Congress is currently deciding on legislation that would require background checks for private gun sales. This law seems like an obvious step in the battle against gun violence, yet many Republicans in Congress oppose it. They plan to reject the bill if it contains any requirement for recording these private gun transactions — a provision necessary to give the bill any impact. Their reason? They claim that giving the government a record of gun sales would also give it a list of houses to raid when it goes on its rampage of gun seizures. To be honest, I ewould not mind the government ripping guns from the hands of the paranoid people who suspect this tyranny. However, our government is clearly not about to exercise such a mass violation of civil liberties.

My question for the Second Amendment advocates and government-fearing paranoids in Congress is this — how can the same party that championed the Patriot Act, perhaps one of the most tyrannical acts by our government in recent years, now claim that any sort of gun control by the federal government is too tyrannical for the safety of the American people?  Logically, they cannot. If we give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they think logically, they must be able to see that this contradiction is completely irrational. So let’s stop pretending that these congressmen oppose this bill for the safety of Americans, and tell the truth — the National Rifle Association, which funds many congressional campaigns, does not want records of private gun sales, so these congressmen cannot advocate for the reform either.

The defense of the Patriot Act — a law that gave the federal government the ability to use roving wiretaps — was that it secured the safety of the American people from terrorists. I have no problem with being protected from terrorists, but it’s hard to deny that the government encroaches on personal privacy with this law. In passing this act, the Bush administration set the precedent that, when it comes to the lives of Americans, the government has the right to expand its reach as a protective force. Why then, does gun control not have this same urgency?  Why is it that 11,000 lives lost to gun-related homicides every year in the United States is not enough for policymakers to champion this same role of government?

The Republicans in Congress appear to only warn of a tyrannical government when they can receive coveted lobby money in return. These congressmen, in their support of the NRA, have set a price on human life and decided that it is far more lucrative to let the violence continue.

Audrey Wright is a contributing columnist. Email her at [email protected].