“Registration–not confiscation.” That should be the new rallying cry for Gun Safety.

For the NRA has not only condoned the violence of unregistered weapons, it has done vi0lence to the word itself– deformed the word “registration” to mean “confiscation.”  The campaign for gun safety needs to begin by rehabilitating the language itself, and the Democrats can contribute to the healing in the Mid-term Campaign.

More than likely the district of every Democrat running for office will have more than one homicide by the use of a gun in the past two years. In response, every candidate can call for Universal Background Checks as a way to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable or criminally suspect. The legislation has been supported by the majority of citizens in every poll. And why not? It would only confiscate guns from those with the demonstrated motive for violence.  Is that a voter constituency we need to appease?

The outbreak of mass shootings in 2021 should be an alarm to Americans whether they own a gun, sell guns, lobby for guns or manufacture guns. No one should accept the commercial motive against Universal Background Checks– that “more customers” is the only goal of gun safety policy.  That would place money above morality. And the weak arguments that background checks will not sort the bad from the good,  they only claim that something we have not tried will probably not work. Anything that might save a single life is worth trying.

There is no reason Americans should not unite behind legislation that is nothing more than a minor inconvenience to gun sellers and buyers.  There is no reason we should not recognize a crisis that is evident to everyone–the event of mass shootings exceeding the days on the calendar (in 2021).  There is no reason we shouldn’t join together to face an obvious threat to human life in our nation.

What have Democrats got to lose by making the Universal Background Check a pillar of their campaign? They are already the considerable underdog in the 2022 elections. This issue will resuscitate their struggling campaigns in all but a handful of states–states that are inevitably lost to Republicans. The issue will bring voters on both sides out to the polls. The key is that the Republican voters were already planning to show up to overthrow the Democrats.

Conversely, Democratic voters need a rallying cry to get them out of their houses. They always do.  Did Democrats rush to to the polls to elect the first Black President? Yes, they did, because they heard, “Yes, we can.” Now they will respond to the cry “Registration, not confiscation.”  You fill in the blank, if you think of a better slogan.

This is a cause supported by the majority of citizens. When will that majority get to speak at the ballot box? When will Democratic politicians get to prove their mettle?  They can step up to the NRA bullies and make their case when it counts. Yes, they can.

Make it a national issue–non-violence against people and language.  “Registration, not confiscation!”