Once again, the nation mourns.
In a heart-wrenching tragedy, 17 people were left dead after a shooter opened fire on students and teachers at a high school in Parkland, Fla. The incident currently stands as the third deadliest school shooting in American history, surpassed only by Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech. Unfortunately, tragedies like this are becoming less and less surprising. The incident in Parkland marks just one of 30 mass shootings in the month and a half since 2018 began, a year that has now seen 400 children and teens killed in gun-related violence.
This pattern of increasing gun violence and loss of innocent life leaves America with a pressing question: are Republicans actually interested in being “pro-life”?
For decades, the Republican Party has waved a pro-life banner, claiming to be the defender of the “unalienable right to life as stated in The Declaration of Independence.” Just this year, thousands of conservatives descended on Washington for their annual March for Life where they called for additional legislation protecting the “sanctity of human life.”
The hypocrisy is sickening.
As Americans are now realizing, the GOP’s pro-life stance does not extend beyond the realm of abortion. This is evident in their consistent opposition to any legislation that addresses the issue of gun violence. According to their own party platform, Republicans will oppose all laws that restrict magazine capacity, limit the sale of assault rifles, or place any obstacles in the path of someone wishing to own a gun.
With near clockwork precision, Republican politicians follow each mass shooting incident with a statement that “now is not the time to talk about gun control.” They give their condolences, condemn the act, and offer their prayers. And then they move on. But with 30 mass shootings in almost as many days, how can any politician feel justified in simply moving on?
It is long past time for Republicans to step up to the pro-life bar they have set for themselves and promote legislation that protects all life. Defending the lives of the unborn while failing to seriously address the deaths of innocent children is a moral failing in the highest degree.
Nobody is asking Republicans to abandon the Second Amendment or turn over their firearms to the federal government. Americans are simply pleading with them to engage in an effort to defend the “unalienable right to life” of children and adults across this country.
Democrats and some moderate Republicans are trying to find measured solutions. Various individuals and groups have proposed legislation that would mandate background checks on all gun purchases, limit mentally ill individuals and violent criminals from buying guns, create a federally mandated waiting period on gun purchases, and ban the sales of firearms to those under 21 (the shooter in Parkland was 19). These are not radical infringements on constitutional rights. Nor are they stepping stones toward a government confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens. They are sensible steps toward addressing the plague of violence gripping the United States.
Students and teachers should not be afraid every morning when they go to school. Families should not have to worry that a trip to the movies could end their lives. And Americans should not have to have to check the news every week only to see that more have died in senseless and preventable gun violence.
If Republicans do not step forward and engage now in an open and honest debate about reforming our gun laws, they stand complicit in the ever more frequent tragedies. As the governing party of the United States, it is their responsibility to take whatever action is necessary to prevent more weeks like this one.
It is time for sensible gun reform now.
Jack Davis
Jack Davis is a student at Brigham Young University studying economics and international strategy and diplomacy.