Is There Hope For Gun Reform?

The NRA is arguably the most powerful lobbying group in the United States, it is probably the bulk of the reason why the US has the weakest gun regulations of any Western nation. Yet what has been happening in the last couple of months has been amazing in American politics. On the 14^th of December 2012, 20 young children and six adults were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. This changed America, there had already been several high-profile mass shootings in America over the past few years, the Gabby Giffords assassination attempt and the Aurora Theatre massacre to name a couple. This was the final straw for many Americans, hearing about the deaths of children around the age of seven was too much and many Americans demanded change. President Obama and Vice President Biden were very quick to begin trying to figure a way out of America’s crippling gun violence situation.

After a month or so of discussions about how to reduce gun violence, Obama and Biden came forward with a package of gun reforms; some of which needed the approval of Congress first. This was going to be difficult considering the NRA’s grip on Congress and the fact that the Republicans control the House. Nonetheless Senate Democrats began to try and push through new reforms. Particularly vocal was the Senior Senator from California, Dianne Feinstein, who had authored a prominent gun regulation bill that passed Congress back in 1994. Unfortunately it had been allowed to expire in 2004 by the Republican controlled Congress.  Feinstein’s bill put a ban on semi-automatic machine guns (the kind that fire many bullets in quick concession) and high capacity rifles. The idea behind it is that you do not need these guns, a hunter is not going to require a “spray” weapon to kill deer and you certainly don’t need it for self-defence. The high capacity magazines refers to ones that can hold more than ten bullets, the argument here is that you do not need more than ten bullets to hit a target, and if you do you probably shouldn’t own a gun anyway. This part of the package of reforms does have majority of support in America, around 57% of people say the support it, but it is unlikely to get passed the Republican controlled House.

Yet there is one extremely popular gun reform measure: background checks. Currently when buying a gun from a shop in America you have to go through a background check, to make sure you are legally allowed to own a gun (i.e. not a criminal or mentally ill). The problem is there is a huge loophole, if you purchase a gun whilst at a gun show or from another person, you do not have to go through a background check! It is estimated that around 40% of gun purchases in America do not involve background checks! So if you are not allowed to buy a gun in America, it is still extremely easy to buy one. What the new bill proposes is that every purchase should require a background check, regardless of who you are buying it from. This is extremely popular in America, NBC did a poll and 92% of Americans said they supported it, for comparison NBC’s poll showed background checks as more popular than Italian food, holidays and capitalism! Yet even this part of the bill, with this level of popularity, might fail in the Republican controlled House. When the Senate judiciary committee voted on it, of the eight Republicans, only Chuck Grassley of Iowa voted for it. Seriously.

Other parts of the bill increase funding for schools who wish to have guards as well as increased penalty for straw purchasers. Straw purchasers are people who buy guns for people who would not pass a background check at a shop.

Yet there is some hope that these bills could pass, that the NRA’s power could be dented. Mike Bloomberg, the Independent Mayor of New York runs a PAC called ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ which attempts to aid gun reforms pass. Just recently the PAC made a $12 million ad buy in several states trying to get constituents to contact their senators and encourage them to support gun reforms. There is real hope now as Senators and Congressmen fear the NRA running adverts against them in elections; if a new group can raise as much as the NRA, then much of the NRA’s ‘power’ will disappear.

I wish America all the luck in the world, in most other western nations, only a handful of people are killed by guns every year. In America, the number is around 30,000.