Obama’s move on guns may only have modest effect on violence
WASHINGTON >> President Barack Obama’s move to tighten controls on guns could curb the unregulated buying and selling of weapons over the Internet and at gun shows. But the overall effect on violence in the U.S. could prove to be modest.
“It’s not ever going to be difficult to get a firearm, just like it’s not ever going to be difficult to get illegal drugs,” said James Jacobs, a New York University law school professor. “What makes us think that we can now create a regime that will make guns hard to obtain for someone who wants to obtain them?”
The president used his executive authority Tuesday to clarify that anyone “in the business” of selling firearms must obtain a federal license and conduct background checks on prospective buyers, regardless of where the sales take place.
Currently, many private sellers online and at gun shows do not bother to get licenses, and weapons sales over the Internet have become a booming business.
The White House and others can’t say how many transactions the step will block or how much bloodshed it may prevent.
But the new controls probably wouldn’t have prevented many of the grisly mass shootings around the country that have led to demands for tighter gun laws, and may affect only a tiny fraction of the nation’s 30,000 annual gun deaths.
Studies in the last decade have shown that criminals are more likely to get guns directly from friends or other social connections than at gun shows or flea markets.
The president’s action “has potential impact — the degree or the type, it’s hard to predict,” said University of Pennsylvania professor Susan Sorenson, who studies violence prevention. “And it’s really important to acknowledge that we can’t just have one change and expect that to change things wildly.”
The president also called for the hiring of more than 230 additional examiners and other staff to process the millions of background checks received annually.
Yet even with added manpower, there’s no way to completely eliminate human error like the clerical mistake that allowed Dylann Roof, the young man charged in the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre, to buy a weapon even though he should have been disqualified because of a drug arrest.
The White House did not set a threshold for the number of guns someone has to sell to be covered by the licensing and background check requirement. But it warned that people can be charged with a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for selling as few as two firearms when there is evidence they are running a business, such as selling weapons in their original packaging and for a profit.
Theresa O’Rourke of Downers Grove, Illinois, said she hopes Obama’s action will deter illegal transactions that have deadly consequences. Her best friend, 36-year-old Jitka Vesel, was killed in 2011 by a stalker who had illegally purchased a gun from a seller he met through Armslist.com, an online gun site. The seller was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to an illegal sale.
“People do it now because it’ s easy,” O’Rourke said. “But if we say upfront that if you break the law and you are going to go to prison, most people are going to take a step back and say, ‘You know what? It’s not worth it.’”