As we struggle to enact legislation to address gun violence in America, it looks like Canada is preparing to repeal elements of the the Firearms Act of 1995 and undo the Canadian Firearms Registry System that was created in 2003. The gun restrictions in Canada have reduced suicides by 48 percent, and 74% of all firearm-related deaths in Canada are suicides.
If you don’t follow David Waldman’s twitter feed, you should. He links to every article he can find on gun violence, with a special focus on accidental deaths. He’s also utilizing the #GunFAIL hashtag, which you can also follow. Sometimes I want to remove David from my feed because it’s just a relentless stream of senseless tragedy and it makes me sad and frustrated. But that’s the point.
One side keeps talking about their rights and liberties, but those rights and liberties are causing a ridiculous body count. By Waldman’s estimate, this weekend saw a 3 year old wounded in Ohio, a 7 year old killed in Kansas, 13 year old killed in Florida, a 6 year old wounded in Texas, and a 9 year old killed in Oregon. And that’s just a preliminary count of the kids who died in the last two days.
What about those kids’ right to life?
I understand that people want to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights, but they should acknowledge that those of us that are looking to do something legislatively about gun violence are trying to save people’s lives. How we can best do that without infringing on anyone’s rights is what this debate should be all about.
