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Okay. Now that we've got that out of the way...
(This part is just basic information. Nothing offensive, just a summary of what has occurred to prompt this.) Hi! I am a resident of Colorado. I've lived here my entire life. Yesterday, a woman and her three children were shot by a man who was dealing with road rage towards the woman. He followed her to the dentist, which is right down the street from where I grew up, and shot the woman in the head, shot her children, and shot at another man and her daughter for making eye contact with him. It is confirmed that one of the children and the man are dead. The woman and one of her children are currently fighting for their lives.
The woman took a picture of the man's license plate before he shot her, which allowed police to send out an alert for everyone to search for his vehicle, which was found an hour drive away. He was arrested and questioned. This is when we found out that the man was acting out on his road rage. It was also released that the man was mentally ill and started medication to treat his condition.
(This part is facts about guns that I find shocking and feel everyone needs to know and understand, but does have opinions laced in.)
Though states have laws, like Illinois, they can cross the border into other states, like Indiana, with less laws and purchase guns there. In a 2014 report from the Chicago Police Department , almost 60 % of the guns in crime scenes that were recovered and traced from 2009-2013 came from outside the state. Almost 19% were from Indiana. What America needs is something more like Australia's mandatory buyback program, a way for you to turn in your guns for their full price, paired with a serious ban on specific firearms, like semiautomatic weapons. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/ 2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-us-statistics-charts
The AR-15 rifle used in the attack was purchased legally in February of 2017. No laws were violated when the 19 year old purchased the weapon. In Florida, the AR-15 is easier to buy than a handgun. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/florida- shooting.html
22 % of guns are purchased without a background check. In Connecticut they tightened handgun laws and their gun homicides dropped by 40 % . In Missouri the loosened handgun laws and their gun homicides rose by 25 % The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has seven pages on rules about ladders, which kill around 300 people a year. The federal government doesn't have any urgency to reduce gun deaths, which kill about 100 times more people. Though cars kill as many people as guns, we've reduced car related death rates per 100 million miles driven by 95 % since 1921 because of seatbelts , airbags , padded dashboards, speed limits, guardrails, license age restrictions, etc. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/opinion/mass- shooting-vegas.html
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