By Elliott Brack | Researchers know that getting to the root of a problem is the best way to solve it.
Jonas Salk recognized his vaccine immunizing youth would solve polio. It was a scourge in the days before 1955 when parents were fearful of allowing their children in public swimming pools. Now polio is approaching eradication world-wide.
What’s the root of our many rampages of killing people? The proliferation of guns, and not pistols and simple hunting rifles: no, it’s multiple-round automatic weapons that cause much of our American problem of mass killings.
Now to the core of this problem: The National Rifle Association. Their hard-line stance of adamant resistance to any change in the gun laws in America is short-sighted and harmful to our nation. It at least contributes to the continual shootings that breaks out somewhere in our country almost every day.
Close to home, right here in Georgia, 25 people are dead, and 69 wounded, in mass shootings in our state in 2015. Five people died in a family violence case in Troup County in January; five more were killed in Douglasville in February, and July I in Forsyth County, four more people were killed.
While we accept the recognition of the right for Americans to own guns, we need to stop the distribution of automatic weapons on a routine basis. We defend the right of any citizen of this country to have a weapon to protect a family, but vigorously question why such citizen need to arm himself with what amounts to weapons of mass destruction.
Many Americans can recite the locale of mass shootings: San Bernandino, the most recent; Colorado Springs; Chattanooga; Charleston; Washington, D.C.; Newtown, Conn. and the list goes on. Sadly, we are beginning to recognize that any community in the nation could be the site of the next rampage. Internationally, Paris is only the latest.
Any sitting president must feel frustrated with his hands tied as Congress fails to pass legislation to quell such incidences.
The gun problem is so acute in this country that last week it caused The New York Times to have a front-page editorial concerning gun violence. It was the first time since 1920 that the newspaper has published a front page editorial. (Click here to read the editorial.)
What can individual American do about this continuing problem?
Well, there’s an election coming in 2016. The big one is the presidential election, and so far no presidential candidate has produced a suggestion to solve this problem.
Yet it needs not be solved only at the national level. There are also elections for the state legislatures coming in 2016, as well as city elections. You as a citizen should be asking every prospective candidate you see,” What will you do to curb gun violence in America?”
Put the questions to every single candidate you seek. While we may not get national legislation on this matter, individual states and cities could pass new rules to limit the sale of guns in their individual jurisdiction. Sure, it would be challenged by the NRA, but someone’s gotta take them on. A rampage could happen here.
Tell your legislators you want action on gun violence. Remind them that the action can start at home. That gets to the root of the problem, solving it at the local level.
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