Both Sides Talking Past Each Other in Gun Debate
Guns for sale at Second Amendment Sports in McHenry. (Photo credit: Shaw Media)
OPINION
The debate over banning assault weapons and the ensuing legal battle are more in a long line of gun issues where both sides are talking past each other.
Let’s be clear: both sides have solid arguments for their cause. Pro-gun advocates are correct in asserting that the 2nd Amendment applies to modern firearms in the same way the 1st Amendment applies to radio, TV, and the internet. Gun control supporters are correct to point out that people have the right to attend an Independence Day parade, go to school, or enter a nightclub without the threat of rifle rounds ripping through their bodies.
Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield) represents suburban Highland Park, where a deranged punk slipped through the system, bought a high-powered rifle, and (allegedly) killed eight people at the community’s annual Independence Day parade. Morgan was part of that parade. He and his family were about to step off as they heard the gunshots from a couple of blocks away. He’s since led the charge to ban assault-style weapons.
Morgan has every right to believe what he believes and every right to attempt to change state law.
I like Bob Morgan. I think he’s a good man with honest intentions. But it’s becoming clearer and clearer he and other Democrats either don’t know or don’t care that nearly all gun owners in the state obey the law. Most of the crimes committed with guns are done by people who are already breaking the law.
Morgan recently tweeted that nobody uses an AR-15 for home protection. A simple Google search shows countless incidents where legal gun owners have protected their homes and families with the Armalite-style rifle.
The truth is, gun owners in Illinois not only go through a federal background check when buying their weapons, they also go through a separate Illinois Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) background check and a waiting period before they can make the purchase.
You can’t legislate away hate. You can’t legislate away evil. But penalizing legal gun owners for the actions of those who break the law is punitive. It would be akin to banning cars because there are too many drunk drivers.
What gun rights supporters refuse to accept is that it’s too easy for people who shouldn’t have guns to get them. Time after time, whether in Highland Park, Aurora, or Uvalde, TX, mentally ill people or people with criminal records slipped through the cracks and were able to purchase guns. Gun rights supporters remain steadfast in their belief that having a magazine that can hold up to 100 rounds is essential in protecting their 2nd Amendment rights. It flies in the face of logic.
Gun control supporters are attacking those who own rifles instead of working to end handgun violence, which kills far more people in Illinois than assault rifles do. Democrats, in this case, are unwilling to push prosecutors on their side, specifically Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, to seriously prosecute gun crimes.
Pro-gun advocates are completely unwilling to talk about ways to keep stolen guns, ghost guns, or “straw purchase” guns off the streets.
There’s a stunning lack of interest from both sides in having serious conversations about ways to stop violence on our streets. Do some guns and magazines need to be limited? Probably. Do some laws need to be strengthened to keep criminals off the street? Definitely. Can we keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them without treating every gun owner like a war criminal? Absolutely.
Like most things in politics, an all-or-nothing approach doesn’t help anyone. Progress is only made when the two sides start talking to each other instead of shouting past each other.
Nobody is taking that step yet.