Editorial: Congress, step up on gun laws
Police officers gather at the entrance to the 145th Street subway station in the Harlem neighborhood of New York where detective Kevin Herlihy was shot while confronting a suspect Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Credit: AP Photo/DAVID KARP
A shootout Sunday in Brooklyn that left four New York City cops injured had "one disgraceful fact" in common with the recent shootings of four other officers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "All were committed with illegal guns that came from out of state." Six of the eight -- including Det. Peter Figoski, who was killed in December -- had something else in common, too. They're Long Islanders.
New York City and state gun laws are among the most restrictive in the nation. But firearms bought in more permissive states, such as North Carolina and Virginia, are so routinely driven into New York and sold here illegally that officials have dubbed I-95 the "iron pipeline." Without tougher national laws and stricter enforcement of the ones already on the books, efforts to curb that interstate trafficking are handicapped. But with so many members of Congress in thrall to the gun lobby, Washington has failed miserably to do anything about it.
Seventy-two police officers were killed nationally in 2011, 63 of them by firearms. With that number up 25 percent from 2010 and 75 percent since 2008, Congress should pay more attention to public safety and much less to this powerful special interest.
Gun ownership is a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that reasonable restrictions are permissible. There are steps Congress should take that would reduce the number of firearms that end up in the wrong hands.
Federal law requires background checks for most gun purchases. But the checks can be avoided by buying from occasional sellers, at gun shows or online. Congress should require background checks for all gun purchases.
More than a decade after 9/11, suspected terrorists on government watch lists can't fly in airplanes, but they can still legally buy firearms. Congress should finally close that "terror gap."
Since 2004, Congress has attached so-called Tiahrt amendments to spending bills. Named for their original sponsor, former Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), they restrict the use of federal gun-trace data in civil actions to revoke the licenses of corrupt gun dealers. They require the FBI to destroy background check information within 24 hours, making it harder to catch dealers who falsify their records, or to track straw purchasers who buy guns for people who can't pass the check. And they prevent federal officials from requiring dealers to conduct periodic inventories to detect lost or stolen guns. Congress should stop obstructing such reasonable law enforcement practices.
That would help make life safer for police officers such as Capt. Al Pizzano of Smithtown, Officer Matthew Granahan of Nesconset, Det. Kenneth Avala of Brooklyn and Det. Michael Keenan of Staten Island, who were all shot Sunday in Brooklyn by a man wielding a 9 mm handgun that was part of a multiple gun buy in North Carolina. Also Det. Kevin Herlihy of Lynbrook, Officer Kevin Brennan of Garden City Park and Officer Thomas Richards of Great Neck, who were shot in separate incidents in the past four months. Tragically, it's too late for tougher laws to help Det. Figoski of West Babylon, who was shot and killed in a drug robbery gone bad.
Congress needs to do its part to help end this madness.
