Sane gun laws now
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying universal background checks and red-flag laws designed to take firearms out of unstable people’s hands will “lead the discussion” on gun violence. President Trump Friday told reporters he is “looking at very meaningful background checks” on guns, finally acceding to an imperative that 90% of the public supports.
We will believe it when we see it. The National Rifle Association, whose iron grip on Republicans is far stronger than they are willing to admit, is expert at inserting loopholes and poison pills into legislation, if not killing it outright.
It is pitiful but predictable that if such a bill does finally become law, (still a big if ), it will, to many people, count as significant progress in the Capitol.
We must do more. So much more. Nearly two-thirds of Americans support reinstating a ban on assault weapons, the high-powered firearms wielded by the murderers in almost every mass shooting. These are the especially lethal guns angry young men gravitate toward, the better to
showcase their masculinity. They have no place outside a battlefield.
About the same numbers favor a ban on high-capacity magazines, which enable terrorists to mow down dozens in seconds without having to pause for reloading. The killer in Dayton had a 100-round “doubledrum” magazine that enabled him to kill nine people and injure 27 others despite being taken down by police within 20 seconds of his first shot.
This equipment is obscene. It makes mass murder easy. It must be made illegal.
Doing so is fully compatible with the Second Amendment to the Constitution. No less a right-wing legal light than late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made that clear. As he wrote in a majority opinion in 2008:
“The Second Amendment does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” citing “the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons,’” such as “weapons that are most useful in military service— M–16 rifles and the like.”
Ban these guns. Now.