There are trigger happy gunmen around who do not hesitate to pull the trigger on unsuspecting innocents in schools or elsewhere. The incident of Gun Violence in Parkland, Florida, left 17 dead, and soon after that, there appears to have been a spurt in firearms sales. It seems people wanted to purchase their weapons before the authorities imposed restrictions.
Daily Mail UK reports that this issue could feature in the forthcoming November midterm elections in a big way. Students all over the United States planned their walk out on Friday to commemorate a 19-year-old massacre in a school.
The Parkland shootings have had a major impact on the people and they want strict Gun Control measures to ensure the safety of innocents.
It could be an issue in elections
The gun is a device meant to protect the owner. When it falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to gun violence and death of innocents as has been seen in a number of schools in recent times, from Sandy Hook to Parkland. These have led to large-scale protests with many people demanding imposition of strict gun control measures, including background checks. The net result is an uncertainty in the minds of people who want to buy a gun before restrictions are imposed. This benefits the gun makers.
This issue could become a major one in the upcoming midterm elections because candidates at federal and state government levels could demand restrictions on the sale of AR-15s and other assault-style rifles.
Weapons of this nature have been used by gunmen in recent massacres, and the political undertones could lead to an increase in the sale of guns because of possible gun control measures.
The present scenario
There was a surge in gun sales before the November 2016 presidential election. The reason was the fear that if Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton won, she would impose restrictions on gun sales.
However, after Donald Trump was elected, the sale of guns dropped, probably because Trump, a Republican, had campaigned against gun control.
Of course, after the February 14 massacre in Parkland, Florida, Trump had mentioned about imposing age restrictions and stricter background checks to control gun violence but later the issue seemed to fade away.
The gunmen who carried out the shootings killed 28 in Sandy Hook Elementary School (2013), 58 at the Las Vegas country music festival (2017), and 17 in the Parkland High school (2018). The victims were innocent men, women, and children and the survivors remain traumatized even today. Those who are responsible for such actions do not appear to be normal people, and such situations could have been avoided if their antecedents had been checked before they bought the guns.
