Bringing Gun Control to the Streets

As the nation divides over the great issue of how we are to protect our children from the armed gunmen who too many a time have entered our schools, places of worship and movie theaters. We find ourselves questioning the very identity of the country. Are we the people that focuses on the protection of our innocent and young against those who would corrupt and harm them, or are we entranced in a colonial mentality, with the automatic assault rifle under our pillow, and an NRA flag over our beds?

It becomes clear that as President Obama and congressional Democrats work to bring sanity to gun policy, through the implementation of common sense legislation from the gun trafficking law proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, to the assault weapons ban from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, that the rust of congressional gridlock will be hard to break free from. What will release congress from the suffocating grip of the python that is the NRA? What will restore peace and security to our schools? What will end the gun madness that has so diseased this nation?

The money that has corrupted the democratic process, has left the halls of congress full of servants of the special interest and corporation, and silenced the voices of the people. The thousands of dollars the NRA pumps into congressional campaign budgets, and the all important rating of approval that congressman beg for makes them act like dogs whining for a bone. It is only when we as a people unite through a common voice, it is only when we say enough is enough, and it is only when we realize that with the individuals right to bear arms comes our responsibility to ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands, that we shall see an end to the blood that spills across the beautiful plains of America. A grassroots campaign to bring sanity to gun policy is vital to our success.

As it currently stands the path before us is long and tough, there are many battles against those who will scream for their ‘God given’ right to have a grenade launcher, and the hardship will be impossible to overcome if there is not a common civic passion to march forward upon it. A recent Pew Research poll found that the screams of the gun-toting Alex Jones’s of the world, are overpowering the calls for sanity and security for our children. Of the 1,502 Americans surveyed 15% of those who push the NRA agenda have contacted their representatives on the matter, while the gun control advocates who have done the same number at only 8%. The war chests necessary to implement such social change as we need on the gun issue are also far smaller than that of our opponents, with almost 25% of those who favor “gun rights” donating money to organizations furthering their cause, while a mere 5% of those who want reform doing the same.

This contrasts with the popular support for various gun control policies that were shown through another Pew Research Center Poll:

What this information tells us is that in the aftermath of the brutal shooting at the school in Sandy Hook, where the very innocence of this nation on the issue of guns was destroyed with the loud bangs of the gun, as the trigger was pulled and the shots heard around the world; is that the people may understand the need for change, but they do not have the sense of civic obligation to make it happen. Let us as one people unite and fight back with words not guns, let us create a revolution of public awareness over the problem of gun violence and how we can end it through the podium not the rifle, and inspire the citizens of America to call upon their elected officials to make change. It is only through such action that we may achieve a real and longstanding solution to this great American dilemma, and let us begin our march forward now.

By Peter Price