Everyday, United States citizens are killed by gun violence. Now, it is time for this epidemic to come to an end. One would have to live with their eyes closed in order to not notice the mass shootings that have gained momentum in our country over the last several years. Our constant mourning of mass shooting after mass shooting has deteriorated the American Dream out of existence. From the black church in South Carolina to the Planned Parenthood in Colorado to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando to the church in Sutherland Springs to the seventeen people slaughtered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas on February fourteenth, America’s problem is clear (Billboard). Can we really continue to ignore death after death at the barrel of a gun? No more lives can be lost, and our elected leaders have a responsibility to take action.
One of the simplest ways to fix this issue is to repair the National Instant Background Check System, and then require a background check for all firearm transactions. Most Americans already support universal background checks, so a vote placed in favor of this movement will not cause you to lose your job. Instead, it will likely bring you more support. In addition, the eighteen states that do require background checks on all gun purchases have decreased gun violence significantly (Billboard). While The United States does require background checks on most sales, it is not required for transactions through private parties. Most criminals acknowledge getting their weapons through non federally licensed dealers, so they aren’t checked (Cook). Even when a background check is required, it often allows important information to fall through the cracks. As of right now, most mental health issues, domestic violence reports, amd even some felonies fail to make it into the Federal Instant Background Check System. Some of these things would be corrected under John Cornyn’s “Fix NICS Act”, which would put more pressure on states and federal agencies to report essential information to the Federal Instant Background Check System (States). However, additional measures need to be taken in order to ensure background checks on all private sales.
The American public currently exhibits a belief that a person is either for all guns or against all guns, but this is not true. This stigma of absolutism carries over into the idea that requiring universal background checks would lead to gun registration, which is an invasion of privacy. The idea is that there would be no way to enforce the requirement without also registering the sales. This is not acceptable because the government does not have a right to keep track of a law-abiding individual’s possession’s. This idea, however, is not true. There are two main ways of enforcing universal background checks without requiring the registration of current gun owners. The first of these involves the federally licensed dealers through which the checks would be carried out. These larger companies would be required to report the private sales they were involved in to the state, but the name of the buyer would not be included. The second method does not involve the larger company or the state at all. Instead the seller themselves would keep records of all of their transactions so that they could prove all legal requirements were met. Each of these methods prevents government tracking of personal belongings while still allowing authorities to trace the line of possession in the event of a criminal investigation (Cook).
If this issue is not addressed, American after American will continue to die. Some claim that gun control is ineffective, and that The United States must accept gun violence as a norm, but this does not have to be the case. Gun reform has worked in other countries, and it can work here too. Take Australia as an example. After a mass shooting in 1996, the Australian government implemented new, much stricter gun laws. They haven’t experienced a single mass shooting since, and it’s been over two decades (Smith). If we fail to follow suit, America will continue to be the victim of shooting after shooting after shooting, losing hundreds of valuable lives.
According to a poll from Politico, “64 percent of Americans want tighter gun laws” (Smith). Additionally, this issue is much less partisan than the media portrays it to be. A Pew Research Center poll has revealed that support for universal background checks is at almost the same level, around 82%, from both republicans and democrats. It’s time for our government to join with this majority in order to save lives through reform. Congress continues to put this issue off as if someone else will eventually sort it out, but the procrastination must stop. Support the repair of the Federal Instant Background Check System and the enforcing of universal background checks. It’s a matter of life or death.
