Feds and public need gun control
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at podium, with Rep. Peter King, at right, speak to media on Tuesday about gun violence. Credit: AP
A proposal to make it illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of high-ranking federal officials is a commonsense response to Saturday's massacre in Tucson. The ban, suggested by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), should make officials and the public feel safer at public events.
It is hoped that the shooting that killed six and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) struggling to recover after being shot in the head, will break through the entrenched resistance on Capitol Hill to practically any limits on the right to bear arms. Self-preservation is a powerful motivation.
But if members of Congress inflate a gun-free bubble, however permeable, around themselves, they shouldn't forget the need for other reasonable restrictions to protect the public. Congress should evaluate all gun bills on the merits, rather than reflexively rejecting them in fealty to the gun lobby.
It's already illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. It's not a big stretch to extend the ban to federal officials, such as the president, vice president, members of Congress and judges.
That wouldn't stop deranged people bent on mayhem, not when it's so easy to buy firearms. But the 1,000-foot ban would give police additional authority to take armed and dangerous people into custody before they commit some act of senseless violence. That makes it worth doing. hN
