As we have seen over the past week two more young men from Texas and Ohio have taken the lives of over 30 people in mass murders in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Both men used military-type assault weapons with extended ammo magazines that allowed them to kill people in large numbers.
Meanwhile, poll after poll comes out with the vast number of citizens in the United States are for extended checks, the closing of the gun show, Internet and person-to-person sales plus the banning of the sale of assault-type weapons.
According to a poll taken by our friends at POLITICO, they show the country is ready for comprehensive gun laws that include the banning of assault weapons.
Seventy percent of respondents, including about 55 percent of Republican voters and 86 percent of Democrats, would support prohibiting such weapons, the Politico/Morning Consult poll found. Only 23 percent of voters overall said they opposed banning such weapons.
Fifty-four percent of Republicans also said they support tightening gun laws in other ways, and a supermajority, 90 percent, said they back universal background checks for firearms purchases.
73 percent of all voters said they supported stricter gun control in general, a six-point jump from early last year, while only 27 percent oppose tightening gun laws
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According to a PBS News Hour report lawmakers in Congress have offered 110 gun bills this session that run the gamut from banning certain weapons and magazines to easing restrictions on openly carrying guns.
So both sides have offered plans that been for and against stronger gun laws. But lets for the moment take a look at the so-called Red Flag laws that would encourage people to report someone with a gun who might wish to cause harm.
Again quoting from the PBS story before Feb. 14, 2018, school shooting in Parkland, Florida, an acquaintance of the gunman warned the FBI of a planned shooting. No action was taken.
By March 2018, Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida’s extreme risk protection order into law. Less than four months later, a high school student threatened to kill himself over a romantic relationship, the Pensacola News Journal reported. School officials submitted sworn affidavits, and within three days, a judge ordered the removal of an AR-15 rifle from the student’s bedroom under the state’s new law. In court, the student’s mother told the paper she no longer worried about coming home to find him dead.
So, there is evidence of the Red Flag laws working. So, let’s look at the banning of assault weapons and large magazines.
As of today seven states and Washington D.C. ban the sale or importing of AR-15 like assault weapons. Despite a number of lawsuits by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups the states have prevailed in every case.
You might recall that in 1994 President Bill Clinton did get a ban of assault weapons passed in 1994. The bill had support from 77% of the public and the backing of four former presidents George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan who was the first presidential candidate to be endorsed by the NRA all were for the ban. Unfortunately, the 10-year ban expired in 2004 despite the backing of then-President George W. Bush.
So, will there be meaningful gun laws passed in the U.S. Congress? The short answer is no and it is because two many dark money groups own members of Congress from the Republican’s and Democrats.
