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Congress should pass gun control

The needless deaths of Americans by handguns and assault weapons must stop. A new method must be used to convince Congress of the urgent need to pass a strong gun-control law. A running scoreboard could be set up in New York City's Times Square listing daily the number of gun deaths in the United States. The death count could be divided by murders, accidental deaths and self-defense. The weapons used in the deaths must also be listed. Law enforcement in every American town could provide the information daily.

The statistics listed on the scoreboard should also be listed daily on television news channels and in major newspapers. The data would provide solid evidence that handguns and assault weapons have causes needless deaths and rarely used for protection in home or business. Congress would surely pass a strong gun-control law that would apply for all 50 states, with no loopholes allowing people to buy weapons in states with weak gun-control laws and sell them to black-marketers in states and cities with strong gun-control laws.

It would take an organization or a philanthropist to finance the scoreboard. MADD is a powerful organization. With its influence, states have pass strong drunk-driving laws. A few years ago, Congress almost approved a constitutional amendment forbidding deficit spending. The supporters of the recommended amendment had a scoreboard listing daily deficit spending by the federal government.

With the evidence provided by the scoreboard, Republican and Democratic presidential nominees should be questioned by reporters during the debates.

Congress must approve a strong gun law now, not 20 years later.

ROY WETHERINGTON
Tifton

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