Bills such as HR 8 must be signed in law, and the age for buying a high-caliber semi-automatic weapon that can hold a large-capacity magazine must be the same as buying a pistol. We also need to build at the federal level on successes such as the Florida Red Banner Act, which allows police officers and relatives to petition for the temporary confiscation of firearms from potentially dangerous individuals.
If HR 8 had been signed by law, this would not have prevented the Uwalde massacre – the killer passed an investigation. But that would prevent other killings. If the age to buy a semi-automatic weapon was 21, that certainly wouldn’t have stopped Sandy Hook, because the killer stole weapons, but he could have stopped Uvalde.
Careful, well-designed policies may not win headlines or become good fodder for campaign spots. But we know it can save lives. And we know that real legislative decisions can be made in Washington. Following Sutherland Springs, a bipartisan bill was passed by Congress called the NICS Correction. When this law was signed as a law, it updated the database, which is searched every time a background check is performed, with more than six million additional records. This has greatly improved our ability to stop the wrong people from buying guns.
We must also be prepared in case the weapons fall into the wrong hands. We need to protect our most vulnerable places, such as schools, churches and hospitals. We need to ensure that local law enforcement is trained in the most effective ways to deal with mass shooters.
We are not helpless and if the people we choose to deal with the difficult challenges of our country believe that nothing can or should be done but thoughts, prayers and complaints from the filibuster, then it is time to help them find new career.
These ideas are not new, but in order for any amendments to become legal, we must agree that the situation we are in – our supermarkets, schools and hospitals that are turning into battlefields – is a national emergency. .
Mass shootings should not be a fact of life. They are preventable. However, we cannot retreat into our political corners and repeat the same tired conversations. We will have to work with people we disagree with and in many cases don’t even like, and we will have to make decisions that some of our traditional voters may not like. We need to do this to stop our mothers and fathers from receiving a phone call that no parent should receive and to prevent our children from living in fear.