PASS THIS COMMONSENSE GUN LAW NOW
Ayoung man armed to the teeth kills 10 people at a community college in Oregon, and what do the politicians in Washington do?
They put on their saddest faces and go on TV. They shake their heads. They bemoan and decry. As if that counts for a thing. Spare us. Here’s what they should do, right now, every one of them: Pass a law— two good bills are ready to go— that would make it illegal to sell a gun online or at a gun show to anybody who is a convicted felon, repeat domestic abuser or seriously mentally ill.
How unreasonable would that be?
Maybe then the American people, who overwhelming favor such a law, finally could believe Washington is on their side, rather than in the pocket of the National Rifle Association.
Or, our elected leaders can do absolutely nothing, as always. And we’ll all have to remember that on Election Day or when there’s another mass murder, whichever comes first.
We want to be specific here because previous editorials that called more generally for saner gun laws— after Sandy Hook, after Virginia Tech, after Northern Illinois University— sure didn’t move the needle.
We urge Congress to pass House Resolution 1217, co-sponsored by Illinois Republican Bob Dold, that would expand gun-sale background checks to screen out felons, the seriously mentally ill and domestic abusers.
We also like a competing bill, House Resolution 3411, that would expand background checks not just to gun show and Internet sales, but also to private sales, such as between neighbors. Both bills would exempt sales and transfers between family members.
The NRA hates these two bills because they hate any bill that even remotely restricts or monitors gun sales. “Reasonable” is not in their vocabulary.
The gun lobby also argues that expanded federal background checks likely would have made no difference in Oregon. The killer, Chris Harper Mercer, apparently had no record of mental illness and no criminal record. The 13 weapons linked to him, recovered at the community college or at his apartment, reportedly were all legally purchased.
When we asked Cong. Dold about that, he all but rolled his eyes.
“Nothing is going to be 100 percent,” he said. “This is a piece of the solution, not the piece. This is something that has a chance of preventing something horrible happening going forward.”
What’s sad is that Dold even has to say that. Does any intellectually honest person really believe background checks to keep felons and the seriously mentally ill from buying guns at a garage sale are not an excellent idea?
This is not about the Second Amendment. This is about common sense.
Dold’s bill is essentially identical to one introduced in Congress two years ago in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed. The killer, Adam Lanza, suffered extreme mental health issues, though he was never treated.
That earlier bill failed in the Senate, 54 to 46, with only four Republicans— including Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk— supporting it. In the House, where the bill never came up for a vote, it was co-sponsored by all the Illinois Democrats but only one Illinois Republican, Dold.
That spoke volumes about how out of step Congress was— and is— with the American people. At that time, polls showed, 65 percent of Americans wanted to see the bill become law. Recent polls show that 90 percent of registered voters support universal background checks, which would include private sales.
Now come the funerals. In Oregon, the sad-faced pols will fill the pews. In Washington, they will offer their prayers. They will hug the heartbroken mothers and fathers, the devastated sons and daughters. Don’t believe it. Not a word. Judge them only by how they vote. Demand that every senator and congressman support commonsense gun laws.
And throw them out of office if they do not.
Washington is full of cowards who fear the gun lobby.
Teach them to fear you.