Independent Editor,
Ten more victims are dead and 10 injured after a shooting at a Texas high school. The NRA and the Republican Party are still refusing to pass reasonable, responsible gun law reform. The nation is calling out for a four-point plan to reduce the number of dead and dying from mass shootings. These four points call for no assault weapons, no bump stocks, no high capacity magazines and deep background checks.
Even after the Las Vegas shootings, where the murderer had 23 assault weapons in his room. Twelve of those assault weapons were equipped with bump stocks, which made them veritable machine guns. The NRA and the Republican Party refuse to support these four points, of which 70 percent of Americans are in favor.
Even one local paper, The Argus-Press, is taking up the anti-gun law reform mantle by keeping the latest Texas shooting off the front page and buried deep in the pages of the paper. If we as a community can’t even keep these murders on the front page to remind us of the work we have to do as far as the four point plan goes, we are in fact supporting the NRA position that any gun law reform law passed is an attempt by the “government” to take away all your guns. Most people I am in contact with do not support taking all your guns away. That is just another lie cultivated by the NRA/Republican lie machine. Just reread some of the letters that have been published in the Argus of late that were written by NRA surrogates who say gun law reform legislation only increases the death and injured count. The facts behind the Las Vegas murders (the murderer had 23 assault weapons, 12 with bump stocks, over 50 dead and over 500 injured) disproves this lie and many other NRA pathological attacks on any reforms suggested by the American citizenry.
These reforms cannot happen unless local communities/governments take up the plan and sign on to support the four points and let our political leaders (Congressman John Moolenaar and Rep. Ben Frederick) know that they need to fear the voters when it comes to their re-election and not the NRA. If they fail to live up to their responsibility and work to pass the four-point plan, the blood of future victims will be on their hands.
Thomas Ford, Owosso