Gun control rant

One week ago today the US Senate failed to muster the 60 votes needed for the Manchin-Toomey amendment; falling four votes shy. The amendment called for background checks on all commercial sales of guns; polling suggests nearly 90% of the American public support this issue.  Outraged, I posted the names of all those US Senators who voted “No” in my blog post, here. 

Since that time my outrage has grown. There is not a single aspect of any American’s life that doesn’t require some degree of “background checks” but it seems with the sole exception of buying a gun. So I’ve started to compile a list of things that we all do which either require a background check, signing in to a registry or have some form of “reporting” to ensure we are who we say we are.

• Applying for work
• Applying for a loan, credit card / bank account
• Buying a home or renting an apartment
• Cashing a check
• Flying on a commercial airline
• Purchasing alcohol 
• Visiting a sick friend or loved one at a hospital
• Walking into almost any office building in the US 

Where else are we required to show identification, write our name on to a registry or subject ourselves to a background check?  Pulling together this list only highlights the hypocrisy of those opposed to this common sense approach.