How many times do we have to go through the cycle of a mass shooting and sending our thoughts and prayers and resolving to do something, before we actually take action?
Last week, a young man went to a store and bought a gun. On that very day, he leaves a path of destruction through the Asian-American community in Atlanta.
Before we have time to process that event, a man takes an assault rifle into a grocery store in Boulder, Co. and leaves 10 people (including a responding police officer) dead.
Gun violence and mass shootings have become so routine in our society that they barely register in the headlines for more than a couple of days before the news moves on to something else.
Each time, there is call for taking steps to address the easy access to guns by taking reasonable steps to prevent future tragedies. Steps such as requiring background checks for all gun purchases, a waiting period following the purchase before a person can take the gun, a requirement for licensing and training before a person can lawfully carry the weapon in public and a ban on high performance military grade weapons for civilian purchase.
But these steps are vigorously opposed by the gun lobby, the NRA and those who support them on the false premise that such regulations would violate the Second Amendment and would prevent the personal ownership of appropriate civilian weapons.
Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a means of placing appropriate controls on gun ownership that would improve public safety without denying a citizen the right to own guns for personal safety and sporting activities such as hunting.
If we think of gun ownership like we think of car ownership, we could fashion a system that would allow responsible gun ownership in a way that would enhance public safety and reduce the unnecessary and tragic loss of innocent life that we witness far too often. Under such a system, a person would only be allowed to carry a weapon in public after they have received appropriate training and are licensed and properly insured. Nothing about this process would prevent a person from having a gun in their home.
There should also be a restriction on the access to certain weapons. No one challenges the law that prohibits the personal ownership of a cannon, a tank, a bazooka or a machine gun. Everyone understands the danger of those weapons.
Similarly, military style assault rifles and high capacity ammo clips should be restricted to use by active duty military personnel.
These are steps that can be taken that would go a long way to reducing the tragic loss of life that we are seeing all to often.
We must work to elect leaders who are willing to fight the gun lobby and the NRA and to work for the safety of their constituents first. We must expect our elected representatives to actually work in a meaningful way to reduce the toll of innocent lives being lost every year. If they don't, we need to replace them with leaders who will work for a reduction in gun violence at the next election.
Rodney Strong
Chair, Hamilton County Democratic Party
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Interestingly enough, the Democrat party has long sought to restrict the ownership of firearms but has yet to actually enforce the laws currently on the books. Instead of addressing the lack of enforcement the Democrat party wants to take away the rights of millions of American citizens by banning certain firearms. They want to criminalize the current ownership of millions of American gun owners.
As usual, not only is the terminology incorrect when referring to these certain firearms but the (high capacity clips) mentioned aren’t even a thing. There is an ammunition clip (stripper clip) and then there is an ammunition magazine. Get to know what you are talking about before spouting off.
Instead of jumping on the gun control bandwagon why not actually deal with the real issues of gun violence. Rodney, you could have done just that at a local level when you were with the District Attorney’s office. Unfortunately we see a constant revolving door of criminals in our court system with repeat offenses for gun crimes. Over and over those charges are plead down which leads to those same people committing crimes again.
Take a look at the city of Chicago and convince me that gun control works. Chicago is a Democrat run city with the strictest gun laws in the country and yet they had nearly 4,000 people shot in 2020. You Democrats seem to forget this inconvenient little tidbit of information. If you add up the last two decades of “mass shootings victims” you come nowhere near the number of victims shot in a single year in Chicago. Remember that Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the U.S. and is run by Democrats.
So in usual fashion the Democrat party, after the latest “mass shooting”, has not failed to capitalize on a tragedy in an attempt to push their liberal and yet uneducated agenda.
Please stop with the liberal rhetoric.
Mike Cox
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As a firearms safety instructor and gun enthusiast, whenever I hear about a mass shooting it makes me sick to my stomach. I truly feel for the families of these innocent victims. I also say enough is enough.
The only problem, I'm a realist and I know bad things happen whether it be with guns, knives, hammers, explosives, cars, whatever.
