Will lawmakers act after Florida shooting?

Last week’s shooting at a high school in Florida again brings the issue of guns to the forefront of political debate.

Over the past few years, this type of shooting has become more frequent. Whether it be in Parkland, FL, Las Vegas, NV, Blacksburg, WV, Sutherland Springs, TX, or any number of other places, one disturbed person bent on destroying lives has been able to do just that, with relative ease.

In the week since the shooting, a movement seems to have taken hold among the young survivors of the shooting. Students are demanding action on common sense gun control legislation, and it appears, at least for now, that lawmakers are listening.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, guarantees the right of people to “keep and bear arms.” Gun control opponents are quick to point out that the founding fathers felt this right was important enough that they included this guarantee.

But what is often forgotten in the argument is the entire wording of the Second Amendment:

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Some people argue this amendment gives Americans a green light to owning guns of any type and to carry them anywhere. But even conservative Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia disagreed in a 2008 opinion, stating “nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

Current gun laws do little to prevent people from purchasing an assault weapon similar to that used in last week’s Florida shooting. Even though he had stated on social media that his ambition was to “become a professional school shooter,” and people had warned law enforcement of their concerns, Nickolas Cruz was able to legally purchase the AR-15 used to kill 17 people last week.

The question is, will some common-sense restrictions be put in place, or will the country’s attention again move on to some other issue and the topic of gun control be forgotten… at least, until the next shooting.

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