Background checks needed for gun buys

With everything that is going on around us, it is very easy to forget gun violence prevention - out of site out of mind! But it is still a topic that is critically important to many citizens.

Background checks save lives without inconveniencing law-abiding gun owners. There is overwhelming support for background checks by the American people. In current independent national polls, 90 percent of our citizens strongly support background checks for all gun sales. That statistic includes 74 percent of NRA members as well as 82 percent of gun owners. Currently, a single website, Armslist.com, hosts more than 73,000 ads for guns, 94 percent of which are posted by private sellers who are not required to conduct background checks.

"Money is power" was very clear in 2013. The 54 senators who voted in favor of expanding background checks received $608,827 support from gun control advocates from 2000 to 2010. During the same time period, the 46 senators who voted against expansion of background checks received a total of $8.5 million from pro-gun interests. That is more than 10 times as much money for those against background checks as for them!

We are now in the heart of the midterm season. Please do your research to determine where the candidates for 2014 stand on this issue. Ninety percent of this country cannot be held captive by a tiny handful of zealots who are out of step with a majority of Americans.

Gale Cohen-Demarco

Lake Barrington