Will Guns Continue to Run America?

Photo taken from ABCNews.com

In late March, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, newly elected Black Democratic state representatives of Tennessee, started a protest against gun violence inside the Tennessee state courthouse. House representative Gloria Johnson was also among them.  Jones and Pearson were soon expelled for not abiding to house rules however  Gloria Johnson was not. Johnson believes she avoided expulsion simply because she was White. 

The protest followed a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.  The shooter who was once a student there, left six people dead. Another mass shooting occurred at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky resulting in five fatalities and in Atlanta in a medical clinic lobby resulting in one death and five injuries. 

Instead of lawmakers in Tennessee addressing this recurring issue, they expelled  Jones and Pearson for being the voices of gun violence victims.  

These actions expose the extreme reluctance of lawmakers in Tennessee and across the United States to immediately create safer gun laws. They do not feel the same urgency that citizens and the families of gun violence victims feel because guns, as the Second Amendment states, are a part of American culture.  This culture is killing thousands of people each year. 

Research done by ABC News shows that the United States saw the peak of gun ownership in 1993. Fifty-one percent of households in America owned a gun in that year. As a result, gun related deaths also reached their peak. This trend continues to this day.  In 2022, 45% of the American population owned a firearm. There have been several shootings in the past few months, including a case where a 16 year old African-American boy was shot when he mistakenly rang the wrong doorbell. A young white woman was shot to death by a homeowner when she drove into the wrong driveway. Eighty-nine rounds were shot into a sweet 16th birthday party in Alabama, leaving four people dead. New laws need to be created to prevent excessive firearm ownership in order to save lives.

The National Rifle Association’s financial support of  politicians slows down the process of passing safer gun laws. The National Rifle Association, also known as the NRA, is a gun rights advocacy group that lobbies and sponsors  government officials for the creation of laws that protect gun owners and manufacturers. The NRA has given more than $148 million  to politicians and government officials since 2010.  In return, these lawmakers protect the NRA’s interests.

The NRA Political Victory Fund endorses Ron DeSantis, Republican governor of Florida with an A+ rating because he supports guns.  DeSantis recently declared that he will sign a new bill that allows citizens to carry a gun without a permit in the state of Florida. This  bill allows anyone who owns a gun can conceal carry without any penalties. This is dangerous because that person who is carrying the firearm may be mentally ill, and have a higher chance of opening fire on innocent people. 

The first recorded use of a firearm was in 1364. In 1607, English colonizers  brought guns on American soil. Since then, guns have been a major part of American culture. The Second Amendment, which was created over 200 years ago, states that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.

Guns have always been very common in the US. During slavery, the majority of slave owners owned guns for self defense and as a way to threaten slaves. In the 1920s, mobs and gangs used automatic rifles during fights especially in the Prohibition Era. Many innocent people were often killed in the crossfire.  Guns were also heavily used in drug trafficking and during the cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. Guns are legal for U.S citizens and are made very accessible. That’s why thousands of innocent lives are taken each year.

Lawmakers, especially those who are Republican, are afraid they will pay a political price and possibly not get re-elected if they endorse stronger gun laws. 

On the other hand, the Maryland state government is  attempting to protect people by preventing excessive gun ownership. The most recent Maryland state gun law, the Senate bill 1 or the Gun Safety Act of 2023, was passed in March.  This new law will prevent people from bringing firearms within 100 feet of any public place. Many citizens may frown upon this law because it prevents them from having their gun freedom that America has embraced for centuries.  Republicans are the majority of lawmakers that are against gun laws, and will vote against them, especially if they are sponsored to do so. 

Lawmakers in Tennessee showed that they did not care about children dying in schools  when they expelled state representatives Jones and Pearson. So far it appears that their expulsions were racially motivated as Pearson expressed to reporters that other house members who were known for domestic violence and child molestation were not expelled. That’s why the citizens of this nation must elect lawmakers that care for the lives of children and innocent citizens, or else the issue of gun violence in America may never properly be addressed.