Op-Ed Contributor
Barack Obama: Guns Are Our Shared Responsibility
THE
epidemic of gun violence in our country is a crisis. Gun deaths and
injuries constitute one of the greatest threats to public health and to
the safety of the American people. Every year, more than 30,000
Americans have their lives cut short by guns. Suicides. Domestic
violence. Gang shootouts. Accidents. Hundreds of thousands of Americans
have lost brothers and sisters, or buried their own children. We’re the
only advanced nation on earth that sees this kind of mass violence with
this frequency.
A
national crisis like this demands a national response. Reducing gun
violence will be hard. It’s clear that common-sense gun reform won’t
happen during this Congress. It won’t happen during my presidency.
Still, there are steps we can take now to save lives. And all of us — at
every level of government, in the private sector and as citizens — have
to do our part.
We all have a responsibility.
On
Tuesday, I announced new steps I am taking within my legal authority to
protect the American people and keep guns out of the hands of criminals
and dangerous people. They include making sure that anybody engaged in
the business of selling firearms conducts background checks, expanding
access to mental health treatment and improving gun safety technology.
These actions won’t prevent every act of violence, or save every life —
but if even one life is spared, they will be well worth the effort.
Even
as I continue to take every action possible as president, I will also
take every action I can as a citizen. I will not campaign for, vote for
or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support
common-sense gun reform. And if the 90 percent of Americans who do support common-sense gun reforms join me, we will elect the leadership we deserve.
All
of us have a role to play — including gun owners. We need the vast
majority of responsible gun owners who grieve with us after every mass
shooting, who support common-sense gun safety and who feel that their
views are not being properly represented, to stand with us and demand
that leaders heed the voices of the people they are supposed to
represent.
The gun industry also needs to do its part. And that starts with manufacturers.
As
Americans, we hold consumer goods to high standards to keep our
families and communities safe. Cars have to meet safety and emissions
requirements. Food has to be clean and safe. We will not end the cycle
of gun violence until we demand that the gun industry take simple
actions to make its products safer as well. If a child can’t open a
bottle of aspirin, we should also make sure she can’t pull the trigger
of a gun.
Yet
today, the gun industry is almost entirely unaccountable. Thanks to the
gun lobby’s decades of efforts, Congress has blocked our consumer
products safety experts from being able to require that firearms have
even the most basic safety measures. They’ve made it harder for the
government’s public health experts to conduct research on gun violence.
They’ve guaranteed that manufacturers enjoy virtual immunity from
lawsuits, which means that they can sell lethal products and rarely face
consequences. As parents, we wouldn’t put up with this if we were
talking about faulty car seats. Why should we tolerate it for products —
guns — that kill so many children each year?
At
a time when manufacturers are enjoying soaring profits, they should
invest in research to make guns smarter and safer, like developing
microstamping for ammunition, which can help trace bullets found at
crime scenes to specific guns. And like all industries, gun
manufacturers owe it to their customers to be better corporate citizens
by selling weapons only to responsible actors.
Ultimately, this is about all of us. We are not asked to perform the heroism of 15-year-old Zaevion Dobson
from Tennessee, who was killed before Christmas while shielding his
friends from gunfire. We are not asked to display the grace of the
countless victims’ families who have dedicated themselves to ending this
senseless violence. But we must find the courage and the will to
mobilize, organize and do what a strong, sensible country does in
response to a crisis like this one.
All
of us need to demand leaders brave enough to stand up to the gun
lobby’s lies. All of us need to stand up and protect our fellow
citizens. All of us need to demand that governors, mayors and our
representatives in Congress do their part.
Change
will be hard. It won’t happen overnight. But securing a woman’s right
to vote didn’t happen overnight. The liberation of African-Americans
didn’t happen overnight. Advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender Americans has taken decades’ worth of work.
Those
moments represent American democracy, and the American people, at our
best. Meeting this crisis of gun violence will require the same
relentless focus, over many years, at every level. If we can meet this
moment with that same audacity, we will achieve the change we seek. And
we will leave a stronger, safer country to our children.
Barack Obama is president of the United States.
