There is another mass shooting in the United States that's making headlines nationwide -- this time in Highland Park, Illinois. A 21 year-old idiot killed 7 people and wounded dozens with an assault-style weapon.
If you got all of your information on mass shootings from the national news, you might think mass shootings are fairly rare in the U.S. -- after all, it's been a couple of weeks since the last one. But you would be mistaken. They are not rare. They are commonplace.
Last year, there were 692 mass shootings in the United States according to the Gun Violence Archive. That is nearly two mass shootings for every day in that year. And they are not subsiding. As I write this, there have already been 315 mass shootings this year -- and we are just entering the summer months (the prime time for mass shootings).
Mass shootings are very rare in other developed nations. It is only in the United States that they are more than a daily event.
Republicans would like for you to believe that it's because of the mentally ill. But most mass shooters are not mentally ill, and most of the mentally ill are not dangerous. The U.S. doesn't have any more mentally ill people than any other developed nation.
What we have more of - a lot more - is guns. We have over 400 million guns in this country with a population of only about 330 million people. And our laws are loose enough to allow anyone (including criminals and other dangerous people) to buy any kind of gun they want.
It doesn't have to be this way. We could pass some stricter (and constitutional) laws to control gun violence in this country. We could close the loopholes in the background check law. We could ban the purchase of assault-style weapons (the choice of most mass shooters). We could restrict the size of ammunition magazines. And we could pass a national red-flag law to take guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
All of the above are constitutional, and none would take guns away from honest and law-abiding people. Those who say it would are LYING!
Sadly, we have one political party that has decided guns are more important that American lives. They refuse to pass any kind of gun laws. Some of them voted for a rather weak bipartisan bill recently, but that bill did nothing that would actually curb gun violence in the country -- keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
Nothing will be done until gun-loving Republicans are voted out of office. It is up to the voters. Do you want politicians that will protect guns, or politicians that will protect the lives of innocent people.