Infographic:
The Las Vegas shooting serves as the latest reminder of the high threat of gun violence in America. From 2000 through 2015, there has been an average of nearly 12,000 homicides by gun per year in the U.S.
Gun violence by the numbers.
stein, D-Calif., after the 1993 San Francisco shootings and remained in effect until 2004, when Congress refused to renew it. Some studies found no impact on violent crime, while others reported a decline in mass shootings while the ban was in effect.
In general, the studies show that “California law is a good model,” said Hannah Shearer, an attorney with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control group based in San Francisco. In a nation horrified by the events in Las Vegas, she said, now is “exactly the time to have that conversation.”
It’s precisely the wrong time to make political decisions, countered Craig DeLuz, spokesman for the Firearms Policy Coalition in Sacramento.
“Those who seek to ban the right to keep and bear arms are utilizing this tragedy in order to advance their own political agenda,” DeLuz said. He attributed California’s 20-year drop in violent crime to the enactment of laws like “three strikes” that increased prison sentences, and to an increase in statewide gun sales during that period despite the laws restricting certain weapons.
While California continues to pass gun-control laws — bills on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk would ban carrying rifles openly in non-hunting areas and eliminate school officials’ authority to let staff members carry guns — Congress is considering legislation that would allow gun owners to carry concealed handguns anywhere in the country if they have permits from their home states.
Republican sponsors put that measure on hold after the Las Vegas shootings but are likely to return to it after the furor dies down. But the usual partisan divide may not apply to one measure aimed squarely at gunman Paddock’s arsenal: the “bump stock” kits that convert semiautomatic weapons into the equivalent of machine guns.
A bill introduced Wednesday by Feinstein would outlaw them.
Feinstein included a similar ban in a 2013 measure that attempted to revive the federal prohibition on semiautomatics. The bill was rejected along party lines. Her new bill has two dozen co-sponsors, all Democrats, including California’s Kamala Harris. But a Republican congressman, Carlos Curbelo of Florida, is proposing a bump-stock ban in the House, and several Republican senators have also voiced support, including Senate majority whip, John Cornyn of Texas.
“For the first time in decades, there is growing bipartisan consensus for firearm reform,” Curbelo said in announcing his legislation cosponsored by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. The effort gained momentum Thursday when the National Rifle Association said it would support “additional regulations” of the devices.
Congress may be emboldened to act against the converter kits, said UCLA’s Winkler, because “gun owners don’t like them. They make firearms highly inaccurate.”
Although public opinion on firearms regulation fluctuates — support for restrictions tends to rise, usually only briefly, after mass shootings — polls generally indicate that gun control is more popular with the public than with a majority of Congress.
Gallup reports that 55 percent of those surveyed a year ago said gun laws should be more strict than they are, compared with 34 percent who said they should be less strict. Majorities approaching 90 percent favor background checks for all gun sales, the polling company reports, but a ban on semiautomatic rifles, once popular, had less than 40 percent support in the most recent survey.