Commentary on Violence

Nearly every day the residents of Indianapolis are greeted with news of another person shot and killed. The sad reality is that we are all responsible given our complete failure to do anything about the availability of firearms in our community.

Giving complete respect to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, we need to take meaningful steps that protect citizens from this violence. While politicians urge more aggressive background checks on our teachers, they do nothing about background checks when it comes to those possessing firearms.

The simple fact is that terrorists are not killing over 10,000 Americans each year with guns. American citizens are killing American citizens. There is absolutely no reason to allow anyone to possess assault weapons, and there is further no reason that we don’t establish a national policy of background checks for anyone wishing to purchase and possess a firearm.

While everyone wants the right to own and drive a car, there are rules that apply to accomplish that end. Not only must you have a personal driver’s license, but each car has to be titled with yearly license and insurance requirements. Why don’t we apply that same standard to firearms?

Furthermore, if firearms are supposed to protect your personal safety, try telling that to any police officer. Do you think an officer feels safe when he approaches a car to give a speeding ticket and finds the driver armed? The fact is that armed people are being shot and killed across this country because they create fear in the minds of those meeting them. Think of what is going on in Charlotte this very moment.

Additionally, I’m sick and tired of listening to comments from the NRA that armed citizens in bars or a mall can help prevent violence. Go into any bar at 1 in the morning and try to tell me that intoxicated, armed patrons are to be trusted under any circumstances. It is fundamentally absurd, and we all know it.

Finally, doing nothing about our firearms problem does little more than make a considerable fortune for gun manufacturers. When it comes to firearms, we need to vaccinate the American people in the same fashion that we did with polio. Simple rules will protect gun owners as well as the American public, and the time to act is now.