Jon Stewart's plea for gun control
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Anti-gun people have been trying to have a conversation on the growing concern of guns for decades now. If you haven't heard of it before it's because you haven't been paying attention. The reason they want it now is because of recent events that have shined a spotlight onto the problem. Sandy Hook is something to big to easily ignore like everyone did a couple weeks after most mass shootings.
Honestly, I just think it's a typical knee jerk reaction. Most politicans don't really care, they just want to be seen as caring by the voters. If this was such a big issue, something would of been done by now. Wait. Something has been done. You just can't go a buy a gun without fillling out some paperwork and the FBI being called. Do you have any idea how many people are not authorized to purchase a firearm. So in theory, there's a lot of potentially bad situations stopped right there. The only downside to the background checks is if said individuals decide to legally purchase a firearm.
...The reason this conversation needs to happen is because it is a problem. Mass shootings are accelerating. You can list of a bunch of reasons for it, but one of the main contributing factors is the ease in which they had access to firearms. None of them had to search the black market. None of them was looking around back allies for an illegal gun. They simply went into gun shops and bought weapons used to murder dozens of people.
Are "mass shootings" accelerating or in this age of instant news, are the events being jammed into your TV, PC, or radio faster?
Well, this last shooting, the shooter was denied to
legally purchase a firearm so he committed a felony, homicide, in order to get one. I think that kind of falls out of the realm of ease of obtaining a firearm. I mean if someone is willing to do all that in order to kill some innocents, the government can't legislate that motive away. The kid at VA Tech didn't go and buy from a store, he bought it off some idiot a few states away, if my memory serves me correctly. I think the Auroura CO kid did buy ammo off the internet, don't recall about the firearms. I know that a lot of guns used in crimes are either stolen or obtained by some other illegal means.
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This is a problem. Gun rights people try to side step it as an issue. They are throwing up roadblocks left and right. Distraction is their game because they hope to sweep it back under the rug.
There is a problem. Unfortunately the problem isn't going to be solved by making it harder for righteous individuals to legally purchase a firearm. Banning certain firearms isn't going to solve the issue either.