Welcome to my gun control page. First of all, let me say that I am not in favor of banning guns altogether. I do know that some people have a legitimate need for them (such as people that rely on hunting for food) and there are many responsible gun owners. I am in favor of getting guns out of hands of irresponsible owners. Also, I know that some of my family and friends are Pro Gun and own guns, and I do not disrespect you for that.
1999 has been an extremely violent year for gun killings in the USA. It seems like there is one mass killing per month. Many of the victims are children. I think that something needs to be done about all of this violence. I am tired of hearing about it, as I think that most Americans are. I have talked with family, friends, and co-workers and they all seem to feel the same way. I also participate in an online bulletin board where people from around the world post, and posted the following message on it to see what the response would be:
Thoughts.
[Thu 16 Sept, 23:07 Tasmanian Standard Time]
I know that most of us have heard about the shooting in a church in Texas last night. I have read down this board and saw the different comments that were made. I've been on TTYC long enough to expect that that would happen and take it with a grain of salt. However, that doesn’t change my feelings as far as what happened goes. ~ I am sad that these "mass" shooting seem to happen ever month. However, with a country like this, that has very lenient gun laws, I guess it is to be expected. There are shooting and killings almost every night here in Philadelphia. I have lived in many places of my country and know that other large cities in the USA are like that as well. ~ I remember hearing about legislation that President Clinton signed last week to give more money to cities for gun buy back programs (Philadelphia had one of those programs earlier this year and it went well). That is, once again, a start. However, in my opinion, there are still too many guns out there (I don’t own a gun, nor will I ever). I know that some people argue "Guns don’t kill, people kill people". I think it's more like "People with guns kill people". Our forefathers insisted on the "Right to bear arms", however, I feel this is not what they had in mind. Back then, I believe it was mainly for protection. ~ So, I guess I am wondering what do we do now? I have written my Congress people and encouraged my family and friends to do the same. However, nothing has really changed, partly due to our "Do Nothing" Congress. They watered down a good gun legislation bill just to save face so that they did pass something. ~ One idea that I have is, since we can’t rely on the federal government to pass the legislation to run the country in a proper way, we now are going to have to rely on our local governments. For instance, Los Angeles County recently passed a law forbidding the sale of firearms on its property. That effectively limits what can be done at the LA County Gun Show. ~ However, I feel that is not enough. What other suggestions do people have? I am still trying to figure out how I can help more and make a difference. Can an average, everyday person that doesn’t have a lot of money, like me, really make a difference, or are my efforts in vain? ~ I had planned on making a post today, based on something that happened to me last night, a totally different subject than this. I changed my mind and decided to post on this subject to hopefully get ideas on what we can do to stop the madness that is going on in the USA. I welcome the constructive ideas and suggestions of people from everywhere. What has worked in other countries as far as passing gun control legislation in other countries? I believe that Canada passed excellent legislation within the last few years. Canadians, could you please give us some suggestions on how it was passed and what worked to help pass it? ~ Cheers,The response was very favorable of some kind of gun control. After I receive permission from the responders, I will post the responses.
So, where do I go from here? I honestly haven’t a clue yet, but some friends and I are working on finding out some kind of coarse of action that can be taken.