Let’s face it: We live in a country where some are literally obsessed with guns, with owning guns, with shooting guns, with thinking that guns can solve any and every problem. And the National Rifle Association (NRA) raises and spends millions of dollars each year to assure that no sensible gun control laws are passed.
But how do the majority of Americans feel about gun control? Well, they support it. In fact, they support it in overwhelming numbers, as the chart below clearly indicates.
Look at the numbers on this poll conducted in July by the Pew Research Center:
What stands out most to me when I look that this graphic representation of public opinion is that 85 percent of those polled support background checks for guns sold at gun shows and via private purchases. 79 percent–almost 8 out of 10 Americans–think there should be laws that prohibit the mentally ill from buying a weapon. 70 percent would like to see a federal database that tracks gun sales.
Yet the NRA loves to proclaim that the American public is on their side and thinks these proposals are too extreme and would violate the Second Amendment. In other words, the NRA is lying through their teeth, as they have for years now.
Now take a look at this graph, which shows the percentage of people who believe it’s more important to control gun ownership versus those who say it’s more important to protect gun rights:
Notice how those who believe in controlling gun ownership suddenly became the majority around 2013? Is that any surprise when we see another mass shooting nearly each and every time we turn on the news?
We now average one mass shooting a day in the United States. Is this acceptable to us? Are we willing to let the NRA and the merchants of death (the arms manufacturers) they are the whores for create this river of blood in the streets of our country? If those of us who support common sense gun control are in the majority, why are we letting one small group of zealots make the policy on this issue?
