An End to the GOP/NRA Blood Pact

No Other High-Income Country in The World Comes Close to U.S. Deaths

40,000 people die and 100,000 people are injured every year in the United States at the end of a gun barrel.[1] No other high-income country in the world comes close to U.S. gun deaths[2], despite having similar rates of mental illness[3] and proliferation of video games [4].

Gun Violence Disproportionately Affects Women, Children and People of Color

It is the second-leading cause of death of children[5], and people of color[6] and especially women, are disproportionately likely to the be victims of gun violence. In fact, the best predictor of future acts of gun violence is intimate partner violence, most commonly inflicted by men on women[7].

Republicans Trade Our Lives for Their Greed

Given the gun-manufacturer-friendly laws that ensure the proliferation of guns with over 337,000 guns registered and untold unregistered firearms in Texas, gun violence is widespread, with about 3,500 gun deaths every year, including the most mass shootings of any state in the country.[8] In fact, within hours of a mass shooting in a El Paso Wal-Mart, on the heels of the Sutherland Springs church mass shooting and the Santa Fe High School mass shooting, and preceding by hours the Dallas/Ft. Worth mass shooting, the Texas Legislature made clear their priorities and loosened our already weak gun restrictions.[9]

I appreciate a good deer backstrap more than most and support regulated hunting. But the NRA has weaponized the Second Amendment to prop up the declining gun manufacturing industry and Republicans have traded each American’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ensure their own reelection.

The Second Amendment Does Not Protect Weapons of War

The Second Amendment ensures the right to “bear arms”[10]. Not only were single-shot, handcrafted muskets and guns the most advanced form of arms at the time the Second Amendment was penned[11], but even as weapon technology has advanced, we draw the line somewhere[12]. For example, if you tried to set up a surface-to-air missile launcher in your backyard, chances are the FBI would be knocking at your front door, assuming your homeowners’ association didn’t beat them to the punch.

Gun Violence Hurts the U.S. Economy

The externalized costs of this corporate welfare include increased both economic costs such as the costs of treatment born by both victims and medical providers, as well as the stress of being on constant- high alert and the untold costs born by society with the reduction in safe public spaces. [13],

Americans Overwhelmingly Support Changes to Gun Laws

Americans overwhelming support changing our gun laws to reduce gun violence[14], and yet Republicans stop research on gun violence[15], stop any measures to reduce access to guns[16] and offer nothing more than their thoughts and prayers[17]. They not only refuse to lead on this public health crisis, but refuse to follow and respond to the will of the people. Instead, they have made a deal to help the companies that make guns, that rely on people’s unfettered access to guns in order to prop up corporate profits, with the trade-off that people die.

Make no mistake; Republicans have no other plan on how to curb gun violence. They are fine with this trade-off that ensures their reelection.

And Democrats who refuse to fight with every fiber of their being are complicit.

This blood pact stops now.

We Can End This

We must go beyond background checks, closing gun sale loopholes, and banning military-grade weapons like the AK-47 and bump stocks and update our solutions to reflect today’s society. I propose that gunowners carry liability insurance similar to what is required for drivers[18]. Credit card companies should be required to track suspicious gun purchases, similar to what they currently do to track fraudulent activity[19]. And we should harness technological advances and create fingerprint recognition software to reduce the risk of accidental shootings[20].

The majority of these deaths are preventable with existing, easy-to-implement solutions. It’s a matter of Congress doing their job and prioritizing our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness over NRA profits.

[1] https://www.foxnews.com/us/gun-related-deaths-reached-40-year-peak-2017-cdc-study-finds, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/gun-deaths.html, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-shootings-2019-more-mass-shootings-than-days-so-far-this-year/, https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars, https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars, https://wapo.st/2QlEZOo

[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/08/05/743579605/how-the-u-s-compares-to-other-countries-in-deaths-from-gun-violence, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/upshot/compare-these-gun-death-rates-the-us-is-in-a-different-world.html, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26551975

[3] https://time.com/5645747/gun-violence-mental-illness/, https://www.psychiatry.org/newsroom/news-releases/apa-condemns-loss-of-life-from-gun-violence-disputes-link-to-mental-illness, https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.9a1, https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2013.3a5

[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/08/05/is-mental-illness-causing-americas-mass-shootings-no-research-shows/, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/09/no-evidence-that-violent-video-games-are-causing-mass-shootings.html https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.171474#d3e1023

[5] https://q13fox.com/2018/12/20/us-leads-the-world-in-child-gun-deaths/, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-funding-children-firearms/second-leading-cause-of-death-in-children-firearms-attract-few-u-s-research-dollars-idUSKBN1WO2MJ, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/21/gun-deaths-school-age-children-study/3231754002/, https://qz.com/1505227/guns-kill-more-more-us-children-per-year-than-cancer/

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/guns-kill-twice-many-kids-cancer-does-new-study-shows-n950091, https://www.newsweek.com/us-child-gun-death-firearms-2nd-biggest-killer-america-1264804

[6] https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/23/health/gun-deaths-in-men-by-state-study/index.html, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181204183700.htm, https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars,

[7] https://www.businessinsider.com/deadliest-mass-shootings-almost-all-have-domestic-violence-connection-2017-11, https://abcnews.go.com/US/domestic-violence-plays-role-mass-shootings-receives-attention/story?id=59418186, https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/06/domestic-violence-misogyny-incels-mass-shootings/, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/11/07/562387350/in-texas-and-beyond-mass-shootings-have-roots-in-domestic-violence https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/2015data-brief508.pdf, https://time.com/5702435/domestic-violence-gun-violence/,

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190722085828.htm, https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/vio.2019.0005

[8] https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/most-heavily-armed-states-in-america/35/https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm, https://www.elpasotimes.com/in-depth/news/2019/10/24/texas-mass-shootings-deaths-el-paso-walmart-odessa-sutherland-springs/4008425002/, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/two-versions-of-texas-collide-over-gun-measures-and-mass-shootings/2019/11/07/c475aa6e-d992-11e9-a688-303693fb4b0b_story.html, https://www.tpr.org/post/mass-shootings-and-texas-response

[9] https://www.ksat.com/news/2019/09/03/8-new-texas-laws-that-loosen-gun-restrictions-starting-sept-1/, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-texas-laws-loosening-gun-control-draw-outrage-advocates-after-n1048746, https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/07/us/texas-gun-laws-el-paso-shooting-trnd/index.html, https://www.ksat.com/news/2019/09/03/8-new-texas-laws-that-loosen-gun-restrictions-starting-sept-1/

[10] https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/amendments/2/essays/142/to-keep-and-bear-arms, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment, https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992