Here’s a factoid full of anti-holiday cheer: The country experienced three notorious mass shootings in November.
Yes, six people died at a Virginia Walmart. A shooter at that nightclub in Colorado Springs left five people dead and 18 injured. And then there was the Virginia shooting that claimed the lives of three college football players driving back from a field trip—they had gone to D.C. to see a play.
We are talking about terrible, terrible events. It takes a lot to make American gun fatalities notorious. After all, if you define a mass shooting as one that killed or injured at least four people, then there were over 40 in November.
And what do you think will happen as a result? A major social change? When I read all these stories, I had to remember something Senator Chris Murphymy go-to expert on the subject once told me, that the public only learns about the gun issue when there’s a horrible multi-fatal shooting, “and then the country’s only paying attention for 24 to 48 hours.”
But brighten up. I spoke to Murphy this week and he seems to have become more optimistic about the possibility of progress. “I think the issue of gun violence is a strong motivation for voters,” he said in an interview. “That’s part of why the Democrats did well in November. Parents are terrified. Many parents are not willing to support Republicans until they take this more seriously.”
Before he got to the senate, Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticutwas a member of the House, with a district that included Newtown—the town where a decade ago twenty Sandy Hook Elementary School first graders and six teachers were shot dead by a former student.
Murphy recalled that at the time he was desperately trying to respond to the wicked cataclysm by … doing something. But when he looked for Republicans who might be willing to sit down and talk about possible bipartisan gun legislation, he found one in all.
So it was a big win this summer when Murphy actually got it a serious gun law has been passed into law – the first substantial piece of federal legislation on the issue in nearly 30 years.
The new law provides more money for mental health, expands background checks on gun buyers under 21, and makes it easier to get guns away from people with a history of domestic violence.
That section on domestic violence closes something called “the boyfriend loophole,” which allowed men convicted of assaulting their girlfriends to continue buying guns. That was really a loophole. You couldn’t buy a gun if you were convicted of assaulting your wife, but a girlfriend was… I think an inferior creature.
What’s next? Well, after all the mass shootings in November, Joe Biden called for a ban on assault weapons — one of which was had been used at that Colorado nightclub. There was barely a cry of enthusiasm in Congress, and Murphy doubted there was enough support to get it through the inevitable Senate fraud.
Not that he didn’t appreciate the sentiment: “I’m so proud of President Biden. I love the fact that he wears his passion for this song on his sleeve.
Biden favored an assault weapons ban passed when he was a senator leading the Judiciary Committee. In 1994. It would expire after 10 years if not extended. Folks, I don’t want you on vacation wondering why Joe Biden’s great proposal was no longer law before 2005. But if all else fails, feel free to blame the Republicans.
Polls show that most American voters support the idea of gun safety legislation, but the political pressure for change appears to be nowhere near as great as for abortion rights, for example.
Well, Murphy replied, it’s coming. “I think it’s now becoming a permanent Top-5 issue for a large portion of swing voters.”
Hey, Top 5 is better than top nothing. Unfortunately, the call for reform has received a backlash from the other side, let’s make it worse. You may not have heard of the relatively new Second Amendment issue of sanctuaries.
Yes! This new incarnation of the concept of “sanctuary” deviates a bit from the traditional image of helping innocent people take refuge with villains. Now it should be a city or county or state that ignores gun laws that are already on the books. Ensuring safety for all local… bullets.
“It’s very ironic for Republicans to say we shouldn’t pass new laws because we need to focus on enforcing existing laws — and then promise in the same breath that they won’t enforce existing laws,” Murphy said. “The Colorado Springs massacre might not have happened if the county hadn’t made that promise. This is happening everywhere.”
Yes indeed – one study found that more than 60 percent of the country’s provinces say they will not enforce existing gun safety laws. Murphy has called for a “talk” about whether these places — which are often rural or southern or both — should be cut off from federal law enforcement funds.
Do you see how civilized it is possible to be in this debate? On the one hand, people are looking forward to the next gunfight at the OK Corral. On the other hand, they call for a serious conversation.
Glad to be on the talking side of that one.