The Correlation between Gun Laws and Drunk Driving Laws.

In 1981, my Uncle Tim was killed by a drunk driver while he was standing on a corner waiting to cross the street in Greeley, CO.  The driver of the car had been drinking in a bar for 12 hours before he got behind the wheel of his car. He was so drunk that he didn't realize that he had run over and killed my Uncle and a friend of his.

This event shattered my family, so much so that I've never really heard the full story about everything that happened. I know that they all suffered through the trial of the guy who ran my Uncle over. There was a whisper once about how when the verdict was read aloud, "A $200? fine and community service" for killing TWO people, that my Grandfather exploded in the courtroom and had to be escorted out. 

Knowing the strict laws and punishments that we have now against Drunk Driving, this verdict is hard to imagine. It took a group of Mothers who banded together to change a law that was killing innocent people to effect positive change. MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING (MADD) got its start in 1980 when 21,000 people a year were being killed due to drunk driving. My grandmother, Charlotte Whitmore became a very active member of MADD. She helped push for all of the laws that protect us now. She regularly spoke to groups of DUI offenders so they would remember and feel the impact of what could have happened when they got behind the wheel of their car drunk. This article highlights that.

As we witnessed yet another shooting yesterday in Orlando, FL, where a single man took the lives of 50 innocent people and injured 53 others with one weapon in a matter of minutes, the expected and all too common arguments on Facebook began to pop up about those who are calling for gun control and those who are staunchly against it. I got into one of those FB arguments myself and ended up deleting my thread because I felt like I didn't have the energy to sustain that with such sadness on my heart. My Grandma Charlotte would be sorely disappointed in me. She spent the remainder of her life after Tim's passing fighting with sadness on her heart every day.

Here's the thing that struck me the most yesterday, what MADD did is all that we're asking to do with stricter gun laws. When MADD started organizing in 1980 and calling for stricter laws against drunk driving, I'm sure that they were up against some opposition, but it seems crazy that if this were happening today people would speak out against it as adamantly as they do about gun control.

Can you imagine the FB statuses if people used the same argument against MADD as they do for Guns? "You can't take away my car. My car is mine and its my constitutional right to get wasted and plow someone down." "Being able to get in my car and drive drunk so I can get away from all the other drunk drivers is how I PROTECT myself." That seems crazy, but these are the EXACT same things that people ARE saying about their guns.

Would the argument, "Its not BOOZE and CARS who kill people, its PEOPLE who KILL PEOPLE" be thrown around as much as "Its not GUNS that kill PEOPLE, its PEOPLE who kill PEOPLE" is today?

People are dying because of laws that aren't protecting them. 

In 2016 so far we have had 23,317 incidents with Gun Violence so far THIS YEAR, and we're halfway through it. In 1980 21,000 people were being killed by drunk drivers. Why was this number such a catalyst for change in 1980 and we barely blink an eye at it today?

No one is saying that they want to take your guns away. What we are saying is please enact some laws that protect innocent people from being killed by Assault Rifles. These were designed for war and no civilian should be in possession of them or be able to get them so easily.

It took a group of Mother's personally affected by Drunk Driving to rally others and convince them that being able to drive drunk was a bad idea. It can be done. Sure, this gun battle, excuse the pun, is much bigger, but things can be done. How about for the first step we start thinking about this rationally?

MADD changed laws and no one lost their ability to drive. They raised the legal drinking age, (so I guess 18 year olds lost their booze (legally) for three years), but that's because we were able to look at the situation we were in objectively, intelligently and deduce, okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We see now the error of our ways. We love our cars. We love to drive. We love our booze. We love to drink. We see now that the combination of those things aren't exactly the best together, lets make the intelligent choice to protect the innocent people in our country from having their lives torn apart or ended.

When will we see the error of our ways? When will we realize that fear mongering, lobbyists, money, lack of mental healthcare for those who need it, violent video games and movies that desensitize us to the loss of human life have led us to where we are now? When will we be as fearless as that group of mothers who stood up for the babies that were ripped out of their lives and taken forever? Does it have to be your SON, your DAUGHTER, your BROTHER, your SISTER, your AUNT, your UNCLE for you to finally open your eyes and take action? We are better than this, we are smarter than this and we owe it the 50 people who lost their lives yesterday while they were dancing, loving, laughing and living life to its fullest to do something about it now.

To learn more about Mothers Against Drunk Driving, visit their website.

About MADD, 

• In 1980, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, or MADD, was founded by Candy Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter was killed on her way home from a school carnival by a drunk driver. The driver had three previous DUI convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. When MADD was founded in 1980, more than 21,000 people were killed in drunk driving crashes each year.  Lightner and MADD helped to change the public’s attitudes about drunk driving. The group pushed for tougher legislation for those convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. MADD also successfully pushed to have the legal drinking age raised.