You know the saying goes with the Muslim people, just because a few of them are bad and did horrible things, you can't punish and hold responsible all the Muslims for the acts of a few.
The AR15 (Armalite rifle) is probably one of the most popular rifles in existence. It is not a military rifle, as you must pull the trigger for each shot. It's fun to shoot, has virtually no recoil, and is used at most sporting competitions and all types of sporting events. Most women prefer to shoot it over other rifles.
I think a lot of the mass shootings should have been avoided if the proper checks were done and followed up. Some of those individuals had red flags and should have never been allowed to purchase a gun. Somewhere the background checks slipped through the crack. Our system of background checks needs to be updated and shared among all law enforcement agencies and maintained properly.
Anyone that can commit a mass shooting has to be mentally ill. No one in their sane mind could even think about doing a deed like this.
I think we need to ensure all background checks on gun purchases are looked at carefully and followed up if something is not right and do our best to make sure anyone with mental problems does not have access to any type of weapon and gets the help they need..
Jim Rosenbloom
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Rodney,
To answer your question "how many times until it's too many"..... sadly, the answer is one. The solution of gun control you propose will not solve this problem....in fact, it may be unsolvable. But, a good defense is a good offense.
#1. Evil people do evil things. Laws will not and do not deter evil. As an example, felons in possession of a firearm in Tennessee can get up to 10 years in prison. If said felon has two violent convictions, it's 15 years minimum. Yet, you can do a search of "felons in possession" on the Tennessee Court of Appeals website and you will see a lot of appeals from the felons that were caught. One can only guess how many that haven't been caught. Jail time doesn't seem to deter felons from guns.
#2. Contrary to your statements, background checks for buying a firearm are already in place. In 2017, 25.6 million nationwide background checks resulted in 1 percent denied, about 181,000. Failing a background check does not keep an evil person from getting a gun through other means.
#3. Contrary to your statements, Tennessee already has two provisions for licensing to carry a handgun concealed/unconcealed or concealed. It is called a Tennessee Enhanced Handgun Carry Permit or Tennessee Concealed Carry Permit. Each permit has it own training requirements, fees and what is allowed to carry your handgun.
#4. Contrary to your statements, there are already restrictions to certain classes of firearms...such as fully automatic weapons. Fully automatic weapons are legal, but you have many restrictive hoops to jump through to buy one, plus you will needs lots of money.
#5. No matter what laws you propose to limit the gun style you dislike or the magazine capacity that you think is too much....the evil ones don't care about laws and will do whatever is necessary to get to their end point. The only people that will suffer the Democrat Politik is the law-abiding citizen.
Search for "mass shooters who passed background checks":
Cruz, Parkland FL. 17 dead. Cruz legally purchased S&W M&P 15 rifle from a licensed gun store.
Devin Kelley, Sutherland Springs Texas. 25 dead. Kelley was legally barred from buying guns due to history of domestic abuse, but did so anyway because info of his crimes were never entered into the federal database.
Stephen Paddock, Las Vegas, NV. 58 dead. Amassed an arsenal of guns of 49 guns. He passed all background checks on 33 weapons he bought Oct 2016 to Sept 2017.
Omar Mateen, Orlando, FL. 49 dead. Purchased AR-15 style rifle and handgun a week before the shooting in 2016. He passed all background checks. FBI investigated him in 2013 and 2014 when his co-workers told of his talking about ties to terrorist groups.
Tashfeen Malik & Syed Farook, San Bernadino, CA. 14 dead. Weapons used were bought legally by their neighbor, Enrique Marquez, from a licensed gun dealer.
Christoper Harper-Mercer, Roseburg, OR. 10 dead. Christopher and family members legally purchased from a licensed gun dealer, a rifle and handgun used in the shooting.
Dylann Roof, Charleston, SC. 9 dead. Dylann had been arrested for drugs, which should have kept him from purchasing a firearm. A record keeping error and a background check delay allowed the purchase to go through.
