lamar alexander

Let’s face it, America needs a real debate about its society. We need to start talking about the violence plaguing our nation. It doesn’t matter if the violence occurs at some random work place, in a school or at a town hall meeting being held by a member of Congress, we need to have a national discussion on it and it must start now.

For such a discussion to be productive we must also all put aside our political differences and address every issue, rather it be from the 2nd amendment to rhetoric played on television and the campaign trail. Take the case of yesterday’s shooter, Jared Loughner. We now know that he legally obtained his firearm, yet all reports are indicating someone who is mentally disturbed. Is this a case for stronger background checks? I believe so. Let’s take another massacre, the one of Virginia Tech where 32 people lost their lives at the hand of Seung-Hui Cho and his guns. Once again, this was someone described as mentally unstable, with a long paper-trail to prove it, yet he was able to legally purchase firearms.

Now I am a person who firmly believes in the 2nd Amendment. I actually have been in heated debates with others on the left over this. Where I break with the right at is the open access to guns. Yes I want to be allowed to own a firearm, and if I got to go through a rigorous screening process to own one, then I feel that much safer. Such a process also won’t keeps guns out of the hands of those who want to do harm, but it could help limit these cases. In two incidents we may have seen 38 people still alive if their assailants weren’t able to get a gun so easily and legally.