Will school shooting be tipping point in gun control debate?
Posted December 17, 2012 12:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEWTOWN, CT (NEWS1130) – US President Barack Obama did not mention the word ‘gun’ in his tribute to the victims in Newtown, Connecticut last night; but he didn’t really have to.
“Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom? … Are we prepared to say that we are powerless in the face of such carnage? That the politics are too hard?” he asked.
The debate over gun control has long polarized Americans, but many who attended Obama’s service last night say its time the US looks at a new legislation.
“Too many times. Columbine, Virginia.. It’s too much. Something has to be done,” one woman told ABC News.
Some US senators are calling for a national commission to examine mass shootings in the United States and a ban on military-style weapons. There is hope from gun control advocates that Friday’s massacre is a tipping point that could dramatically change the dynamic of the debate.
Denise Brundson is with Canada’s Coalition for Gun Control; she points to the differences in the numbers here and in the US.
“The gap in murder rates in Canada and the US is probably one of the strongest cases for the effectiveness of Canada’s recently-extinguished gun control laws. While the murder and homicide rate without firearms are comparable between the two countries, rates of murder with firearms are actually 6.4 times higher in the US,” she tells News1130.
Pro-gun senators appeared reluctant to make their case against tougher laws while grieving is still underway, declining to appear on Sunday talk shows in the US — all except Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert.
“I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out and she didn’t have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands. But she takes [the shooter] out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids,” said Gohmert.
US Democrats say there must be meaningful action after the murders of 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary.
