Recent gun violence has shocked and saddened the nation.
According to the New York Times, 40 campus shootings occurred last year in the United States alone. Bloomberg Businessweek estimated gun violence surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of preventable death last year, and almost 33,000 people died in shootings.
Continued shootings from Connecticut to California over the last couple years have continued to keep everyone on edge.
As the race for the White House heats up, college students should be concerned about what the next president will do to combat gun violence.
Last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Iowa caucus, beating populist Senator Bernie Sanders by a small margin. This week, Sanders won the New Hampshire primary, questionably because he hails from the neighboring state of Vermont.
Both Democratic candidates have distinct records on guns. Clinton has been a consistent advocate for gun control throughout her political career. In 1993, she supported President Bill Clinton when he signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act into law.
The law required background checks for purchases made from licensed firearm dealers. A year later, she was present at the signing of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which banned certain kinds of assault weapons from being sold to the public.
During her campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2000, Hillary urged the passage of a new federal assault weapons ban and for the creation of a nationwide firearm registry.
As a U.S. Senator, Hillary voted against the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (which granted gun manufacturers immunity from being prosecuted for gun violence), supported a 10-year extension on the assault weapons ban (which expired in 2004), and proposed criminal background checks for gun shows.
During the current 2016 campaign, the presidential candidate stated, “Bringing back the assault weapons ban and creating a ban on high-capacity magazines would help limit gun violence.”
On gun restrictions, Sanders has had a more mixed history than Secretary Clinton. As a congressman, Bernie voted against the Brady Bill five times and supported the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
As a senator, he supported instant background checks, bans on armor-piercing bullets, restrictions on sales of certain military-grade assault weapons, backed President Obama’s recent executive order on firearms, but has been ambiguous about three-day waiting periods.
There have been attempts to justify his stance, as he was raised in the rural state of Vermont, where guns are a part of daily life and culture.
The Republican Party candidates have spoken out against most gun restrictions. Real estate mogul Donald Trump said, “A gun free zone is like meat to these animals,” referring to criminals. Texas Senator Ted Cruz said, “We don’t stop the bad guys by taking away our guns; we stop the bad guys by using our guns.” Florida Senator Marco Rubio said that if elected president, he’ll reverse the executive order on gun restrictions implemented by President Obama last January.
There is an infusion of cash in our political system from the gun lobby, with organizations such as the National Rifle Association spending almost $26 million during the 2012 presidential election cycle, according to OpenSecrets
The financial ties make it almost impossible to pass any kind of meaningful regulation, even if the public supports it.
Do we have a source outside of Bloomberg – they appear to be highly biased. Here is a link to information they are using as a data point and the events classified as “gun violence” are not what you would assume. (http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/last-72-hours?sort=asc&order=Incident%20Date ).