Gun Control Will Never Happen

How many Americans have to die before Congress makes gun control a priority? Apparently 58 dead and 489 injured from a guy spraying bullets 2000 feet away from a 32nd floor hotel room is not enough.

Don’t be deceived by Congress and the NRA coming together to ban bump stocks as an act of gun control. There is a reason bump stocks were never mentioned in traditional gun control conversations before Las Vegas and that is it does not solve the problem.

The stats can and are stated over and over, but America is missing the point. Countries with gun laws do not have mass shootings in the numbers that occur in the US.

In 1996 Australia had their worst shooting in the country’s history. 35 people were killed and 23 injured. The shooter was armed with an AR15 SP1 Carbine and a L1A1 SLR battle rifle. Both are semiautomatic weapons.

After the shooting, Australian Prime Minister John Howard introduced gun control measures. It should be noted that Prime Minister Howard was a member of Australia’s centre-right Liberal Party. The National Firearms Programme Implementation Act 1996 was created and it restricted gun ownership of semiautomatic weapons and required gun owners to register their guns. The Act also included a firearm buy-back program to allow gun owners to sell back their guns that became illegal under the new gun control regulations. 650,000 guns were returned.

Since the NFA was instilled, gun deaths have declined across Australia. From 1979 to 1996 there were 11,110 gun deaths. An average of 617 gun related deaths per year. From 1997 to 2015 there were 5004 gun deaths. An average of 263 gun fatalities a year. That’s a drastic change.

Australia is just one example America could learn from. If their centre-right conservative party can pass gun control then there is no reason the Republican party can’t do the same in the US.

Yes banning bump stocks is great, but that’s the smallest change that could be made. It doesn’t fix the problem.

For every 100 Americans there are 112.6 guns. That is ridiculous. In Canada there are 30.8 guns for every 100 Canadians and in the United Kingdom there are only 6.6 guns for every 100 Brits.

When the America’s founding fathers created the 2nd Amendment they did not for see semiautomatic weapons. It is long overdue for Congress to revisit gun control, but that simply will not happen with a lunatic in office, and a GOP controlled House and Senate.

If the Las Vegas Massacre only led to Congress discussing banning bump stocks then who knows what it will take for actual gun control regulations.

In no world are semiautomatic weapons needed in the hands of civilians. At the very least, are background checks really too much too ask?

In gun loving America? Yes.