Another Mass Shooting - When Will Congress Act?

There was another mass shooting on Wednesday. This time it was in Philadelphia, and the victims were six police officers. Thankfully, none of them were killed. But the mass shootings (a shooting with 4 or more victims) are happening far too often -- an average of more than one every day.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said after the shooter was taken into custody:

"So whether it’s our six officers that were shot or it's some 15-, 17-, 20-year-old kid on the streets of Philadelphia who gets shot with guns that shouldn’t be in people’s hands — it's aggravating, it's saddening, and it's just something we need to do something about. Our officers deserve to be protected, and they don't deserve to be shot at by a guy for hours with an unlimited supply of weapons and an unlimited supply of bullets."

He is right. It doesn't matter who the victims are, we must take action to stem the epidemic of mass shootings (and other gun deaths) in this country. No other developed country has this problem. Many politicians want to blame mental illness, video games, violence on TV and in movies, or waning religion. But all other developed nations have those, and none of them have the number of mass shootings or gun deaths (about 40,000 a year) that we do.

Let's be honest. The real problem is the proliferation of guns in the U.S. (more guns than population), and the easy access to those guns by anyone -- even dangerous people who shouldn't be allowed to buy or own one.

One argument used is that gun deaths will still occur if action is taken. That may be true, but the number of those deaths could be drastically reduced if Congress would pass some reasonable and constitutional laws.

Making every person who wants to buy a gun pass a rigorous background check, and banning assault-style weapons (and ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds) would be a very good start. And the Supreme Court has already ruled that these actions would not violate the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

It's time for Congress to act. Their pathetic "thoughts and prayers" are not getting the job done. And the people know this. They want real action. This is shown by every poll done. A good example is in the chart below. It is from a Fox News Poll that was done between August 11th and 13th of a national sample of 1,013 registered voters (with a 3 point margin of error).