The NRA blocked an AR-15 ban and innocents immediately paid the price
This week’s mass shooting in Colorado makes it clear the NRA’s pro-death policies have gone from absurd political theatrics to clear and present danger. Just last week, the NRA celebrated a big victory over the city of Boulder, Colorado, and blocked a ban on assault weapons like the AR-15.
It didn’t even take a single week for the first AR-15 mass murderer to wipe out ten people and a cop in the city of Boulder.
Boulder Police officer Eric Talley was gunned down Monday. Officer Talley was a father of seven, a well-trained, well-intentioned man who served his community honorably for years. Officer Talley was the mythical good guy with a gun we have heard so much about from the NRA, starting after the Newtown tragedy.
Officer Eric Talley is my big brother. He died today in the Boulder shooting. My heart is broken. I cannot explain how beautiful he was and what a devastating loss this is to so many. Fly high my sweet brother. You always wanted to be a pilot (damn color blindness). Soar. pic.twitter.com/tgt2DxPsqz
— Kirstin (@Roozersmom) March 23, 2021
Officer Talley had hopes and dreams and a family who loved him. He spent his life protecting his community. Our gun laws failed to protect Officer Talley, just as they fail us all far too often because of an ideology built on a ridiculous lie about the Constitution’s protections of the right to organize a militia — originally intended to defend against a potential British invasion in the 18th century.
The House passed the Bipartisan Background Checks bill last week with votes from Democratic and Republican representatives. Ninety percent of Americans support universal background checks as they’d implement. So why are Senate Republicans dragging their feet?
Look at the ridiculous laws championed by the NRA and gun advocates: Guns on campus? When I was in college you couldn’t have a microwave in your dorm room. Or a candle. Open carry? It didn’t save Tamir Rice’s life when the teenager carried a toy gun.
The Second Amendment has aged badly, and it was never in place for any of the reasons that the NRA or any Republican lawmaker have given as a reason for opposing sensible gun regulation.
I’m not opposed to hunting, shooting sports, or honest people owning guns. However, if you own a gun, it should be registered and you should have to consent to a background check. Red flag laws are a necessity too because they provide due process if there’s a reason for authorities to request a gun owner to peacefully surrender their firearms.
The Second Amendment is not about hunting or self-protection. It was about wielding the same political power the founders used to achieve democratic self-rule. Today, this would equate to citizens owning Apache helicopters, stealth bombers, armed drones, and nuclear submarines. I doubt many NRA members would support that.
Even machine guns are already banned for private use because of their deadly repeat-fire capabilities and the AR-15 has a pretty similar killing power.
Let’s not have a self-protection argument as it was never the framers’ intent. It’s absurd to believe, as some wingnuts do, that if the principal and teachers were armed school shootings wouldn’t happen. They would.
More guns are not the answer to the problem of violence in our nation. We need to regulate guns like we regulate other things that kill, and the text of the Second Amendment makes it clear that regulation is appropriate as one of only ten places in the Constitution that mentions the regulatory powers of government.
What is wrong with treating guns like automobiles and requiring registration and insurance? Or like drugs which we screen somewhat before doctors prescribe them to the public? How can anyone think marijuana is more dangerous than an AR-15? But our laws say it is so.
No one should ever be allowed to purchase any gun for any reason without a serious waiting period. Last week’s mass shooting in Atlanta should end that argument forever. Assault weapons and high-capacity rounds are good for one purpose only: hunting and killing humans. They should be forever banned. If you need an assault weapon to make you feel like more of a man you might have problems big enough to keep you from owning one.
The tragedy in Boulder was just as horrific as it was entirely predictable. As a nation, we have lived in fear of the mass murders the NRA supports for far too long. We have lived through this too many times to count! There have been way too many calls for change to count. Republican elected officials and the NRA who have fought to keep our ridiculous gun laws in place have blood on their hands that will never be washed away.
Otherwise, the next Officer Eric Talley has to live in fear of losing their life to a mass murderer, as do too many Americans.
Christopher Hahn is a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the most aggressive Liberal commentator on Fox News. Follow him on Twitter, @ChristopherHahn.
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