Editorial: Congress shamefully splits on gun control
In January, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott invited New York gun owners to move to Texas. (Jan. 15, 2013) Credit: Getty Images
The effort in Congress to do something to stem gun violence has become distressingly partisan. Votes last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a series of gun measures split almost completely along party lines.
It would be a shame if that divide -- Democrats for, Republican against -- were to doom reform in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and countless similar tragedies.
The urgency to do something about mass shootings and the grinding day-to-day gun violence that claims about 32,000 lives a year may be flagging on Capitol Hill under heavy lobbying by the National Rifle Association and others. But it has not diminished outside the Beltway. Congress should enact these reasonable reforms.
The most critical provisions are those that would make it more difficult for guns initially sold legally to enter the black market.
Making it a felony for a "straw buyer" to purchase a gun for someone who could not legally buy it himself or herself would help deter traffickers who deliver guns into the hands of criminals. Right now a straw purchase is merely a paperwork violation rather than a federal cime.
Requiring background checks for private gun sales would help, too, by closing loopholes that allow people to buy firearms at gun shows or over the Internet with no checks required.
By far the most contentious proposal in Congress is a ban on selected military-style assault weapons that would also limit the size of ammunition magazines.
Guns like the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that shooter Adam Lanza used to kill 20 small children and six others at the Sandy Hook Elementary School last December are the weapons of choice for mass murderers. Some would be banned if the Senate bill becomes law.
But while the legislation would outlaw 157 specific firearms, it would exempt 2,271 others. And before the previous assault-weapons ban lapsed in 2004, many gun manufacturers simply modified their products to skirt the law. Still, symbolism matters, so Congress should pass the new ban, particularly its provision limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. That would significantly curtail the kill power of mass shooters by forcing them to stop more often to reload.
Mass shootings and other gun violence has stunned, saddened and outraged the public. Congress must do what it can to slow the bloodshed.
