President Obama wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times regarding our responsibility in gun violence.

January 7, 2016
By Barak Obama

The epidemic of gun violence (click here) in our country is a crisis. Gun deaths and injuries constitute one of the greatest threats to public health and to the safety of the American people. Every year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns. Suicides. Domestic violence. Gang shootouts. Accidents. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost brothers and sisters, or buried their own children. We’re the only advanced nation on earth that sees this kind of mass violence with this frequency.

A national crisis like this demands a national response. Reducing gun violence will be hard. It’s clear that common-sense gun reform won’t happen during this Congress. It won’t happen during my presidency. Still, there are steps we can take now to save lives. And all of us — at every level of government, in the private sector and as citizens — have to do our part.

We all have a responsibility....

What Americans are owning the danger of our country's gun violence? 

There was a time in the USA when simply exposing the widespread violence was enough to bring concern for every life in the country, but, that time is passed, the USA is in a very odd mood. The country is following it's instincts rather than facing the real problem. There are too many guns on the street. The killers within our country are using gun laws to kill. The most stark reality of that are the deaths in "Mother Emanuel." (click here)

Americans are being played for fools. They are given false information regarding gun violence and believe if they own guns they are safe. That is not the case.

The murderer at "Mother Emanuel" carried a philosophy of hate as his life belief system. He was an extremist and studied where and how he could obtain guns and ammunition to successfully kill dearly wonderful people belonging to the church including Rev. Pinckney, the church's pastor.

The American people need to realize how their political scheme to arm themselves is counter to what is best for the country. The American people need to realize mass shootings are conducted with military style weapons that were once removed from the "for sale shelf" in gun stores. 

The killers in San Bernardino used guns that were once illegal in the USA. Their modifications were and are still illegal, yet they occurred. Mail order and internet sales are outrageous to realize they facilitate mass shootings. 

I think of gun modification equipment no different than drug paraphernalia. It is all illegal, but, there is a subversive gun culture that serves mass killers the best. There are dearly few people with guns locked into their bedroom side table that own these extreme guns. 

There are significant measures to take to end the gun violence in the USA and every one of those measures should be pursued. I don't want the blood of innocent Americans on my hands.

One of the worst offenses in the subversive gun culture of the USA is the ease with which guns are transported across state lines. There is no end to gun supplies to our larger cities. The east coast has the I-95 corridor of gun sales. It is very real. Along with the gun culture sales is drug transportation as well. The two make for the most dangerous trends in modern American life. The guns facilitate the movement of drugs. The addiction rate of drugs in the USA has been and continues to grow. 

We, as a country, need to have a productive conversation regarding what works and what does not work when it comes to gun violence and drug addiction including the transportation of them. Guns do not stand alone as a concern, it is the profession of organized crime that comes with them. 

There are drugs that enter every border of the USA. It is an international issue. Guns owned for self-defense isn't the issue. The issue is the extremes of the USA gun laws that facilitate a drug/gun economy. There will be considerable danger to Americans as long as there are dangerous weapons such as the military style guns within easy reach. 

Americans have to realize dangerous guns come with a price to our society and it has to stop. The price are deaths of dearly innocent people that represent the values of this USA democracy. It is not a state's rights issue when there is interstate transportation. Americans have to come to conclusions about what is going to end these mass killings. 

Think about it. Take responsibility.