Doing the right thing!

I tend to keep out of politics, but as I sit and listen to the news of the shooting of the school children in Connecticut, I cannot believe that there is no immediate ban on automatic Assault Weapons.

In Australia, in 1996, when a similar incident happened, they had a comprehensive ban on Assault Riffles, and they have not had a similar incident since.

In the last 2 years there have been 11 mass murders involving a single shooter in the USA, which have taken the lives of 91 people, including the 28 school children in Connecticut, all of which involved the use of semi automatic or assault weapons.

On this link you can see how many mass murders have been committed since 1982.

www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

Whilst we wait for a ban, that will probably not come, it has been reported that gun sales, including those of assault rifles, have risen since Friday 14th Dec, a sign that enthusiasts fear that new legislation is coming, the BBC’s Paul Adams in Washington reports.

What will it take for the US President to stand up and make a decision that will bring these murders to and end or at least make it difficult for semi automatic and assault weapons to be accessible.

Leadership isn’t just about being popular.

Sometimes it’s about taking a tough stance, standing up for what’s right and making some hard decisions.

For me, Barrack Obama will be judged on how he handles this subject.

Whether he will hold firm to commitments he made in his 2008 Presidential Election campaign we he stated.

“We’re a nation that believes in the Second Amendment, and I believe in the Second Amendment. We’ve got a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people who want to make sure they can protect themselves. My belief is that we have to enforce the laws we’ve already got, make sure that we’re keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. We’ve done a much better job in terms of background checks, but we’ve got more to do when it comes to enforcement. But weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don’t belong on our streets. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.”

So far he has made little to no progress on this topic, other than talk.

Talk is cheap, it’s time to start walking the walk and doing the right thing!