Tom Mauser

            Tom Mauser became a gun control activist after loosing his son in the tragic Columbine High school shooting and now works to promote reasonable gun safety legislation in the state of Colorado. In his speech at Dawson he made many points relating to gun safety and legislation, but the points that were the most impactful were on fixing the loopholes in the Brady Bill and background checks. Mauser discussed several legal methods of purchasing a gun, some of which involve background checks and others did not. Before his speech, I had been unaware there were legal ways to acquire a gun without a background check, and I was shocked to find out that the shooters at Columbine High school acquired their gun through a method which did not require a background check. Mauser took an impressively moderate and reasonable stance on his issues and combatted his opponents criticisms with well thought out rational and facts. I left his speech knowing more about gun legislation than I ever had and simultaneously feeling infuriated by those who refuse to support reasonable gun legislation. I feel, similarly to Mauser that reasonable gun legislation involves background checks and training before obtaining a conceal and carry permit. 

I didn’t feel like anything was missing from his speech and my only question left after his talk would be “ why would anyone oppose background checks on all gun purchasers”. Mauser’s talk reinforced my opinions on the need for gun control and also shed a new interesting light on concealed weapons. Before his talk, I thought I would probably feel safer around people who had concealed weapons. After he made the point about the caos that could have potentially happened if ten people had possessed concealed weapons in the Aurora theater shooting, I realised that more guns wouldn’t make things safer if those people had no training. I am very grateful that we were able to listen to such an informative and fascinating speaker.