AMERICANS WANT COMMONSENSE REGULATIONS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE

After the mass shootings in Buffalo, NY, Uvalde, TX, and Highland Park, IL of this summer, Americans once again voiced the need for government action to prevent more senseless killing. Their support for controlling gun violence has now hit its highest point in a decade. A July 2022 CNN poll, revealed that most Americans favor stricter gun laws, with more than 4 in10 saying that recently enacted Safer Communities Act restrictions don’t go far enough to solve the problem of gun violence.

Despite the overwhelming support for gun control, Republicans are not listening, preferring instead to hold fast to their push for unrestricted purchases and carrying of guns. As if they have become inured to the tragic loss of human life, even of young children, Republicans still insist that guns are not the problem. To protect the gun industry, they blame violent and indiscriminate shootings on mental illness.

While they are set on protecting the gun industry at the cost of American lives, the economics of the problem tells another story. A recent study from Every Town for Gun Safety calculates the annual cost to survivors, employers, and taxpayers of gun violence at $557 billion annually, comparable to 2.6% of GDP. A whopping number yes, but consider the cost of health care, emergency and long term; the cost of police response, investigation, prosecution, and incarceration; and the tragic loss of human capital to the economy. The cost of gun violence is borne by all of us, whether or not we own a gun.

In North Carolina we have a clear choice in our U.S. Senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley, a former state Supreme Court Justice who supports stronger background checks for gun sales and a ban on combat-style weapons and high-capacity magazines and Republican Ted Budd who profits from his gun shop and shooting range and who voted against the modest measures in the bi-partisan Safer Communities Act, which funds mental health and other intervention programs, financial incentives to states willing to pass Red Flag Laws, laws that empower courts to take guns away from people who are a danger to themselves or others, and expand federal background checks for buyers under age 21. Even these modest measures are not likely to be enacted by Republicans in the NC state legislature, providing additional reasons to vote Democratic on the whole ballot.

In the November race for U.S. Senate Vote for Cheri Beasley for the U.S. Senate not the Gun Guy Ted Budd. To ensure that NC enacts common sense restrictions on guns, vote Democratic on the entire ballot November 8.