The house I grew up in sat on the main road of our neighborhood, and my bedroom faced the street. At night, I would lay awake listening to the whooshing of the passing cars, watching their headlights pass across my floor through the slats in the blinds. It created an eerie illusion that left me feeling uneasy. I often imagined tall men in dark clothing standing out on the street holding heavy, black guns in their glove-clad hands. I imagined them cradling their guns like babies, curling their fingers tenderly around the deadly triggers. I called them ‘shooters.’
I now know exactly what a ‘shooter’ is, and they work tirelessly. On average, 31 Americans are killed by guns every single day.
After the massacre in Orlando, gun control has once again become a front-and-center issue in American politics. Democrats camped out on the House floor and filibustered in the Senate for 15 hours in their fight for stricter gun control. But once again, the NRA has the Republicans wrapped around their fingers.
It’s ridiculous that the gun lobby has the power to control the majority of our legislature, especially when so many Americans support the new “No Fly, No Buy” measures. According to a recent CNN/ORC Poll, 85% of people say they support banning people on the “no fly” list from purchasing guns. So why aren’t these measures passing?
I understand the issue people have with this legislation. We can’t refuse people their due process; we can’t deny people their constitutional right. (Even though I have a feeling that the Founding Fathers didn’t exactly have military-grade assault weapons in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment). But that’s why we’re going to make sure there are ways to protect the people unfairly put on the list from being denied their guns. The appeals process will be in place to help people who are mistakenly put on the list.
These gun control measures really are common sense legislation. If we don’t trust someone to fly, then why do we trust them to own weapons? Weapons that can kill innocent people in the blink of an eye. The gun that the Orlando Shooter used to commit a hate crime against the Latin LGBTA+ community in Orlando was designed to kill. The bullets enter the body and spin around and around, inflicting irreparable internal damage. These types of weapons shouldn’t be in the hands of civilians. And while the gun the Orlando Shooter used was a Sig Sauer MCX and not an AR-15, as is widely believed, it is still just as lethal and has the same skill set: deadly precision and accuracy, ease of access, and a lightweight design for increased mobility.
People we deem unsafe to fly should not be able to buy a gun with that kind of intense, deadly power. We keep those on the list off of our planes to prevent a second 9/11. When will we keep people out of gun stores to prevent a second Orlando, San Bernardino, Charleston, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Columbine? When is enough enough? How many more Americans have to die before our lawmakers act? “No Fly, No Buy” is common sense legislation, so let’s starting acting like it.
