, 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American, according to a 2015 study by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama.”

Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times: “The U.S. has more than 300 million guns — roughly one for every citizen — and stands out as well for its gun death rates. At the other extreme, Japan has less than one gun per 100 people, and typically fewer than 10 gun deaths a year in the entire country.”

It is obvious that the U.S. is truly exceptional when it comes to gun ownership and mass gun slaughters. The reason why we are so different than other countries is because the U.S. has the worst gun laws in the first world. If more guns made us safer, the U.S. would be the safest country in the world. The reality is that the gun lobby a/k/a the NRA has dominated U.S. gun policy for the last 40 years. This continuing plague of gun massacres represents the abject failure of the NRA’s policies.

The recent El Paso massacre provides an excellent test case of how the NRA’s theory that having more guns in the hopes that a “good guy with a gun” will make us safer is such a complete failure. Texas’ gun laws were written by the NRA:

• a universal background checks system riddled with loopholes;
• no ban on assault weapons or high capacity magazines;
• no licensing or registration requirements for gun owners;-
• no limits on how many firearms can be purchased at one time;
• the perpetrator of the Dayton, Ohio murders purchased online from Texas his AR-15 style rifle.

In addition, Texas is an open carry state and the El Paso Walmart is an open-carry store. The evildoer in El Paso was acting legally until he actually fired at his victims. Moreover, it was illegal for anyone to challenge him until the moment he murdered them.There was no “good guy” with a gun to stop the evildoer with a gun. The El Paso massacre should forever discredit the NRA’s belief that more guns makes us safer.

Nebraska’s Congressional delegation supports the gun lobby’s failed policies. Earlier this year, Don Bacon, Jeff Fortenberry, and Adrian Smith all voted against a gun safety bill that passed the House. Mitch McConnell won’t allow an up or down vote on this bill in the Senate. Both Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse support McConnell’s obstruction of gun safety legislation in the Senate. In 2013, Fischer voted against background check legislation shortly after the slaughter of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, Connecticut.

The only way we are going to stop these ongoing massacres is to elect more Democrats in 2020. We need to win the White House, Senate and the House of Representatives next year. (The filibuster rule in the Senate must also be eliminated.) It is a realistic goal in light of Trump’s low approval ratings. Now let’s get it done! Thank you for all that you do!