I had a great day yesterday! We had a dance performance that had me disconnected from the world for the entire day as we ran through techs, costumes, makeup, performance, and many, many laughs. I came off the high to find out about the mass shooting here in Texas yesterday morning. ANOTHER mass shooting, and yet another weekend where there was some sort of tragic loss of life.
This morning, I read the news. POTUS it talking about this being a mental health problem. Oh, so we have a mental health problem, but nearly as soon as you started in office, you undid a requirement for SSA to report anyone who was receiving SSD for a mental health issue to the background check database?! You made it easier for people with mental health issues to get guns, and NOW you want to claim this gun violence a mental health issue?
Let me point this out...this is the second time in just a matter of months that a mass shooting was carried out with a LEGALLY PURCHASED weapon...a weapon, mind you, that used to be banned in this country from 1994 to 2004. A weapon that is not desired because of it's effectiveness for hunting or home protection, but because it is easily customizable to the shooter's tastes! A weapon that in mere minutes can be converted from a semi-automatic weapon, to function very closely to a fully automatic weapon. A gun that you can LEGALLY purchase a magazine for that can hold 30+ rounds of ammo, making it easier to mow down a crowd of people! Tell me again, what Constitutional right dictates that you can own a weapon like this? The right to bare arms does not give an automatic right to an AR...simply that you are allowed to own a gun. This means that our government is fully within the Constitution to limit the TYPES and NUMBERS of weapons a citizen owns. It would also be within the Constitution to require mandatory licensing and training before even owning a firearm. "Oh, but that will make it harder for some to obtain a gun, and thus be a violation of the Second Amendment." Really? If you are still given a path to ownership, how is that taking away your right?
I have another burning question in all of this. I was reading that the San Antonio shooter had been court-martialed, served time, and was dishonorably discharged from the military for assaulting his wife and child. This is a conviction, right? Even though handed down by a military rather than a civilian body, it was still a conviction?! So, tell me how this was not a red flag on this man's background check when he walked into the sporting goods store to LEGALLY purchase this weapon?!
We need better record keeping of our background check system to flag people who should not be allowed to buy these weapons. We need mandatory licensing and training. And finally, we need to go back to banning these easily customizable guns and limit the size of the magazines. No one should be able to legally own a weapon that can mow down a crowd in a matter of a few minutes! There is no civilian NEED for this!