The high number of mass shootings in the United States show that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other lobbying groups have been extraordinarily successful in influencing lawmakers. Although a large number of Americans say that gun laws should be more restrictive — a necessary step to control this "epidemic" — Congress continues refusing to pass effective gun control laws.
The reluctance by lawmakers — mostly Republican — to pass more restrictive gun laws makes one wonder if they have children or grandchildren. How then can it be explained that they are deaf to a problem that has cost thousands of lives and injured many more? Why are they unable to do their job to stop a phenomenon that is a curse to society? Why do they allow their own children to live in such a brutal culture?
Through the first five months of 2021 in the United States, guns have been involved in 8,000 deaths, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization. The number of casualties exceeds those of the first five months of 2020, which had been the deadliest year for gun violence in the last two decades.