Require background checks for gun purchases
Last Sunday marked a tragic anniversary. It was three years ago that a lone gunman shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. President Joe Biden marked the date issuing a statement not only grieving for the loss of 14 children and 3 adults, but promising swift action to end “our epidemic of gun violence.” First on his list of proposals: Require background checks on all gun sales. That the measure topped the president’s agenda was likely no accident: It is surely the most common-sensical, broadly supported and easily accomplished gun safety reform imaginable.
This month in Annapolis, the House of Delegates and Senate both voted to override Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of legislation that accomplishes exactly that, requiring a background check for every gun sale, including rifles and shotguns, which have long been exempt from this requirement. To sell any gun in Maryland, you will, as of mid-March, have to go to a licensed dealer who, for “a reasonable fee,” will help you complete an instant federal background check to determine whether you’re a convicted felon, a domestic abuser or have demonstrated a serious mental health condition that makes you a danger to yourself or others and disqualifies you from purchasing a firearm.
Considering the extraordinary harm that guns have caused, it’s shocking that it’s taken this long to close the background check loophole on the state level. It’s worse that it continues to exist on the federal. We don’t let just anyone drive a car or truck or motorcycle.
Transfers of ownership require paperwork even if it’s a parent giving a vehicle to a child. The chief reason it’s taken this long to get universal background checks is that certain gun advocacy groups have found that it’s highly effective for their own fundraising purposes to react hysterically whenever government at the federal, state or local level even ponders any type of reform. And so to the NRA, this isn’t about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, it’s an “assault” on their Second Amendment rights that just happens to benefit criminals.
Still, there are some Democrats, particularly from more rural districts, who continue to be hesitant on matters involving guns. They see the passion that gun rights advocates have stirred in swing states not necessarily being matched by those who favor gun control.
But simply requiring a background check is different.
Polls show it’s consistently supported by all types of people — Republicans, Democrats and, yes, gun owners by overwhelming margins. And it’s been that way for years. A 2015 Public Policy Polling survey found just 14% of gun owners oppose criminal background checks on all firearms sales with 83% in favor. The problem isn’t that public opinion is not on the side of gun safety, it’s that Democrats tend to get fainthearted about it. But in case, they haven’t noticed, the NRA is in bankruptcy. It’s a paper tiger dogged by claims of corruption. Meanwhile, an uptick in shooting deaths, particularly in cities like Chicago, are what ought to be driving the gun safety agenda.
President Biden has shown interest in other gun control measures including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and to stop giving immunity to gun manufacturers. He ought to add regulating untraceable “ghost guns,” assembled from parts, that are increasingly used to commit crimes in Baltimore and elsewhere. Nevertheless, universal background checks ought to be given the highest priority.
There simply isn’t a good argument against them. Fees? Delays? Paperwork? These are reasons to curb cosmetology licensing, perhaps. Guns are too deadly to accept them as just another tool in the house and not a potential weapon of mass destruction, as so many shootings — from an Orlando nightclub in 2016 (handgun and rifle) to the Capital Gazette newsroom shooting in Annapolis in 2018 (shotgun) to an El Paso Walmart in 2019 (semi-automatic rifle) — have proven them to be.
It’s now up to President Biden and members of Congress who have witnessed the terrible toll of gun violence to explain why reasonable measures must be taken on a national level. The evidence is overwhelming. The public is supportive. What’s needed now is leadership.
The United States currently celebrates eleven permanent legal public holidays, if you include the quadrennial celebration of Inauguration Day. None of these holidays was created to celebrate women’s achievements (not even Labor Day, which was designated a federal holiday in 1894, when less than 20% of the workforce was female).
With the investiture of a record number of women serving in the 117th Congress and the country’s first female vice president, there is no better time to cement our recognition of female achievement in the federal calendar than now.
Past efforts to acknowledge women’s contributions to the country have fallen embarrassingly short. To date, the most significant federal act recognizing women has been President Nixon’s 1972 “proclamation” at the request of Congress of “Women’s Rights Day,” following the famous Women’s Strike for Equality. In close second is the congressional designation in 1981, and subsequent presidential proclamations, declaring a “Women’s History Week” and eventually designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month” to broadly celebrate achievements of women in United States history.
That was 40 years ago. Since then, neither Congress nor the president has expressed interest in granting women their own public holiday. Legislators have instead on rare occasion sought smaller wins for women — re-purposing already-designated holidays or asking for additional proclamations.
These small attempts to honor women have gone nowhere. In 1993, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California presented legislation requesting the president to issue a proclamation commemorating International Women’s Day. It died in committee. In 2007, 2009 and 2011, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York presented similar legislation asking for Susan B. Anthony to be added to the list of individuals whose birthdays are celebrated on Presidents Day. That legislation also died in committee.
Even when they succeed, these half measures, such as “Women’s History Month” and “Women’s Rights Day,” lack the national recognition, reflection and respect of a permanent federal holiday. Public holidays are literally etched in Americans’ psyche, appearing on published calendars everywhere. They allow 2.1 million federal employees and several million others whose offices follow the federal calendar, to spend time with their loved ones and, one hopes, take a moment to think about the reasons for that reprieve.
Federal public holidays also project our values to foreign allies, letting them know those causes most important to us. The United States holds itself out as a beacon of equality and democracy. If the rest of the world is to believe this, the United States must practice what it preaches.
But perhaps most simply, women have earned a federal holiday. Women have contributed to the national defense effort during every major war, helped expand our economy and advanced our nation’s literary and artistic heritage. Their contributions have been doubly commendable because they have made these strides while fighting to secure equal rights under the law and equal stature in the eyes of their male peers. All Americans, regardless of gender, should recognize, support and cherish that shared history.
Congress could embrace International Women’s Day on March 8 as a general day of celebrating advances in women’s rights. It’s now a recognized holiday by the United Nations and over 20 other countries, though not by the one from which the idea sprang: ours. The Socialist Party of America started National Women’s Day in 1909, after thousands of women marched for better working conditions and higher wages in New York City; it was the model for the international version, created in 1910.
We could elevate to national stature Equal Pay Day, which aims to educate people on the persistence of the gender wage gap. Or we could elevate Women’s Equality Day (Aug. 26) and celebrate the enactment of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919, which gave women the right to vote 143 years after Jefferson first wrote — with careful meaning — “All men are created equal.”
We could remember the birthdays of key leaders in the women’s suffrage movement like Susan B. Anthony (Feb. 15), Lucretia Mott (Jan. 3), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Nov. 12) or Ida B. Wells (July 16). These women were all ahead of their time — politically active, unafraid to be on the wrong side of the law to be on the right side of history.
Congress’ failure to recognize women’s achievements is a relic of an unequal past. Congress should act today, buoyed by the groundswell of support for the women’s movement, the #MeToo era and the growing number of women serving in all branches of government. As our first female vice president has said, as inspiration for young women and girls everywhere, “You’re going to walk into many rooms in your life and career where you may be the only one who looks like you or who has had the experiences you’ve had. But you remember that when you are in those rooms, you are not alone. We are all in that room with you applauding you on.”
Congress, it’s time for you to use your voice. Show these women, girls and everyone who values America as a society of equals one more first — a federal public holiday celebrating a woman.