The cruel and malicious nature of the Boston bombings generated widespread attention to guns, which has drastically risen on our nation’s political agenda.
The conversation on gun control has heightened due to the fact that a firearm was the instrument used to murder Sean Collier, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer.
The suspects had enough ammo to carry out a full-fledged firefight with the Boston police officers. NBC reported that during the short-lived exchange, the two gunmen held their own in a confrontation in which over 200 rounds were unloaded between the two parties.
With this being said, the fact that members of the United States Senate voted against a legislative bill that would extend the expansion of background checks to acquire guns is absolutely absurd.
It is one thing to vote in disagreement with the passing of a bill that could potentially infringe on our second amendment right to bear arms, but completely another thing to vote against a bill that would only make it harder for felons and the mentally ill to own firearms.
Not to mention that the bill does not include restrictive measures on personal gun transactions.
In wake of the slaying of innocent schoolchildren and teachers in December’s Newtown Elementary attacks, the senseless murders that took place in the Aurora, Colo. movie theatre in July, and last weeks Boston bombings, the actions of those in opposition forces me to question who’s side they are truly on.
President Obama expressed his dissatisfaction stating, “Families that know unspeakable grief summoned the courage to petition their elected leaders not just to honor the memory of their children, but to protect the lives of all our children. And a few minutes ago, a minority in the United States Senate decided it wasn’t worth it. They blocked common-sense gun reforms even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery.”
In actuality, the truth is that our nation would be a much safer place to live in if we formed the gun registry that the National Rifle Association and stubborn conservatives fear would evolve from the gun bill Obama proposed.
Tamerlan Dzhokhar, was interviewed and temporarily denied citizenship by the FBI regarding his potential involvement in a jihadist movement, after his return to the states after a six-month trip to his former homeland of Russia.
Stricter background checks could have restricted him from purchasing such an elaborate arsenal of weapons, which perhaps could have saved the life of Sean Collier.
The United States lacks a method for tracing any individual, terrorist or not, who decides to purchase unreasonably large amounts of firearms and ammunition.
- KALYN HOYLE, Opinions Editor