Although Americans' dissatisfaction with gun laws has risen to the highest level of 63% over Gallup's 24 years' of polls, very little has been done at the state or local levels. 85% of public mass shootings (4 or more deaths) are attributed to assault rifles. Assault rifles have been used in the seven deadliest mass shootings in the last decade.
I think the Congress (and the NRA) are not seeing the forest for the trees when it comes to military style assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
Mississippi is a state full of hunters and rural life, but do they actually need such weapons? Are they background checked, and do they have a gun safe or other impenetrable storage to ensure it does not get into the wrong hands? I have heard one farmer say it is needed to shoot wild hogs. Others say it is needed for self defense. The problem is these weapons are so easily available they get in the wrong hands for the wrong reasons.
The nuclear weapons are regulated to protect the innocent. Why not regulate these other military weapons? NRA does not seem concerned that its members can't get their hands on nuclear weapons because of their regulations, and they don't seem to be making a fuss over denial of their 2nd amendment rights to own nuclear arms.
Some of the alternatives to eliminate mass carnage of children and others are just plain ridiculous. Can one imagine an elementary school teacher trying to access a secured gun in desk (or handbag) to fight off an assailant spewing AR 14 bullets at a rate of 45 per minute? And even if kids (or teacher or security guard) wore front and back highest rated heavy body armor to school every day, their head, arms, and legs are not protected from these weapons where a single bullet can blast through a head like a watermelon and blast through arm or leg for the victim to bleed out.
There was once a law that banned assault weapons (Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) which expired in 2004, but while in effect there was 70% decrease mass shooting fatalities compared to pre and post legislation.
Federal legislation was introduced one month post Sandy Hook January 24, 2013, which was defeated in the Senate April 17, 2013, by a vote of 40 to 60. More current legislation (S.-25-Assault weapons ban of 2023) was introduced in the Senate to the Judiciary Committee to which it was read twice.
Finally in June 2023, ending a years long impasse, the Senate passed a bipartisan measure aimed at gun safety to address rampant violence by a vote of 65 to 33. This bill does not ban assault weapons, but does give expanded background checks of would-be purchasers on the internet and at gun shows and give FBI more time to investigate. This legislation is a start.
Our two Mississippi Senators voted against it. We need to think long and hard before reelecting these two senators (Roger Wicker with "A" NRA rating and $106,000 NRA career funding and Cindy Hyde-Smith with an 'A plus' NRA rating and career NRA funding of $112,000) or voting for anyone else who is not for gun safety laws.
Sandra Rhoden lives in Madison.
