Have we become inured to or outraged by the daily reports of children killed by guns left unattended by adults?
“Overall, the C.D.C. numbers indicate that gun deaths are trending somewhat upward as motor vehicle deaths continue on a steady decline, thanks in large measure to serious government safety regulation aimed at reducing fatalities and injuries that is notably missing in the sphere of firearms.
In fact, guns remain the only consumer product not regulated at the federal level for health and safety, in keeping with the wishes of the gun industry and compliant lawmakers.” NY Times article by Dorothy J. Samuels, July 16, 2014
As they say, if you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention. Beth Messersmith penned a guest post to share some alarming news coming from Jones Street regarding gun bills in North Carolina. The state’s gun laws are already pretty lax. It’s hard to imagine the laws any looser. My sons and I had our brush with conceal and carry last summer, and they’ve been a bit fearful ever since. As children they have a difficult time understanding why regular citizens would be out and about in shops and restaurants with a hidden weapon. It’s a frightening thing for me to conceive of as an adult. We believe in the old tenet “safety first,” and more restrictive gun control keeps us all safer. I share Beth’s words with you today because North Carolina politicos think moms aren’t paying attention.
North Carolinians agree that not everyone should be able to have a gun—not violent criminals, not domestic abusers, not the dangerously mentally ill. That’s why 90% of us want people to be screened through a background check before they are allowed to buy firearms.
Right now, NC lawmakers are trying to pull a fast one. They think no one is paying attention, so they are trying to ram through a law that dismantles NC’s pistol permit system, which requires anyone who wants to buy a handgun to go through a criminal background check.
Seriously, RAM THROUGH. They suddenly introduced the legislation last week and will vote on it early next week.
Well, this mom is paying attention, and I don’t like it one bit.
When Missouri did this in 2007, repealing its permit-to-purchase law, its gun-related homicide rate spiked at a time firearm homicides were level across the country. The Journal of Urban Health later published a study showing that the repeal contributed to a 14 percent increase in Missouri’s murder rate and was associated with an additional 49 to 68 murders a year.
I don’t want that to happen here in North Carolina. We don’t need a spike in people getting shot here in North Carolina, thank you very much.
We can’t let our state lawmakers pass this legislation, which also criminalizes doctors for questioning their patients about gun safety and reporting risky armed patients to the authorities; forces schools to allow weapons in their parking lots, and opens the way for people to bring guns to the NC State Fair.
With the NC House voting on this legislation early next week, we need to contact our lawmakers NOW to let them know that we don’t like this gun bill at all and tell them to vote against it. Please join me and contact your lawmaker now by clicking here.