Whether you are for or against gun control, February 14, 2018 will always mark a day of tragedy in the United States of America. A shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 dead, and cranked the heat up on an already heated debate on gun control and mental illness.
As people debate whether tackling the issue of gun control or mental illness will be most helpful in preventing future mass shootings, one thing is for certain; the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) fingerprints are all over this, and many previous mass shootings.
In the 2016 election cycle, the NRA, which “goes to great lengths (and spends a huge sum of money) to defend the right to bear arms… Is opposed to virtually every form of gun regulation,” according to OpenSecrets.org.
The NRA, which almost exclusively backs Republican candidates, spent over $50 million in the 2016 election cycle. According to Quartz, most of this money went towards fighting democrat candidates that supported gun-reform. This astronomically high number includes $ 11.4 million in campaign ads for our President, Donald Trump, and $19.8 million in ads against the Democratic Presidential nominee, Hilary Clinton.
For or against gun control, the sheer amount of money that is spent on politicians should frighten Americans. How can a politician like John McCain, who over the course of his political career has taken almost $8 million, from the NRA, ever have an unbiased vote?
The answer is simple. He can’t.
According to Fortune.com both the top 5 Senators and Representatives who have benefited the most from NRA contributions all belong to the Republican Party. The question then becomes, how can the Republican Party not be corrupt with such an influx of money coming from one organization?
In a country that loves to preach freedom and the American way, it is becoming evident that politicians have agendas set for them by their “campaign contributors.” It has been like this since the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that political spending was protected under free speech.
When will school children receive that same level of protection? It is a question that will continue to arise, as there seems to be no end in sight for the mass-shooting problem that America is faced with in today’s world.