Now is the time for our leaders in Washington to enact some reasonable restrictions on guns.
For about $400, the Las Vegas shooter turned a pair of rifles into full-auto killing machines, capable of spewing scores of rounds in a few seconds. This nonstop fusillade enabled him to kill and wound hundreds with rapidfire ease. It’s inexcusable that lax rules allow for this brand of carnage. Past efforts to curb easy access to quick-firing firearms have stalled, but the Las Vegas mass murder demands, once again, that Washington face up to its responsibilities.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who authored an assault weapons ban that lapsed in 2004, is pushing for federal law that would ban the “bump stock” device that can boost a semiautomatic rifle into a fully automatic firearm. She’s joined by other Democrats.
It’s the least that Congress can do, after balking repeatedly to invoke realistic gun restrictions after similar national nightmares. The list of needed steps should also include background checks on gun buyers, a step that wouldn’t have snared the Las Vegas shooter but would have denied firearms to past mass killers. Far from taking weapons away from lawabiding gun owners, these steps would keep the most lethal variety away from the wrong people.
But will Washington do anything besides issue sosorry statements and lie low under the shadow of the National Rifle Association? A tried and true pattern is already at work: The pro-gun crowd goes silent after a killing spree and waits for the public mood to cool before bringing familiar and evasive arguments about freedom and personal rights.
It’s a cynical strategy that undermines public safety.
That playbook is on display. The Trump White House is dodging any discussion, suggesting it’s not the right time to talk about next steps. In another backflip, Trump isn’t talking, though he once favored serious controls before his demagogic candidacy for president. Also, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan is backtracking on the latest and most far-fetched gun issue — a bill permitting gun silencers and wider use of concealed weapons permits — in the wake of Las Vegas.
The moment to act is now, before the next American nightmare at the hands of a gunman.