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KATIE ZERR : Again, Congress will do nothing


I had every intention of writing an editorial celebrating National Newspaper Week and the job small town newspapers do in their communities across the nation.
But Las Vegas changed all that.
As I watched in absolute horror at what was happening on the TV screen one thought kept running through my mind, “How could we let something like this happen again?”
I thought Sandy Hook would have been a wake up call. I thought maybe when a member of Congress nearly died on a baseball field, it would have nudged that body into some sort of action.
I have prayed that maybe one of the 270 mass shootings that have occurred in this country in 2017 might be the last straw.
But of course, by the reactions of some in Congress this week, this shooting will go with all the others as “something that just happens” in this country.
That is so wrong I can’t begin to fathom the logic.
Many in Congress are saying now is not the time to take up the conversation on tighter weapons laws. They say that is politicizing the tragedy.
They said the same exact thing after Sandy Hook; after Orlando; after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot; after Aurora; after Virginia Tech; and after Dylan Roof callously murdered nine people during a Bible study in a church.
By the time it is the “right time” to discuss any steps we can take to try to limit these kinds of tragedies, another takes place and it is the wrong time again.
There will always be something standing in the way of reform. It’s called the NRA.
This organization has our Congress by the short hairs and has the ability to threaten the so-called leaders of this nation into inaction, no matter how many people die in situations such as this, is sickening.
Members of Congress stand in a moment of silence in front of the cameras, heads bowed, making a point to show they care. If they really cared, there would be laws in place that would red flag when someone like Stephen Paddock purchases 33 rifles in one year. Not to mention the ammunition in his arsenal.
But that would infringe on his rights granted to him and all those others by the Second Amendment, according to the NRA.The Second Amendment states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. That is what this argument against controlling weapons of mass murder is all about. But in 1939 the U.S Supreme Court ruled that this amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms for certain military purposes, but that it does not curtail the Legislature’s power to regulate the nonmilitary use and ownership of weapons as both the most natural reading of the Amendment’s text and the interpretation to the history of its adoption. The Second Amendment does in no way infer that the federal government cannot and/or should not limit the type or amount of weaponry its citizens are allowed to purchase. This is not about the right to bear arms. It is about the right to bear certain types of arms.
Certain segments of our society truly believe that once there is a conversation about controlling the access to weapons that can fire hundreds of rounds of lethal ammunition in a matter of seconds, the gun police will soon be banging on the front doors of the red-blooded Americans, forcing granddad’s favorite shotgun from their hands.
I am tired of people shrugging their shoulders and saying that is the price of our freedom. The deaths of innocent people should not be seen as collateral damage of the right for someone else to own a weapon that can be easily modified to kill masses of people from 400 yards away.
Jimmie Kimmel said something so profound on Monday night that it needs repeating. He said, “When someone with a beard attacks us, we tap phones, we invoke travel bans, we build walls, we take every precaution to make sure it doesn’t happen again. When an American buys a gun and kills other Americans, we say there’s nothing we can do about that.”
We will never find out if there is something we can do about it as long as the NRA has power over Congress.
The divide between Democrats and Republicans on this issue has widened in the past 10 years. Republicans have not always been so adamantly opposed to reform talk. They have become that way since the NRA started funneling millions of dollars into political campaigns. When they get targeted and threatened by the NRA, their sense of decency goes out the door.
They pretended listened to the parents of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School beg them to take these weapons off the street. They pretended to listen when the people of this nation implored them to take a stand against these weapons that are manufactured for one reason, to kill.
But an email from Wayne LaPierre telling members of Congress that if they consider any anti-gun legislation the NRA will make sure they lose the next election holds more power than the grieving families of the children who were murdered at Sandy Hook.
That is our reality. That is what the families and friends of 59 more Americans are dealing with today.
– Katie Zerr –

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