America has been rocked following a recent string of gun-related violence across the country.
On Monday, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store in Colorado, killing ten people, including a Boulder police officer.
He used an AR-15 to commit the mass murder.
Alissa was detained by officers, alive, and taken into custody. He has been charged with ten counts of first-degree murder and one charge of attempted murder.
Earlier this month, eight people were shot and killed in a string of attacks at three Atlanta-area spas. Six of the women were of Asian descent, including four who were Korean. The shooter, a white male, named Robert Aaron Long, denied that the shootings were motivated by race. Instead, he blamed the violence on his self-proclaimed sex addiction, a narrative the authorities were all too happy to distribute.
The inevitable calls for more stringent gun control have risen to the surface. Long committed his mass-murder just moments after purchasing his weapon.
“A horrific tragedy. My heart is with the community in Boulder and families of the victims of this senseless act of gun violence,” Sen. Cory Booker tweeted. “We can – we need to – end this.”
Former President Barack Obama also called for gun control reform.
“A one-in-a-lifetime pandemic cannot be the only thing that slows mass shootings in this country,” Obama said in his statement. “We shouldn’t have to choose between one type of tragedy and another. It’s time for leaders everywhere to listen to the American people when they say enough – because this is a normal we can no longer afford.”
According to Mark Bryant, the Gun Violence Archive founder, which tracks shootings in real-time, there were nearly 4,000 more gun homicides in 2020 compared with 2019.
However, the GOP, who have mostly been against any sweeping legislative reform, is refusing to yield on the matter.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz accused the Democrats of playing “ridiculous theater” when proposing gun legislation. For Cruz, something as logical as requiring prospective gun owners to undergo a universal background check is farfetched.
Cruz said the measures would take away guns from “law-abiding citizens.”
“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz said.
The response from Senator John Kennedy was not much better, comparing the mass shooters to drunk drivers.
“We have a lot of drunk drivers in America that killed a lot of people,” Kennedy said. “We ought to try to combat that too. But I think what many folks on my side of the aisle are saying is that the answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers. The answer is to concentrate on the problem.”
While the Democrats continue to push for reform, the Biden administration has yet to announce any executive orders to tackle the problem. The president called on legislators to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, leaving the resolution in the hands of the Senate.
“I’m going to use all the resources at my disposal to keep the American people safe. I don’t need to wait another minute let alone an hour to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” said Biden.
However, judging from the remarks several high-ranking Republicans have boldly declared, the battle will remain an uphill one.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville perfectly summed up the GOP’s disposition: “I think we’ve got enough background checks,” he said.
Lord, help us.
