Once again, we end the week looking back on another cowardly tragedy committed by a
clearly unstable individual. Unfortunately, it was also no surprise that the
shooting was politicized before the suspect was even found… the calls for more
gun control range out louder than the shots fired early on Wednesday morning. Another
heinous act blamed on inanimate objects and those who own them rather than the
individual who committed the crime.
It
wasn’t long before posts from my liberal friends on Facebook began filling my
feed and with quotes posted my conservative friends following this initial
deluge. The most commonly used of which was a quote from then Governor
Ronald Reagan when he addressed the Republican National Convention in Miami
Florida on July 31, 1968 amid a time of tremendous racial turmoil which erupted
in riots. The excepted says simply “We
must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather
than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each
individual is accountable for his actions.” Essentially, violence is an
individual act and must be treated as such… the idea of railing against a group
of people because of the acts of an individual must be rejected.
Yesterday,
the coverage continued and, of course, the calls for more laws intensified.
While there was plenty of political banter, the quote that really crystallized the debate for me was that of Senator Marco Rubio who was quoted by the New York Times at a campaign stop in New Hampshire having said “It’s not the guns, it’s the people who are committing
these crimes. What law in the world could have prevented him from killing them?”
And that is what this all really comes down to… we must hold individuals
accountable for their acts especially those with premeditated plans who would
have followed through with this act regardless of means. In the end, this is
why there are more knife attacks and beatings in the UK… people find a way to
accomplish their goals regardless of whether they are good or evil.
Lastly, the other part of this whole equation that is being
overlooked is the fact that even when bills are passed, they are not being
enforced and/or the funding is not being spent (i.e. The National Instant
Criminal Background Check System). The NICS Improvement Amendment Act was signed into law by President Bush
on January 8, 2008 with the explicate mission to improve the background check
system in this country. The law, endorsed by the NRA by the way, allocated Congress $1.3 Billion to improve record
keeping in states which would allow greater transparency and improve the Federal
gun background check system. To date nearly 90 percent of funding has never
been spent and the Obama administration will further reduce spending from its
peak in 2015 of $78 million down to $55 million in the President’s 2016 budget
request.
Why don’t we focus on the real issues at hand instead of the
hype and politicization of tragedy? Instead of the hundreds of millions of
dollars being spent by gun control groups (keep in mind that I am well aware of
the money spend by gun rights advocacy groups in response to various proposals and campaigns calling for
the stripping away of our rights), what if we focus and put our money elsewhere
that would really have an impact on the issue at hand. What if we committed
hundreds of millions of dollars to mental health? What if we actually improved
NICS and spent the $1.3 billion? We don’t need more laws and we definitely don’t
need to prosecute and entire group of people in this country. We need to
improvements in mental health in this country and we need to improve the
effectiveness of the background check systems already in place. This is not a
debate… this is the solution!
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