Many steps needed to halt gun violence

Knowledge is power, particularly when applied to halting the epidemic of gun violence gripping this nation. A new Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium — the first of its kind — announced Wednesday it will increase that knowledge exponentially when it brings together “thought leaders” and top researchers in health, law enforcement, academics and government policy.

It is a smart, quick action for the States for Gun Safety coalition formed in late February.

The coalition is a bipartisan group of governors from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Puerto Rico who are fed up with the meager response in Washington to increasing gun violence in cities, suburbs and rural areas — everywhere.

The 34 members of the research consortium will “undertake significant new research on all manners of gun violence, data collection and analysis” and share it among the states and with the public.

Information of this magnitude has been missing from policy discussions since the 1996 government ban on the use of federal funds for gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Congress did not repeal the ban, but finally, with the federal omnibus spending bill passed in March, clarified that the CDC could “conduct research on the causes of gun violence” but could not advocate for gun control.

The regional group will be far ahead on research before the logistics are sorted out in Washington. By understanding the root causes of violence, through the research, more effective approaches to prevention can be developed.

The coalition also intends to reduce, if not stop, illegal gun trafficking among the states. Law enforcement intelligence centers can share information about those who are prohibited from buying or owning a gun and can trace the use of out-of-state weapons in crimes. This is critical. States can have the strictest gun laws, but be thwarted by illegal guns crossing borders.

Another threat to public safety must be confronted: ghost guns. These are weapons assembled with parts ordered online, or with 3D printers, and thus circumvent gun ownership permits. Unregulated, ghost guns are untraceable. We have urged the Connecticut General Assembly to pass a bill this session, HB 5540, that would require serial numbers for homemade guns.

Measures to abate gun violence cannot work in isolation; myriad approaches are necessary. Congress, through its spending bill, finally agreed to the sensible Fix NICS Act co-sponsored by Sen. Chris Murphy; the NRA did not oppose it. The act prods federal agencies and the military to upload records to the national gun-purchasing background check system; participation has been spotty and has led to the wrong people getting and using guns.

It is a tiny — but necessary — step that should not divert Congress from taking more strenuous strides against gun violence.

Students who walked out of school April 20, moved by the slaughter of 17 at a high school in Parkland, Fla., are demanding as much. And we owe it to them.

It is a tiny — but necessary — step that should not divert Congress from taking more strenuous strides against gun violence.