Opinion: What can motivate gun control changes?

The beginning words of the Nationalization Oath of Allegiance read:“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic…”Dzhokhar Tsarnaev took this oath on the 11^th anniversary of September 11^th, only seven months prior to committing the Boston bombings during the Boston Marathon alongside brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Quite obviously, gun control isn’t the only aspect in which our government fails to perform sufficient background checks.Tamerlan, 26, had previously been investigated by the FBI. in 2011 after Russian officials notified the organization that he “was once a follower of radical Islam.” The investigation was closed after concluding that there was “no evidence of terrorism activity, domestic or foreign.” Soon after, Tamerlan traveled to Russia, spending six months in Chechnya and Dagestan of Russia’s North Caucasus.The FBI., however, missed this trip because his name was misspelled on the travel documents. Perhaps investigators should have been more attentive considering the last person to gain this much news coverage after a trip to Russia had allegedly assassinated President John F. Kennedy.Dzhokhar, 19, on the other hand, was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he was attending on a $25,000 scholarship provided by the city of Cambridge. His father said, “My son is a true angel … Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here.” One problem with that statement: second-year medical students are usually older than 19, well, unless they happen to be Doogie Howser.After the Boston bombing, backpacks are going to become the new sneakers. Many public secondary schools across the country have already banned backpacks after the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 for security purposes, and now they will most likely be banned in a number of other public places. In fact, just this week, police had to be called in on an abandoned backpack outside of the theater in Baker Center in fear of a potential bombing.As President Obama stated, the Senate’s inability to pass the bill on background checks for gun purchases “was a shameful day for Washington.” More than ever, our government needs to take background checks seriously, not just for gun control, but for all issues that can potentially harm public safety. How many more innocent citizens have to die before action is taken?