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Gun control will always be influenced by money in politics

Sales associate Mike Conway, right, shows Paul Angulo a pistol at Bullseye Sport gun shop in Riverside. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a mentally disturbed young man killed 26 children and teachers, galvanized calls across the nation for tighter gun controls. But in the years since, many states have moved in the opposite direction, embracing the National Rifle Association’s response that more “good guys with guns” are what’s needed to limit the carnage of mass shootings.
Sales associate Mike Conway, right, shows Paul Angulo a pistol at Bullseye Sport gun shop in Riverside. The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a mentally disturbed young man killed 26 children and teachers, galvanized calls across the nation for tighter gun controls. But in the years since, many states have moved in the opposite direction, embracing the National Rifle Association’s response that more “good guys with guns” are what’s needed to limit the carnage of mass shootings. JAE C. HONG AP File/2015

We will never have meaningful gun control in the United States. Period.

Sandy Hook. Aurora. Columbine. Gabby Giffords. Orlando. Las Vegas. Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Insert your favorite tragedy here.

Do you know why we will never have gun control? Are we stupid? No. Do we understand the problem? Yes.

We will never have meaningful gun control in the United States because there is money to be made selling guns.

There is no money to be made blocking the sale of guns.

People who sell and manufacture guns have an economic interest in fighting meaningful gun control, and they have the money to do it.

Our political system is run by money. The NRA has money. People in favor of gun control have moral outrage, sorrow, grief, statistics, wisdom.

In politics, money wins. Money always wins.

We will never have gun control until we change how money influences politics. How long can our nation survive a political system controlled by money and only money?

Ted Miller, Caruthers

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Gun control will always be influenced by money in politics."

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