Another gain was won for anti-gun control lobbyists when a compromise amendment that would expand background checks to cover Internet and gun show sales was rejected by the Senate this week.
Although it was to be expected, the Manchin-Toomey amendment was not able to overcome a filibuster led by the Grand Old Party.
Why do conservatives want to block legislation from rejecting people with a criminal or psychological history of violence from getting guns? It seems like perhaps, and this is just speculation, there may be some underhanded deals being made with the companies who make a profit from these guns being sold indiscriminately.
According to figures from the Sunlight Foundation, since 1990 the National Rifle Association has given $800,000 to 40 of the senators who opposed to the amendment. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Gun lobbyists spend millions of dollars to create ad campaigns that portray pro-gun control senators in a negative light, making it more and more undesirable to be included in these types of discussions.
I know there’s tons of publicity surrounding gun-control legislation these days, and politicians are probably fearful of being painted as “anti-Second Amendment,” but that isn’t what is happening.
What is happening is that America has more gun violence than any other developed country in the world. People are getting their hands on guns with relative ease, and it’s not anti-Second Amendment to want to enforce background checks so fewer murders occur as a result.
That being said, stricter gun control does not necessarily eliminate violence. According to a 2003 study on firearm ownership in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, countries with large populations of gun owners, like Denmark, Finland, France and Germany reported low murder rates in the early 2000s compared to other developed nations with stricter gun laws. In 2003, Germany’s murder rate was 1/9 that of its neighbor Luxembourg, where civilians cannot own guns.
We live in a society where violence is sensationalized. Movies, videogames, TV—I hate to paint them the culprit, but the unseen mechanism underlying our culture is our media, and it is influencing the tradition of violence and fear America has for so long been endorsing.
Why are background checks necessary? For the same reason background checks are necessary when applying for a job, or a place to live. No one should be handed a gun under a simple assumption that they won’t do harm. That just isn’t enough.
