We can prevent gun violence and preserve the Second Amendment

By Tom Siebert

Growing up, all my heroes were shot to death: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, and John Lennon.

One of the first mass shootings in modern times occurred on Aug. 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman killed 14 people and wounded 32 at the University of Texas at Austin. Since then, the names of the places where these gun massacres have occurred are a bloody blur: San Ysidro, Killeen, Long Island Railroad, Columbine, Fort Hood, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, Aurora, Tucson, Sandy Hook, Charleston, San Bernardino, Dallas, Orlando, Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Parkland.

During the past 50 years, millions of Americans have been killed or injured by guns, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Easy access to guns gravely exacerbates nearly every major problem that America faces: crime, terrorism, racism, mental illness, police brutality, and domestic violence.

This half-century epidemic of gun violence will continue to spatter blood all across the nation until we surviving Americans demand the only antidote: strict, national gun-control laws. We need universal background checks on all gun purchases, including mental health screenings; limits on gun and ammunition purchases; a ban on all semi-automatic weapons of mass destruction; long, mandatory prison sentences for gun crimes; and gun detectors in all workplaces, stores, restaurants, theaters, and churches––as well as on all public transportation.

None of these gun-safety measures would infringe upon anyone's Second Amendment rights.