Making Your Voice Heard

If you really want to end gun violence and institute sensible gun laws, you have to do it from the ground up. You have to make this a primary issue of local elections and you have to hold those whom you elect responsible for making it happen. If they don't propose those laws, vote them out in the next election. Or, if they do and the laws aren't voted in, vote out those who voted against the law and vote in more officials who will take it seriously.

I am a gun owner who moved from the US to Canada. In order to have my firearms in Canada, I had to take a firearms course, become licensed, and register the weapons. I can tell you from first-hand experience that the gun laws and instructions here are sensible. They don't really impede anyone from owning the firearms they want (within reason), and those who want to target practice or hunt have all the options they could need to do either. While there is political back and forth every now and then about certain semi-automatic weapons being available, there is debate and discussion about it each time and every side listens.

Why isn't this happening in America?

The politicians are afraid of the gun lobby. But, here's the thing: The best estimates of the membership of NRA (National Rifle Association) show it to have about 5 million members. That's about 0.015 percent of the population. And, since 2018, that number has declined. The revenue it generates is down by over $100 million and continues to fall. How do we let such a small number of radicals set gun policy for an entire nation?

Next, of course, you have firearm manufacturers. They are a small, but financially powerful group of lobbyists who contribute in the tens of thousands to, primarily, Republican lawmakers each election cycle. Anywhere between $40,000 and $100,000 is donated to each lawmaker to ensure they are pro-firearm and pro-Second Amendment. What's funny is that these amounts are really not significant to each individual elected official, yet their voice is outsized after each and every gun-related tragedy.

So, in order to enact common sense gun laws, we need to make these payments public, we need to question those who take those donation publically, and we need to ask sensible questions about why politicians are giving outsized voice to such a tiny minority of people in America.

Lastly, America thinks it always has to reinvent the wheel. It can't look at literally every other industrialized nation on the planet and cherry-pick the best, most sensible, common-sense laws and programs from countries that have already gone through this process, it must create its own system from scratch with as many loopholes and bootlicking of industry and lobbies as possible. As I noted above, the Canadian system is reasonable. So, too, are systems from many other nations around the world. Use that knowledge, call in their experts and politicians who went through this process, and figure out what will work for the majority of Americans.

But it all starts from local elections. Make common-sense gun laws a priority. Every single town meeting, Q&A, and interview they need to be asked about this topic. They need to be held accountable for this issue once in office. They need to be voted in or out based on what they do or do not do on this topic. This is true for Judges, elected police/sherrif officials, mayors, district attorneys, etc. And then, do the same for higher offices (county and state). And then, press onward and make it a primary talking point at every single Presidential and Congressional election rally, interview, and town-hall meeting. You can find conservative and liberal politicians who will agree that this is an issue and would be willing to back common-sense laws if the people press them to.

It's up to YOU to do this, though. You have to be willing to make this an issue that is important, visible, and sustained. You have to hold your elected officials accountable if they don't do anything about it by not re-electing them. And you have to be in it for the long haul; it's not something that can be fixed after one election cycle. It could take a decade or more. But isn't the safety of our children, our coworkers, our friends, and our family worth it?