Lawmakers who cower to pro-gun lobbyists partly to blame for gun violence, rural editor opines

Guns don't kill people—people do, especially the lawmakers who refuse to take a stand against pro-gun lobbyists, opines Laurie Ezzell Brown, editor and publisher of The Canadian Record in the Texas Panhandle. Here is an excerpt from her column:

"Eventually, it begins to make a sick kind of sense, and we realize that maybe it’s true. People kill people. Gutless, greedy lawmakers kill people. They cower in the presence of pro-gun lobbyists, who have convinced them they hold the keys to the kingdom—and perhaps, they do.

Laurie Ezzell Brown

"Well-armed with gleaming campaign cash and boasting, according to grand wizard Wayne LaPierre, over 5 million members, the NRA poses a formidable obstacle to the election chances of any public official bold enough to wonder whether perhaps it is time to take sensible steps to address the growing threat and increasing frequency of gun violence in our country.

"Maybe those people—our duly-elected representatives— should be held accountable. After all, it is they who wield both the tools to write and pass reasonable gun laws. It is they who could require criminal background checks on both gun owners and gun shop employees and restrict concealed carry permits to those who have completed safety training courses and who are 21 and older. It is they who have the power to prohibit the issuance of concealed carry permits to perpetrators of violent misdemeanors or to those arrested for domestic violence and to require instant background checks on all retail and gun show sales.

"People kill people. Indeed. We kill people. Kind and caring citizens like us say and do nothing, allowing our elected officials to be held hostage to the NRA’s narrow and near-sighted agenda, while our children die in public schools and on college campuses. Well-practiced in our grief, we are silent witnesses to what was once-unthinkable. Of course, we mourn, but we are also numbed, paralyzed by this sense of inevitability, as the details of the latest mass shooting are revealed. We nod like puppets when we are reminded, once again, that guns don’t kill—only people do."