Gun Control
Here we go again! Two horrific mass shootings and the political posturing starts before the funerals are held. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer held a press conference to demand that the Senate be called back into session to pass a gun control bill that had passed in the House. That bill was a showpiece/wish-list that had no chance in the Senate and was designed to burnish the progressive credentials of House members. The call for senators to return to Washington was political kabuki that was followed by fundraising letters using the tragedy to pry some dollars loose from the pockets of the faithful. That move gets a ten rating on the cynicism scale.
The Great & Good have launched renewed warnings about the elevated dangers posed by white nationalists. That may be a serious problem, but it misses the mass shooting mark. The guys who shot up the high schools in Florida and Colorado and the elementary school in Sandy Hook were not white nationalists. The worst shooter of all in Las Vegas does not appear to have been a political ideologue of any kind. The guy who shot up the Republican softball practice was an avowed leftist, as was the shooter in Dayton.
Who is it that we are looking for if we want to diminish the number of mass shootings? They are all men. Most of them are young. They are all Caucasian. They are all deranged. Most of them have announced their intentions in advance. Let’s focus on the target population (pun intended).
Background checks would be of some help if the “do not sell to” list is populated correctly and updated regularly. Given government’s oft displayed ineptitude at technology solutions, the job should be outsourced to the private sector, with careful oversight and periodic review of the contract. Private gun sellers could be compelled to use the list (and held liable for failure to do so) if access was convenient and appropriate privacy standards maintained.
Mostly, we should take the announced intentions of potential shooters seriously. Social media companies could easily develop programs that would notify local authorities when threats or murderous rants were posted. Warning calls from relatives and neighbors need to be taken seriously. Credible warnings should allow law enforcement to get a warrant providing permission to search, confiscate firearms and add names to the “do not sell to” list. There should be a right of appeal, but there should also be a high barrier of proof needed to get permission to own a firearm within five years of posting inflammatory material.
Finally, we have the illusory solution — confiscate those guns. Seizing 330 million guns from the American public has about as much chance of happening as deporting 12 million illegal residents from our country. We do outlaw private ownership of machine guns. We could outlaw ownership of any gun that can easily be converted to automatic fire. We could also make it a crime to own a large capacity magazine. That won’t do much good, but might make a little difference at the margin. We will be much more likely to get the job done if we focus on a few potential trigger pulling fingers than the massive number of triggers.
I do not believe any attempts to control gun ownership will make progress until proponents deal with the slippery slope concern. Those who want to control gun ownership must assure gun owners with no history of violent behavior or intent that their ownership of a hand gun, a hunting rifle or a shotgun will not be threatened. If that issue is not dealt with, attempts to adopt gun control legislation will have the same result they always have — a sharp increase in gun sales.
