Gun violence has predictable indicators

Echo opinion letter published in The Times of Pawtucket Rhode Island:  

On Black Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, upwards of 180,000 Americans applied for background checks in order to purchase a firearm.

Although the number of background checks is not a good measure as it relates to actual firearms purchased, it is a good barometer as it relates to future mass shootings.

As is still the case because of Republican resistance, assault rifles are for sale in large numbers in the United States. The Republican majority continues to clamor that it is the right of the individual that must be protected and that it is the mentally ill that must be prevented from securing a firearm while at the same time refusing to answer the question as to why these weapons are available in the first place.

As a combat veteran of Vietnam, I am all too familiar with how destructive these weapons were and still are. To deny the general public access to these obscene weapons is not an infringement of its Second Amendment rights, it is a measure to protect.

Why we as Americans fail to acknowledge this is beyond my comprehension. The United States is fast becoming a Third World nation with the rest of the planet looking on as we slaughter our citizens without the slightest compunction.

Unless and until we enact common sense gun control legislation and put the NRA out of business, mass shootings will be as common as our “do nothing” legislators that infect our nation’s capital.

Douglas J. Audette, Woonsocket Rhode Island