I did not call for the erasure of 2nd Amendment rights. I specifically and repeatedly said "assault weapons" – because these mass shootings invariably are done with AR-15 style rifles. Mass shooters aren't using defensive handguns or hunting rifles. They're using assault rifles – weapons designed for no other reason than to kill as many PEOPLE as possible, as horrifically as possible, in as short a time as possible, with little to no training or expertise.
Moreover, here in the States, the republicans are REMOVING regulations.
For example, immediately following the slaughter of children at a Nashville, Tennessee elementary school, not only did one of the leading state legislature representatives say they were NOT going to do anything about gun control – they tried to expel two of three Democrat legislators for joining the student led protest demanding a ban of AR-15s. Those three legislators were two young Black men and a white woman. The republicans expelled the two young Black men – but not the woman. Thankfully, both young men's districts voted unanimously to reinstate them as interim representatives for their previous seats. Unfortunately, it means republicans have forced a special election for the permanent seat at taxpayer's expense, where they'll spend tens of millions of dollars trying to win those seats for republicans.
In the immediate aftermath of the Nashville shooting, Florida elminated requirements for a concealed carry permit. In other words, anyone can carry a concealed gun with no permit.
The shooter at the school in Uvalde, Texas was just 18 – too young to buy cigarettes or alcohol. You must be 21 to buy cigarettes or alcohol… even to rent a car or a place to live. But, he was able to legally purchase his assault weapons for the mass shooting just days before the slaughter. Texas Republicans are always ready loosen gun controls, even after mass shootings; some would say because of the shootings. They did so after the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018. There were two mass shootings weeks apart in El Paso in 2019, at a Walmart and then in Midland and Odessa after a dismissed worker opened fire. Again, after those mass killings, Texas passed a permitless carry law – no one needs a permit to carry a gun in Texas.
In 2012, the Sandy Hook shooter was 20 – again, too young to buy cigarettes or alcohol. But, he'd been raised with guns and had owned guns since he was barely a teen.
America doesn't require any of those tests or competency – or even maturity.
