It's time to get angry about gun violence

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

Paula Coulahan
| Special to the Rockford Register Star

The level of tragic decisiveness the Supreme Court demonstrated in overturning an executive order banning wholesale stocks is outrageous.

They reversed an executive order passed with broad bipartisan support. Its potential to protect innocent Americans caught in a never-ending cycle of mass shooting tragedies has been extinguished by the decision of the very agency that should act responsibly for the public.

Unfortunately, Americans have come to understand terms like “bump stock,” “lock down,” and “Gun Violence Archive.” Indeed, the nightmare of gun violence is part of our daily lives. According to NBC News and Gun Violence Archive, there were 9 mass shootings over the past Father's Day weekend.

It's everyone's business.

He advocates for common-sense gun legislation that could save any of us at the wading pools tomorrow; grocery store; school, church, synagogue or mosque; the shopping center; movies; a 4th of July parade or concert.

At the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, 60 people were killed and 413 injured when a gunman opened fire with a stock on his gun, causing it to fire from a similar to a machine gun.

It's time to get angry about this question.

And for those of us who were already angry and tired of fighting the powers that be, it's time to do something more.

I encourage you to join Sandy Hook Promise and become a volunteer. This nonprofit organization is made up of parents who lost their children in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting on December 14, 2012. They went from appearing on the news to crying in front of a pile of animals stuffed animals surrounded by lights and Christmas. lights, to become warriors in the fight to protect America's children from gun violence. They continually work for common sense gun laws.

Consider joining Everytown for Gun Safety/Moms Demand Action, grassroots organizations working together for legislation and basic public safety related to gun violence and responsible gun ownership.

Write to your legislators and tell them that what we have in place to protect people is not enough. Tell them we need them to reinstate the assault weapons ban.

The initial federal ban on assault weapons was passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. In 2004, the ban expired.

The data shows an almost immediate – and sharp – increase in gun deaths in the years after it expired. (theconversation.com).

As part of the reenactment of this ban, there may be pressure to include a ban on moguls again. This is how it works, one step forward and you know the rest.

And to those of you who constantly reaffirm that the Founding Fathers granted you the right to own guns, you are right. They did it. But no civilian needs a semi-automatic weapon or a shock stock. These are intended for combat. Is this what we are in, the fight? This doesn't seem like a very good world to convey.

This order, banning bulk stocks, was intended to protect everyone from babies in church to grandparents buying a birthday cake at the Piggly Wiggly from being decimated by a weapon equivalent to a machine gun .

Shame, shame, shame on this country that cares more about guns than people.

If we do nothing, blood will be on all our hands.

Paula Coulahan of Rockford is a retired journalist and educator with Everytown for Gun Safety/Moms Demand Action and Sandy Hook Promise.

Lina Portman

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