WASHINGTON 鈥� It鈥檚 not known yet what led Syed Farook and Tashfeen Mailk to kill 14 people and wound 17 at a holiday party for his co-workers the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday. But the second mass shooting in the U.S. in less than a week has intensified the debate over gun control, and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., says it’s time for action.
鈥淚t鈥檚 past time for Congress to quit hiding and address what is a real sickness in this country,鈥� Kaine said on 小萝莉影视 Thursday.
Kaine, a former governor of Virginia, tells 小萝莉影视 the shooting at Virginia Tech was a pivotal experience to his thinking on the issue. He says he did what he could as governor, issuing executive orders to strengthen the state鈥檚 system of background records checks, 鈥渁nd it made us safer.鈥�
For further measures, Kaine says, he says he needed laws to pass through the General Assembly, but that didn鈥檛 happen.
Thursday morning, authorities confirmed that all the guns used in the San Bernardino shooting were obtained legally.
Referring to the first step in the routine of 12-step programs to help addicts, Kaine says of the country now, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to admit you鈥檝e got a problem, and we鈥檝e got one.鈥�
(defined as shootings in which four or more people, including the shooters, are killed or wounded) in the U.S. this year, but nothing substantial has been done to curb access to guns, and Kaine says that political leaders aren鈥檛 listening to the public.
鈥淲e have got a political climate where the overwhelming majority of American citizens believe there are reasonable steps we can take to make our lives safer 鈥� but you鈥檝e got a political class, frankly, that will not listen to the voters, because they鈥檝e been buffaloed by gun manufacturers and the NRA,” Kaine says. “So they quickly say 鈥楴othing can be done; nothing can be done.鈥� Every new tragedy: 鈥楴othing can be done.鈥欌��
At this point, Kaine says, such voices are part of the problem:聽鈥淚 believe in good and evil in the world. And people who do these shootings are evil. But people who say nothing can be done, that鈥檚 a voice of evil too. That鈥檚 been a voice throughout history: 鈥極h, nothing can be done, we can鈥檛 do anything about it.鈥� That鈥檚 just wrong. Being a bystander when bad things are going is not a morally acceptable position.鈥�
Kaine referred sadly to a BBC report on the San Bernardino shooting that began, 鈥淛ust another day in the United States of America 鈥� another day of gunfire, panic and fear.鈥�
It provides 鈥渢he window into us鈥� that doesn鈥檛 look good, Kaine says.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 have to be this way.鈥�
In a related matter, a former Republican congressman has聽called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research聽gun violence as a public health issue, nearly 20聽years after he successfully fought to聽prevent the federal government from doing just that.
“It is my position that somehow or someway we should slowly but methodically fund such research until a solution is reached. Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution,” wrote on Tuesday to聽Rep. Mike Thompson, chairman of the House Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, which聽was created in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
“Research could have been continued on gun violence without infringing on the rights of gun owners, in the same fashion that the highway industry continued its research without eliminating the automobile,” the letter continues.
