American lawmakers think porn is more dangerous than guns

As Americans are battling with the issue of gun violence, legislators have continued their long streak of refusing to pass the gun control bill which has been tabled in Congress on several occasions.

Many were outraged by the Florida House of Representatives’ decision on Tuesday to drop the House Bill 219 which prohibits the sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

The gun control bill, submitted in the House since October last year, also requires “certificates of possession” for lawfully-possessed firearms among others. They voted 36-71 against passing the bill in three minutes.

However, the legislators turned to a more pressing bill: The HR 157 bill which regulates pornography. The bill was argued and passed due to its “public health risk”.

This ironically presents pornography as a more dangerous material that guns that have killed nearly a thousand people in the United States in 2018 alone. The most recent being the killing of 17 people at a Parkland, Florida school where a former student went on a shooting spree with an AR-15 assault rifle.

Surviving students bussed themselves to the Florida congress house where they sat in the gallery in support of the gun control bill. The legislators were not moved by the presence of the students who grieved over the inaction of the elected officials.
The disappointment was felt across the country and on social media where the over a decade-old debate continued about gun control and how the legislators failed to end the crisis. A similar bill tabled in the Senate in January was also ignored.

Below are some reactions to the inaction of the legislators who have disappointed many Americans and shooting survivors, while satisfying the dictates of the few powerful groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) who want unadulterated access to firearms.