Listen to this Father of one of the UCSB shooting victims:
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The NRA has used its political clout to block medical and academic research that would help us understand and end the epidemic of gun violence.
According to ProPublica, ?Since 1996, when a small CDC-funded study on the risks of owning a firearm ignited opposition from Republicans, the CDC?s budget for research on firearms injuries has shrunk to zero.?
Last week, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) filed a bill that would fund the CDC research. The NRA issued a statement calling Markey?s bill ?unethical? and an ?abuse of taxpayer funds for anti-gun political propaganda under the guise of ?research.??
Although the NRA likes to portray itself as representing grassroots gun owners, only about 4 million of the 90 million American gun owners are NRA members.
The bulk of the NRA?s money comes from gun and ammo manufacturers that donate millions of dollars to further political obstructionism and fear-mongering among a small but vocal minority of gun owners.
The gun makers? profits?and the profits of Walmart (the nation?s largest seller of guns and ammunition) and other retailers?grow when there are few restrictions on the sale and ownership of guns and ammunition.
?There is a lot of profit to be made for all of this sorrow, all of this death, and all of this destruction,? said Dr. Sheldon Teperman, director of trauma surgery at the Jacobi Medical Center in New York City, who routinely deals with gunshot victims and who was interviewed for a video urging people to unload gun companies from their 401k investments.
The gun industry?led by Remington Outdoor, Sturm Ruger, Smith & Wesson and Olin?has profited, even as more Americans die by the products they manufacture and aggressively market. The value of these companies has grown significantly just as the rate of mass shootings has increased.
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I wonder if the NRA leadership would change it's tune if it was their sons and daughters being massacred.
It won't surprise me if one of these days a parent of a victim of one of these preventable gun tragedies shows up at an NRA event with some assault weapons, since I can't imagine what it is like to be a parent of one of the kids killed to have to listen to the NRA dishonor the death of their child, by continuing to lobby to block even simple things like background checks:
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Guns are a large part of American culture. Few object to the manufacture and sale of rifles used in hunting, a sport that millions of Americans enjoy relatively safely. But according to a CBS News poll last December, 85 percent of all Americans?including 84 percent of Republicans, 92 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of independents and 84 percent of gun owners?favor a federal law requiring background checks on all potential gun buyers.
Some will point out that Rodger passed background checks and purchased his Glock 34 and SIG Sauers weapons legally. That simply suggests that we should made it much more difficult for people to purchase assault weapons.
In fact, a Rasmussen Reports survey in December revealed that 59 percent of likely US voters think there should be a ban on the purchase of semi-automatic and assault-type weapons. Only 33 percent disagree.
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ADG