There are two measures about gun violence to consider. One limits gun sales to people on the terrorist watch list, and the other excludes people on the No Fly list from buying guns. Neither of these measures are particularly controversial, and are reported to be favored by 80% to 90% of Americans; the voters that congress is elected to represent. How is it that one body of Congress can’t get a vote at all, and the other body votes but the measures are defeated?
I understand that even in a democracy, majority doesn’t always rule. Sometimes minority interests have to be protected against the tyranny of the majority. I also realize Republicans are the majority and they get to decide what business to take up; but when there is such overwhelming public support for an issue, how does one party stand unified in not considering it? So unified in fact, that the US House of Representatives rejected an amendment that would have allowed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the underlying causes of gun violence.
We hear how powerful the NRA is, and that they oppose any legislation limiting guns, but really, are they more powerful than essentially every voter in the U.S. combined? Are they the minority interest being protected; a minority of one?
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