I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment. I grew up around firearms where weapon safety is paramount and the first priority. We must protect the Second Amendment to ensure that our constitutional rights and freedoms are NOT taken away. We must better enforce our current background checks system to make sure we get them right.

 

A prevalence of weapons in our communities is not the only or main cause of the escalated violence that we have seen. I believe mental illness, opioid and drug abuse, combined with a system that allows those suffering from these afflictions to obtain guns, is the main issue at hand. We need to understand that our country is suffering from a serious problem related to mental health and address it directly.