Will the Elementary School Shootings Be Enough to Mobilize the Nation towards Stricter Gun Control?

Republican news anchor and ex-congressman Joe Scarborough of the MSNBC's "Morning Joe" recently admitted that he has had a change of heart about his stance about Hollywood and the 1st ammendment as well as gun manufacturers and the 2nd Amendment since the tragedy in Newtown. Scarborough stated that, "Entertainment moguls do not have an absolute right to glorify murder while spreading mayhem in young minds across America, and our Bill of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-styled high-caliber semi-automatic combat assault rifles with high capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want." This was a breakthrough for the man, who as a congressman recieved 100% approval ratings from the NRA. As happy as I am that the stubborn Joe has finally come around, I don't understand why he didn't have this reaction sooner.

The truth is that it doesn't matter the race or age of the victims, a massacre is always something to be sad and angry about. Though the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was especially devestating given the young age of the victims, this is not the first time childrens lives were lost in one of these organized crimes. Does Joe remember the Oklahoma City Bombings? 168 people were killed including 19 under the age of 6. Why didn't Colombine change Joe's mind about the 2nd Amendment? 2 highschool students shooting 12 of their classmates and 2 teachers, wounding 21 others. Why not then? Were those not devestating enough for you?

Sometimes, America doesn't see itself. How many African American men and women needed to be lynched before we did anything about it? How many women and children were forced to endure abuse and mistreatment before we created an alternative? How many hate crimes towards lesbians, gays, and transgenders needed to happen before we created any laws to protect them? (In some states there still are none). That is the problem here. We always wait because of the unpopularity of the topic. It took us 2 seconds to jump into war against Iraq after 9/11 but its taken us decades to start to discuss "maybe" putting some restrictions on gun laws.

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