One of the many comments I’ve read from gun proponent’s is, “If you can Guarantee no more children dead if we give up our guns. There’s no question what I’d do. Here take it! There’s one thing wrong with your thought though. It will not stop our children from dying any more than wishing the world would be a better place.”
Well, except it would.
In January 1989, a shooter, stepped onto the grounds of Cleveland Elementary School and raked the school yard with at least 106 bullets from an AK-47 rifle. He killed five children, ages 6 to 9, and one teacher and injured 29 other children, before fatally shooting himself.
Thirteen years ago two students opened fire on their fellow classmates at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado killing 15 and wounding 24 with firearms which were illegally obtained by the teens. Three of the weapons used were classified as assault weapons with ammunition loaded into high-capacity magazines, the largest of which could hold 52 rounds.
In 2002, the Washington-area snipers, who shot randomly at victims during a three-week spree that killed 10 people, used an AR-15 assault rifle.
Earlier this year a gunman wearing a gas mask and sheathed in head-to-toe body armor entered an Aurora movie theater during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” killing 12 and injuring 70 others. The suspected shooter charged with the attack had two Glock pistols, a shotgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle fitted with a large capacity magazine drum, all of which were purchased legally. The shooter spent months stockpiling thousands of bullets, firearms and ballistic gear without ever raising a red flag with authorities.
A few weeks ago a masked gunman who opened fire in a crowded Oregon mall in the middle of the holiday shopping season, killing two people and wounding a third before taking his own life, used an AR-15 assault rifle stolen from a friend the day before. Death toll wasn’t larger because the weapon jammed.
Friday, a gunman walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire on staff and students with a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle, killing 26 people including 20 six and seven year olds.
In 1994 the manufacture and import of AR-15s and similar assault rifles, such as AK-47s, were banned in the United States, there were also limits on the size of magazines that could be fitted, limiting them to holding no more than 10 bullets.
However, move forward ten years – 2004 – those prohibitions were allowed to go away by the Bush Administration and a Republican dominated House and Senate; subsequent attempts to enact new weapon’s bans have failed in the face of objections from the National Rifle Association.
There is no earthly reason for private citizens to be able to own assault weapons, semiautomatic or automatic pistols. No earthly reason. Nor should anyone be able to buy high capacity magazines.
No more children should be sacrificed on the altar of the second amendment – not one more child.
Please sign my petition calling upon Congress and the President to outlaw weapons used in these mass murders. Not one more child.
http://signon.org/sign/not-one-more-child.fb23?source=c.fb&r_by=5958749
The Liberty Tree 