Aaron Alexis, Washington, DC. 12 dead. Passed state and federal background checks. He had mental health issues and run-ins with the law, but nothing that would have stopped him from buying a gun.
Adam Lanza, Newtown, CT. 26 dead. Adam used his mother's AR-15 in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.
James Holmes. Aurora, CO. 12 dead. Passed background check while receiving psychiatric treatment. Treatment does not stop one from buying a firearm.
Phil Snider
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To Party Chairman Strong, leaders of your party say “It is easier to buy a gun than to vote.” (State Senator Michelle Au , D-GA, March 21, 2021, CBS News; Senator Alex Padilla, D-CA, March 23, 2021). Progressives like Jake Sherman of something called “Punchbowl News” and a contributor to MSNBC echoed that statement two days ago in the news media.
Chairman Strong, nobody has sent me an AR-15 or a Glock-19 in the mail. I do know of individuals receiving ballots, some unsolicited, in the mail. I believe that was your party that strongly pushed for that to happen.
Progressives thrive in a common sense desert bending and spinning their stories to fit the latest crisis (Rahm Emanuel, D-IL). Until that changes, it’s nearly impossible to have a productive dialogue that respects responsible gun ownership as outlined in law and the constitution.
Ralph Miller
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Rodney, why do the Democrats never allow a tragedy to be just that, rather than use that tragedy to push their agenda? In this case, it’s your party's desire to unarm our citizenry, just as the Nazi did in Germany. I’m not sure how you feel about that piece of history but I abhor it.
Now I know you went to one of those lawyer schools, Cumberland School of Law, and I believe they taught you about the Constitution. You would have even been tested on it. So let me make this clear; the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, aka The Bill of Rights, makes absolutely no reference to “ownership of appropriate civilian weapons”. Neither appropriate nor weapons are mentioned.
All of us share the grief of any mass shooting or any tragedy where lives are needlessly taken for any reason. However, as was the case right here in Chattanooga, the shootings in Boulder, Co. were done by an Islamic terrorist, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa. CNN confirmed that it was not about his Islamic radicalism, rather “white morality”, so I guess they want you to believe it was my fault. In 2018, this same terrorist, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, attacked a fellow classmate by slipping up behind him in class and hitting him in the head, knocking him out of his desk. He then jumped on top of his victim and continued the beating until he was stopped. Witnesses said it was unprovoked. The weapon was hit hands. His hands got the job done in this case.
Do me a favor, Rodney, because we are all against mass murder. Change sides and fight for the rights of the yet to be born people. Over 64,000,000 lives in the USA have needlessly been taken since Roe vs Wade and somehow this is okay with you? All in the name of women’s reproductive health rights? What a twist of the truth. If you want a cause worth fighting for, stand up and defend the defenseless unborn babies who should be protected by this same Constitution I hold so dear.
J. Pat Williams
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I see Mr. Strong hit all the DNC talking points including the ludicrous and laughable bazooka argument. And the "clip" reference, also. At least educate yourself as to what you are talking about. Why don't you just come out and say your ultimate goal is the outright ban and confiscation of all privately held firearms? You fool no one with your we need "common sense" gun laws. Just how many existing gun laws did this latest deranged person violate? As Mr. Cox correctly notes, look at the Democrat run city of Chicago with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. How's that working out?
And military style assault weapons? I get it. It's a black gun and it's just so scary looking. You still have to pull the trigger once for each round fired. Educate yourself some more and look at a Ruger Mini 14. Doesn't look at all like one of those scary black assault weapons, does it? Do you know it fires the exact same round at the exact same rate of fire as your scary looking black gun? And it can also be fitted with a 30 round magazine. Nobody's calling for a ban on them.
I do not have an answer but I do know that more restrictions on firearms will do nothing but further erode our basic freedoms. I have the inalienable right to defend myself. That right comes from God in addition to the Constitution. My right to defend myself and the manner in which I choose to do so will not be trampled on by power hungry Democrat politicians.
As Charlton Heston so famously said, "From my cold, dead hands."
Dennis Wooden