President Joe Biden's most recent plan to control the gun violence epidemic establishes four goals: require universal background checks, establish a national red flag law, require safe storage of firearms, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers. In the next few issues I will be taking a look at each of these individual steps. Are they enough?
In August it became official that guns are the number one killer of kids in America. In the past President Biden has been vocal about banning AR-15-style firearms as well as other assault weapons. However, with Congress continually rejecting his advances, he has more or less had to resort to smaller objectives before tackling the key initiative and issue that could end our country's gun violence epidemic on the whole. These steps are stepping stones, and people are quickly to dismiss his inability to pass an assault ban as a lack of action, when in reality we cannot gain approval for his proposals in Congress. This is not because they are not valid. It is in fact a contributing factor of his fourth goal above. So let's get into it.
Goal number 1: require universal background checks. Establishing background checks has been a strategy of the government to end the gun crisis for years. Is it truly effective? Background checks seek to identify individuals who if in possession of a gun, could harm themselves or others. These people are then prevented from purchasing firearms. If you recall most of the shootings in the past decade, they have all been committed by people with clear motives against specific people and most of the time, they are known to have a questionable track record, dealing with mental health issues. This is not to say that ordinary people who struggle with anxiety, depression or other mental health issues are at risk factors in a shooting, because these issues are very common and not at all indicative of this kind of violence. The goal of the background checks is to prevent, for example, a patient who has been previously locked up in a psych ward with a past pattern of violence, from buying a gun. Makes obvious sense. But if we banned assault weapons, we wouldn't need background checks. So technically, are they effective? Yes. But it does not address a larger problem.
Let me emphasize that this is not a criticism on Biden, his administration, or Congress. However, in the crucial time period before the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election, gun violence will certainly be a highly contended issue on both the Democratic and Republican ballots. As citizens, it is our duty to evaluate each candidate's proposals on the issue and elect a leader who can successfully represent our desires to ban assault weapons and thereby contribute to the ending of the gun violence epidemic.
Let's use our knowledge for good to elect a leader that can end gun violence.
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