The weekend before Halloween was bombarded with fear, and not the good kind. In Kentucky, two African Americans were shot in a grocery store; the gunman had originally attempted to go into an African American church, but found the door locked. The Pittsburgh shooting happened at a synagogue, killing 11 people and injuring 6. As of October 29th, there have been almost 300 mass shootings this year alone. Gun violence has become an epidemic, but we aren’t treating it like one.
The fear of gun control in the United States is out of control. The misunderstanding of gun control is even worse. It doesn’t help that many anti-gun control politicians are funded and bribed by the NRA. Paul Ryan received around $180,00 from the NRA in 2016; the NRA has given him an “A+.” They gave 30 million towards Trump’s presidential campaign.
In 1996, the NRA, guided by Republican Jay Dickey, pushed through the Dickey Amendment. It barred the CDC from promoting gun control through research and cut the budget that would be needed to research gun violence. This has cost more lives than we can wrap our heads around, but the NRA makes sure it is still in place.
The NRA we know today was once a huge advocate for gun control and gun safety. Their shift started after World War 2 with their biggest accomplishment being changing the Second Amendment to mean gun rights, not trained militias. This scam is now the standard. Guns are embedded in the American masculine standard; a man should have a gun to protect himself and his family. With this, more spouse killings, child suicide, and child homicide have skyrocketed. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/29/opinion/nra-mass-shootings-pittsburgh.html
The fear of being killed the NRA has instilled in America has resulted in more killing of innocent people. A gun has never been and never will be the answer.