WASHINGTON — President Biden signed executive actions Thursday aimed at curbing gun violence in the United States. These actions come on the heels of multiple mass shootings in the past few weeks.
And then there was yet another mass shooting just hours after the president signed the executive actions.
I hesitate to even weigh in on this, because it's so controversial.
But for me, it comes down to facts.
In 2019, the rate of deaths from gun violence in the U.S. was more than eight times higher than in Canada, and more than 100 times higher than in the United Kingdom according to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.
According to the FBI, more than 73% of all homicides in the United States in 2019 were gun-related.
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Just last year, in the middle of a pandemic, there were more than 19,000 gun violence deaths. That data comes from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive and excludes suicides involving guns.
That's the most non-suicide gun violence deaths in more than 20 years.
According to a 2018 report from the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project located in Geneva, Switzerland, no country in the world has more firearms per capita than the United States. And it's not even close.
Hear me out, those who advocate against gun control cite their Second Amendment Rights.
But is our current reality really what the framers of the Constitution had in mind?
Regular citizens with assault weapons? Rampant death?
And what about my rights?
If I’m sitting in a restaurant and someone walks in with a gun on their hip, I have no idea who they are.
A law-abiding citizen? Someone with mental health issues? Are they angry? Racist?
This person in mere seconds could kill me and many others. What about my right to not live in fear?
The fact that we come on the news nearly every day and report on another gun-related homicide makes it painfully clear we have a problem.
The President said Thursday that, "Gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and it's an international embarrassment."
And he’s right.
Yesterday's executive actions are a small start towards fixing the problem. And much more needs to be done.