A gun control petition was created after the Newtown elementary school shooting has already secured 43,000 signatures calling for President Obama to take immediate action and sparking national gun control conversations via Twitter.
After a young man, Adam Lanza, 20, took the life of 20 children and six teachers at an elementary school in Connecticut, police discovered his dead body along with four weapons.
The fact that the 20-year-old was able to obtain the dangerous firearms quickly fired up the debate of gun control that had died down since the Colorado movie theater shooting.
The petition, which was created on the White House’s “We the People” platform, was submitted by Chris C. Joshua of Tree, Calif. and since then eight other gun control petitions have also surfaced – gaining their own staggering number of signatures.
“Today IS the day,” Joshua’s petition began to specifically counter White House Secretary Jay Carney who stated that Friday was not the day to start a policy debate over gun control.
It is, however, also believed that what Carney meant by his statement was that Friday should have been dedicated to helping those families who lost their loved ones rather than adding more anger to an already delicate tragedy.
“Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress,” the petition demanded. “Powerful lobbying groups allows the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution’s intended purpose of the right to bear arms. Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment (which protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms) intends to achieve.”
One petition went on to explain why it was so important to discuss gun control laws in the midst of all the chaos rather than wait for the wounds of those impacted to heal.
“If we cannot discuss prevention of massacres like this one while the pain is still fresh, then our opportunities to have that discussion will be few and far between,” the petition explained. “The frequency of these horrifying incidents is increasing. If a day on which two dozen school children are massacred is not the day to discuss this, there will never be a proper day for the discussion. Stand up to the entrenched gun lobby now. The White House must take the lead on enacting strict controls on all firearms in the US.”
Although the President wasn’t very clear about what actions he would take after the tragedy, he did make a public tear-filled statement yesterday saying, “It is time to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”
Another petition even pointed out the fact that the Newton elementary school shooting was the second mass shooting in a matter of two weeks. Just a matter of days before the elementary school massacre, a mall in Oregon was also met with disaster when a masked 22-year-old with a semiautomatic rifle fired blindly into the crowd of holiday shoppers.
Three people where killed in the incident including the gunman himself.
With so many violent outbreaks become more and more frequent, many people are turning to the White House to make a change, while others believe that the problem is much deeper than the law.
The national tragedy sparked a series of conversations and debate on social media networks proving that the gun law debate isn’t quite as simple as many hoped it would be.
“He was breaking the law to begin with, new laws don’t mean anything to a criminal,” one user on Twitter pointed out, addressing the fact that the shooter had used his mother’s guns.
“Perhaps this was a matter of gun safety not gun laws. They weren’t his guns, they should have been tucked away hidden,” another user added to the previous tweet.
Others believed that even if the gun laws were more strict there is nothing to stop criminals from turning to the black market.
“Yall actin like u cant find a gun on the streets for 50,” a man from New York added to the debate. “Buying a gun cheaper than buyin education.”
For others, mainly women, it seemed like they were afraid to be disarmed in a world where criminals can always find their way to get a firearm regardless of the law.
“I live in a country home alone my neighbors r miles away,” a Texas woman tweeted. “I abide by the law but every1 wont.”
Of course, there is still the idea that gun laws might make it more difficult for the criminals running the black market to obtain their weaponry as well.
“If we keep guns on the streets we are asking for the same tragedy to happen over and over again,” one man tweeted in response to the anti-gun law comments.
“#GunLaws #GunLaws #GunLaws !!!” another user tweeted before adding, “Have you not had enough? Will ur child have 2 die b4 u open ur eyes.”
With both sides passionately expressing their views it is clear that the White House will receive backlash regardless of what actions they decide to take moving forward.
Whether gun laws are reformed or not, it is important to remember that the key to moving our nation forward is to move as a nation and not as two separate parties.
