The debate raging on between Republicans and Democrats over the Second Amendment is a “petty” disagreement about “little things,” according to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
At a College Presidents for Gun Safety press conference Monday in Washington, D.C., Duncan called on members of both parties to “unite” on the issue of gun violence prevention, which he noted was very personal to him.
“We are compelled to put aside petty disagreements on little things and unite behind two very simple goals: fewer young people losing their lives to gun violence and fewer young people losing fear every single day,” Duncan said.
Duncan referenced his experiences growing up in Chicago and later as CEO of Chicago Public Schools as evidence that America has a gun violence problem that needs addressing now.
“When I was a child, a young boy, growing up on the south side of Chicago, I lost far too many of my friends to gun violence when I was 10, 11, 12, 13,” Duncan said, playing on listeners’ heartstrings. “Year after year after year, it actually got worse over time.”
Duncan conveniently forgot to mention that Chicago already has some of the strictest gun laws, yet it’s still one of the most dangerous cities in America.
From Jan. 1, 2012 until Dec. 21, 2012, “Chicago police… recorded 2,364 shooting incidents and 487 homicides, 87 percent of them gun-related,” ABC News reports. That is a 12 percent increase in shootings from the previous year.
In reality, even stricter gun control laws like the ones that the Obama administration is now pushing wouldn’t necessarily solve Chicago’s gun violence problem, either. As the National Rifle Association points out, only 1.7 percent of people buy their guns at a gun show or flea market, anyway. So, closing the so-called “gunshow loophole,” which is commonly misidentified as “universal background checks” would have little effect on cutting down crime. The majority of Americans – 79 percent – buy their guns from friends or family or through means that are already illegal.
And if Duncan truly thinks that the Constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms is a ‘litte thing’ and conservatives are being “petty” in their attempts to stop their Second Amendment rights from being further infringed upon, he seriously underestimates the importance of the Constitution to right-leaning Americans.
