Who will pay for gun control

ON OCTOBER 1st America reached 1000 mass shootings in the three years since the Sandy Hook massacre, which left 20 young children dead.
The recent headline grabbing attack on a campus in Oregon was number 994, meaning there were a further six on the same day. It was the 294th mass shooting in America this year. Following the shootings, which left nine dead, not including the gunman, United States President Barack Obama gave yet another press conference calling for stricter gun controls.
It isn’t the first time he has made this plea though. The same call for action was made after Sandy Hook, Charleston, Fort Hood... In total President Obama has called for more regulations governing gun ownership fourteen times.
Why then is it that America still won’t give up its arms? One reason is the Republican right, which has viewed the right to carry arms as a constitutional matter and therefore something to be clung onto irrespective of rational arguments against. Perhaps the key case to be made against the second amendment, aside from its ambiguity concerning who can actually carry arms, is that it was written at a time when you had to take a tea break to reload between shots. Guns have moved forward and it is time that legislators came to terms with this.
If the Republican right really believed that handing out more guns would help prevent more deaths then they would only have to look at the statistics for mass shootings on military bases to see the flaw in the argument.
Politics is just the public face of the case against tighter gun control. It is the economics behind the politicians which are the real reason President Obama will inevitably have to give another press conference before his term of office is over.
In 2012 the National Rifle Association was reported as spending approximately  $15million on Republican political campaigns in an effort to thwart President Obama from regaining office. American Presidential campaigns have become known for their multimillion dollar war chests. The size of the NRA’s fiscal support for the pro-gun republicans gives a sense of the money involved though and the scale of the opposition President Obama is facing in his attempt to overhaul gun laws.
While the arms industry is notoriously hard to find exact figures on the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms (NISA) estimates that American small arms purchases in 2009 accounted for 38% of global total of imports at $1.8billion, more than 47 other leading importers combined. Meanwhile figures given in 2010, relating to 2007, by the US Census Bureau estimate that domestic sales revenue for smalls arms sales could be $2,742 million per year, with a payroll for employees in America of $507million.
The money involved is vast and the interest groups powerful. It isn’t an unwinnable battle though. The government’s long running campaign against big tobacco, and its loosening of the corporation’s stranglehold on politics shows that it can be done. It won’t be through good intentions though and will require a shift in focus for the Republicans, among others. The American constitution has been amended and updated before as circumstances required. There is no longer the same need for armed citizens, forgoing the argument of enhancements to the guns they are carrying. The only thing holding back the debate is the question of who will pay the price, the coffers of the arm trade or the lives of the next victims?

America's tea break is over

DESPITE many commentators predicting that the Tea Party Movement had run its course yesterday's victory has reinvigorated the right wing group. 

Tea Party supporter Dave Brat's surprise victory over Washington power house Eric Cantor has provided a much needed boost for the flagging grass roots movement. 

Brat was quick to dismiss claims that he was actually a member of the Tea Party, claiming instead to believe in Republican values. 

He told America's Fox News: "I'm not holding anyone's feet to the fire but it wasn't a contest between the tea party and the Republicans and all this," he said. "Although I have tremendous tea party support and just wonderful people in the tea party and grassroots helping me out, and they're clearly responsible for the win... I ran on the Republican principles."

The defeat of Republican Majority Leader Cantor, who had been widely tipped to succeed John Boehner, has created uncertainty in beltway politics as officials on both sides of the divide fear it could harm the smooth running of government.

The Tea Party's proven track record of holding the nation to "hostage" on issues such as raising the debt ceiling has in the past led to concern that America could have been plunged into a further economic crisis. 

Unlike more moderate Republicans, such as Cantor, the Tea Party's unwillingness to compromise on key issues could make cross party agreement on key policies unlikely.

Speaking from the Richmond Hotel following news of his defeat Mr Cantor told supporters: "I know there's a lot of long faces here tonight. It's disappointing sure but I believe in this country. I believe there's opportunity around the next corner."

What that "opportunity" may be for the future of American politics is a question which many may now be asking. 

Brat's win against such a respected and powerful character as Cantor in a Republican safe seat despite being vastly outspent is being seen as a worrying sign that core Republicans are moving further towards the right wing of the party.

"The good news is dollars don't vote, people do," announced Mr Brat. "I've been a conservative my whole life," he added. "There's nothing hard right or far right about anything. I just believe in the ideas and that ideas matter in history."

Whatever the future holds for compromise on the hill one thing seems certain the tea break is over for the Republicans.