Gun control now
The status quo hasn’t worked in the States, and more of the same won’t solve anything
Immediately following the events that took place at Newtown, Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, CNN television host Piers Morgan took no time to voice his opinion on the United States’ gun control issue. Although Morgan is often criticized by many as being an outspoken personality, this time around there is no denying the validity of Morgan’s argument demanding gun control in the United States.
“If you don’t change the gun laws when 20 poor young kids are blown away with an assault weapon & high-capacity magazines, when do you?” Morgan stated on Twitter after the news broke about the school shooting.
To the surprise of many, though, gun control has been an issue that Morgan has raised in the past. Prior to the Sandy Hook shooting, Morgan talked with law professor David Kopel on CNN about gun control after the Aurora, Colorado shooting on July 20, 2012.
When Morgan addressed Kopel about the issue, Kopel felt that it was not the appropriate time to discuss gun laws and stated in the interview, “I really wish you would have waited to have this segment until after the funerals.”
Morgan responded, “When you have a young man like this able to legally get 6,000 rounds of ammunition off the internet, to buy four weapons including an assault rifle, and for all of this to be perfectly legal in modern America, allowing him to carry out the biggest shooting in the history of the United States, that, I’m afraid, means it’s too late for this debate.”
Along with the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, which claimed the lives of 12 people, the shooter in Newtown claimed the lives of 20 innocent children and six innocent adults, resulting in the two worst shootings in United States history in one calendar year.
So, what is Morgan’s solution to get illegal guns off of the streets of the United States? Treble the sentences for possession – a suggestion that did not receive positive reception from a vast majority of Americans.
As a result of Morgan’s strong opinion on gun control, a group of select United States citizens have submitted a petition to the White House to get Morgan deported for engaging in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. On Christmas, another petition was submitted to the White House to keep Morgan in the United States and protect the rights of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press under the First Amendment. By Jan. 7, the White House released a statement that addressed the petition to deport Morgan that read, “The White House responds to all petitions that cross the threshold and we will respond to this one. In the meantime, it is worth remembering that the freedom of expression is a bedrock principle in our democracy.”
Despite being controversial in the States, Morgan has been arguably the most honest, colourful, and insightful mind thus far to address the United States’ gun control law.
Furthermore, in Britain, Morgan’s home country, there are an average of 42 deaths by guns per year. Here in Canada, there is an average of 1,300 deaths by guns per year, and overwhelmingly the United States averages just over 11,000 deaths by guns per year.
In the end, this isn’t a debate to keep Piers Morgan in the United States, this is a debate of the right to bear arms verses the right-to-life for children and the safety of citizens in the United States.
Morgan brilliantly stated himself, “You may not agree with all I suggest, but let’s have the debate. Loudly. Do it for these poor kids, and their poor families.”
Colton Hordichuk
Contributor
Photo courtesy of pennlive.com
