Editorial: Stand with NC or stay in bed with the NRA?

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 -- It is time to reinstitute and broaden the ban on military-style automatic and semi-automatic weapons. No one outside the military service and law enforcement has any use for, or need to possess these weapons of mass destruction. Guns are not toys.

Posted 10:00 a.m. Feb 20, 2018 — Updated 10:00 a.m. Feb 20, 2018

CBC Editorial: Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018; Editorial # 8271

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

It is an incredible sum.

The National Rifle Association has spent $11.6 million in North Carolina congressional elections – almost all of it on Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis. That’s around $682,000 for each of the dead in Parkland, Florida. It is $79,710 for each of the 138 school house dead nationwide since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

The NRA’s investment has paid off — to the benefit of gun manufacturers. Sales of non-essential military-style assault weapons skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the lavish campaign spending effectively thwarted any reasonable, constitutional laws to keep these inappropriate and dangerous weapons away from the public.

This is not about doing away with the 2nd Amendment or in any way limiting anyone’s right to hunt. It is about common sense. It is about representing the voters of the state – a majority of whom support a ban on assault weapons. More men support a ban than oppose it. But $11.6 million can buy a pretty big megaphone and the obedience of a lot of elected representatives.

Sen. Richard Burr is in a perfect position to take the lead. He can show he is serious about representing the people of North Carolina and not a special interest mega-donor group.

He’s said this is his last term in Congress. There will be no worries of a Republican primary to take out the senator. This is the opportunity to demonstrate the independence he promised during the 2016 campaign.

He needs to lead his fellow Republicans to agree that sound, reasonable laws that keep military weapons of mass destruction off the consumer market in America will not violate anyone’s constitutional rights. It is a good start toward making our nation safer.

It is time to reinstitute and broaden the ban on military-style automatic and semi-automatic weapons. No one outside the military service and law enforcement has any use for, or need to possess these weapons of mass destruction. Guns are not toys.

Along with it, there needs to be a ban on the gadgets that can modify guns to transform them into automatic weapons, such as the “bump stock” used by the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre.

Further, there should be background checks for EVERY gun sale, no matter where or how it takes place. Eliminate the gun show (private sale) loophole.

These aren’t radical proposals. They do not violate the 2nd Amendment. No one is trying to end all gun ownership.

They are a basic and appropriate response. The first and best response to ending mass killings is keeping the weapons that are designed to do that out of the mass market.

Congress and the president need to act now.

Sen. Burr, we are counting on you to lead the way.

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