The chart above is shocking, but true. The United States has more than three times the rate of child gun deaths than any other developed nation. And it's not just child deaths. We also have a much higher rate of gun deaths for adults.
The GOP and the NRA want you to believe it's a mental health problem. But the United States does not have a larger percentage of mentally ill people than any other nation. What we do have is more guns of all kinds floating around in our country. We have about 400 million guns for a population of only about 330 million. Put another way, that's an average of about 1.2 guns for every person (man, woman, or child).
We also have the loosest gun laws of any country. It is easy for anyone, even the most dangerous people, to get any gun they want and as much ammunition as they want -- and they can do it without being subjected to any kind of background check! Between 80% and 90% of the public wants this fixed. They want everyone who tries to buy a gun or is given a gun to have to pass a background check.
Why hasn't this simple (and constitutional) background check law been passed? Because Republicans in Congress kill the bill every time it comes up. They claim they are just trying to protect the Second Amendment right of Americans to buy or own a gun. That is a LIE!
Closing the loopholes on the current background check law would not prevent any honest and law-abiding citizens from buying or owning a gun. It would prevent convicted felons, terrorists, domestic abusers, and the dangerously mentally ill from buying a gun. And that's who the Republicans are protecting -- the dangerous people who should not own a gun, because they pose a danger to other people.
The Republicans are not protecting law-abiding citizens. They are protecting criminals, abusers, terrorists, and other dangerous people. And by protecting those people, they have created or encouraged the epidemic of gun violence in this country.
Put bluntly, they have the blood of innocent people (many of them children) on their hands.
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