The United States has a gun problem, one that many have been sounding the alarm on for years now.
One month into the new year and the United States has already had more mass shootings than there are days in 2023 with forty-nine mass shootings and counting.
California was recently hit with two mass shootings in Monterey Park and in Half Moon Bay which killed a combined eighteen people.
In both California mass shootings, the weapon that was used to heinously massacre eighteen people were semi-automatic weapons.
One of the semi-automatic weapons used in the Monterey Park shooting was a MAC-10 pistol, a gun illegal to own in California, which had a homemade suppressor to silence the shooting.
In 2022, congress passed its first significant gun control bill in nearly 30 years which makes it tougher for younger people to purchase firearms with harsher checks and encourages states to take away guns from people they consider a threat.
Coming off of 2022 the year with the second most mass shootings in the history of the United States, some of the most important gun control bills have stood stagnant and don’t even come close to getting put up to a vote.
More often than not the weapon of choice for many mass shooters has been and is becoming a semi-automatic weapon.
These semi-automatic weapons that are military-grade weapons made for civilians have no business being sold to people and do not belong on the streets.
Many Americans now are very desensitized now when a mass shooting occurs, oftentimes it feels like it is yet another common occurrence in the United States and that should not be the case.
As more mass shootings continue to occur every day in the U.S., congresses’ silence continues to grow louder.
For years now activists and victims’ families have called on Congress to pass another pivotal piece of legislation that will ban or mediate the sale of semi-automatic weapons or background checks but to no avail.
A majority of the U.S. population also supports stricter gun control measures but congress has not budged on some of the most important gun control measures that the majority of the American people support.
The stark realization is that the United States congress won’t pass any national gun legislation soon or probably ever.
A crucial reason why no major gun control laws have been passed through congress is because of the influence the NRA has on members of Congress.
The NRA grades members of congress from A-F on how friendly one is to gun rights, which is in hand because of the massive influence the NRA has on republican voters if a republican running for office receives a bad grade it could derail their election bid.
Many Americans now have to rely on and call on their states to pass stricter gun legislation because congress won’t be passing any more significant national gun control bills anytime soon.
