Mass Shooting, Gun Control, Background Checks: Americans Part of Cause When They Fail To Act

Most major news outlets, so far, have uncritically reported the Senates failure to pass the Manchin-Toomey expanded background check bill. Even among the so-called left-leaning news outlets, there has been little condemnation. There has been almost no uproar from Social media. Why isnt there indignation, an outcry of condemnation? Why isnt there anger expressed beyond that expressed by President Obama and a few others? Part of the reason, of course, is the Boston Marathon bombing rightly upstaged any media criticism of the Senates failure to act. The answers to two questions, however, will be interesting: Where did the bombers get their guns? Would any of the failed gun control measures have prevented the two from acquiring a gun? Legislatively, the most significant in-your-face reason rests in one acronym: NRA. The National Rifle Association and its lobbying group, the Institute for Legislative Action, are a focused, influential, and sufficiently moneyed organization who can successfully turn any congressional gun legislation to their favor. Following the horror of Sandy Hook, many expected expedited congressional action. But four months later, the expected action did not take place. President Obama claimed that 9 in 10 Americans supported background checks, which sounded convincing that the watered-down Manchin-Toomeys compromise would pass. Is NRAs influence greater than those citizens who vote? In the face of such overwhelming support, why did it fail? Based on the statistic sited by President Obama, surely this time around voters would trump NRA's influence on Congress. But the polling question was not the right question to ask. The 90% statistic Obama used most likely came from one of these surveys posted on PolitiFact.com, which, other than the CNN poll, asks some form of the basic question, Do you support or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers? Those who responded yes evidently support background checks as covered in current law, but evidently will not support them if they were to be all-inclusive and universal, significantly expanding them beyond current law.

More realistically, an Associated Press-GfK poll as of April 15 showed that only 49 percent of Americans supported stricter gun laws, which, of course, would have included background checks. The polling reported was simply wrong and misinterpreted. The overriding reason the expanded background check bill failed is that Americans have an insatiable passion for guns, reinforced by Second Amendment rights. They fear the government will take their precious guns from them. As long as Americans perceive the U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment as sacrosanct, and not a living document subject to change with the times, we will continue to be stuck in 18th century thinking, the NRA will always come out on top, and gun violence will continue. Americas attitude has to change. We need to develop a movement; one comparably capable to influence as The Tea Party, but one whose mission is solely devoted to marginalizing guns and violence. We who support stringent gun control will not have a voice heard loud and clear until the politicians fear us as much as they fear the NRA and conservative organizations like the Tea Party. Someday there will be another mass shooting and Americans certainly will be a part of its cause because they didnt do everything in their power to try to prevent it.