[Music]
PAM SIMON: There is absolutely no reason that anyone needs a gun that is designed for only
one purpose and that's killing people.
[Music]
PAM: We are a society that seems to have embraced this violent culture.
34 people at least on average every single day are killed, murdered with a handgun across
the United States.
So we have a mass shooting every single day if they were all gathered in one place.
No one wants gun violence likes this.
Half of the survivors that were injured the day of the January 8th shooting are gun owners.
Congresswoman Giffords is a gun owner.
There is not in any way the thought that we want to take everyone's guns away, but what
we would like to see would be legislation introduced in this new congress is to close
the gun show loophole.
You can go to a gun show and at the gun show if you're not a licensed gun dealer, you do
not have to put people through a background check.
PAM: Some of the survivors a couple of gentlemen that both were wounded on January 8th went
to one of the Tuscon gun shows and they tested it out.
The person showing the guns really wanted a sale and so one of the gentlemen said will
I have to go through a background check and he says no no you don't.
So he said well that's a good thing because I'd never pass a background a check.
The guy said doesn't matter to me, just want to sell you a gun.
The loophole was written really thinking of people being able to give a gun to a family
member or to a neighbor that they know so we are looking to do that and then the second
part of that is the states are required to turn in adjudicated records of those considered
mentally incompetent.
They are also required to put in criminal records.
However, less than half the states actually comply with that.
And so that is something we're asking the President to look into to tighten the penalties,
to put more teeth into that law because obviously if somebody's records are not put in, they
won't be caught and they can move from state to state.
PAM: Perhaps the biggest obstacle to making changes right now in gun violence prevention
is that for so long the issue of guns has been taken off the table.
It's something politicians are literally afraid to talk about.
In order for us to solve any problem, we have to talk to each other.
Ideas have come up.
We all have to be able to sit around the table and not be afraid to put the ideas out there
and for members of congress and state legislators, they have to be brave enough to bring this
issue up.
There is such a fear built into people that any—it's all or nothing.
There can't be any middle ground.
And of course there's a huge middle ground.
There's a middle ground of common sense.
So I think that it is shifting.
I think the political landscape right now gives us the opportunity to talk about it.
Something that people don't often know is that the NRA membership does not necessarily
completely sync with the NRA leadership.
We have to remember the National Rife Association used to be an organization that simply gave
very good gun safety training classes.
The political landscape that they have entered has changed all of that and in a polling done
by a GOP pollster last May 2012 indicates that 82% of gun owners totally agree that
the gun show loophole should be closed and that all guns purchased should go through
a background check.
78% of NRA membership also agree that all guns should go through a background check.
And I have discovered that in just conversation with my friends that our gun owners, hunters—I
was raised in a gun owning family—that many of them think that is happening now.
One man came up to me that I know in the grocery store and he said y'know, I'm an NRA member
and right after Obama was elected I got all this stuff in the mail that our guns will
be taken away.
He said I went out and bought a few more guns.
He said that didn't happen did it?
I said, no, you have to be really careful.
I think we will have to look hard at ourselves as a culture, as a society, if we want to
continue to be known for freedoms without a balancing responsibility and I think that's
what has happened.
We have gotten completely out of whack where the freedom is more important than the responsibilities
that go with it.
I'm Pamela Simon.
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