Gun debate changes
W hether it was the several hundred demonstrators who showed up in Stonington on Saturday, or the millions who did likewise in Washington and across the country, the turnout for the March for Our Lives was impressive and could mark a turning point in the gun debate.
But while large-scale protests can generate excitement and attract media attention, it is political organization, contacting lawmakers, and ultimately voting that drives changes in policy. The chants of “vote them out!” suggested those who demonstrated are ready to take that step.
So far, no matter how bad it gets — whether it is 58 concert-goers shot and killed by a gunman in Las Vegas or the 17 deaths from a gun massacre in a Parkland, Fla., high school — NRA-funded congressional conservatives refuse to consider even small gun-control steps. Proposals such as assuring universal background checks and raising the age to 21 for gun purchases are discussed and then discarded.
But if the demonstrations and the support for them translate into a voting bloc focused on removing those who block gun reform, the political calculus changes, because even NRA money may not be enough to confront such a challenge.
Change is possible. Connecticut lawmakers listened. The legislature passed some of the strictest gun laws in the country in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting massacre in 2012. Legislators outlawed the sale of semi-automatic assault-style weapons and required those in possession of them to register with the state. Also banned were largecapacity magazines.
The law has stood up to constitutional challenges, undercutting the argument that such gun controls violate the Second Amendment.
It is time for Congress to make these restrictions federal law. But it will take political commitment and persistence to replace existing congressmen and senators who stand in the way with elected leaders who will represent the will of the people, not the NRA.
History has shown that the national outrage that follows a mass shooting tends to peter out after a week or two. Second Amendment advocates have proven far more persistent, both in lobbying their representatives and voting. But the movement sparked by the teens who survived the Parkland massacre seems different. This movement is growing, not petering out. If that continues to be the case, then federal gun policies may finally change.