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Every time a mass shooting happens we are flooded with opinion pieces about violence, fear for our children, school safety, how to help our children process tragedy, and the requisite articles about U.S. gun control. Except, why is it that 23 years after Columbine, 10 years after Sandy Hook, and 3 weeks since Uvalde, gun regulation still seems so impossible?
“School shootings are scary,” school counselor and mom of three Diedre Anthony told Mom.com. “As a counselor I see mental health issues being ignored or not treated properly. I've seen many children over the years that I've feared could hurt others by their own admission.”
We need to consider how our societal attitudes toward mental health, race, gender, and masculinity contribute and influence people to commit such acts of atrocity. Out of these myriad of issues, gun control is merely one tool we have in order to prevent future mass shootings and gun violence.
A brief history of gun control laws
With gun ownership an integral part of the U.S. Constitution as the Second Amendment (ratified in 1791), it comes as no surprise that their regulation is highly contested. While it wouldn’t be until 1934 for The National Firearms Act (NFA), the first national U.S. gun control law to pass, it actually wasn’t the first time states tried to regulate the use and sale of guns.
In fact, like many things in American history, gun control laws are rooted in an incredibly racist history. Gun regulation was originally designed to disarm enslaved people, freedmen, and African Americans. Prior to the end of the Civil War, State “Slave Codes” prohibited enslaved people from owning guns and after slavery was abolished, many states persisted in forbidding freedmen from the right to bear arms.
While people may have you believe that the Second Amendment trumps everything, there have been multiple pieces of legislation as well as Supreme Court cases that have modified it. It's worthwhile to take a close look at the long timeline of the notable events that have shaped this country's gun policy.
Common sense gun control laws: What is the current legislation being considered
While there is no universally agreed upon definition of what common sense gun laws mean, in general, it refers to:
- Banning the manufacture, sale, and possession of assault rifles
- Establishing gun licensing programs
- Expanding background checks to nearly all gun sales and transfers as well as the window to conduct them
- Outlaw ghost guns (guns that lack serial numbers) and 3D-printed guns
- Restrict the sale of accessories (such as bump stocks) that can make guns even more lethal
- Adding red flag (extreme risk) laws that allows police, family members, coworkers, and others to petition the court to temporarily remove firearms from someone they believe may be a danger to others or themselves
More recently, the House of Representatives passed a sweeping gun reform package called the "Protecting Our Kids Act," the measure is would do some of the following:
- Raise the legal age from 18 to 21 years old to buy semi-automatic rifles
- Create new federal offenses against gun trafficking and selling large-capacity magazines
- Allow local buyback programs to compensate individuals
- Create tax incentives for safe gun firearm storage and criminal penalties for breaking these requirements on residential properties
- Strengthen the federal laws on bump stocks and ghost guns
Update: On June 12, a bipartisan group of senators announced they had reached an agreement for gun safety legislation that includes, "needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can't purchase weapons." Most analysts are predicting that the legislation will ultimately move quickly through the Senate and the House.
Why are gun laws so hard to push through
According to a 2021 Pew Research poll, 81% of Americans support background checks, 63% support a ban on assault-weapons, and 64% support a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. In addition, a majority disagree with the right to carry concealed weapons without a permit.
Except why, despite a preponderance of support for such measures, does nothing ever change?
The answer has surprisingly little to do with American opinions on guns and more to do with the Senate and the filibuster. If you don’t quite recall high school civics, the filibuster is a political procedure in which discussion about a proposed legislation is so prolonged that no decision can be made, effectively preventing a law from passing. To stop a filibuster requires a “cloture,” or 3/5ths of the Senate (60 out of 100 senators) to vote for an end.
You also have to consider the National Rifle Association (NRA) and their more than 100 years long campaign to shape gun policies in their image. The organization’s full court press to ignore and oppress popular American opinion includes using lawsuits, judicial activism, legislative campaigns, questioning the expertise of polls and epidemiologists, and of course, hefty donations to widely known Republicans.
This is how a small minority of conservative states have wielded an inordinate amount of power over the national agenda — in other words, a tyranny of the minority.
If you don’t particularly care for being held hostage by the NRA and their bought lawmakers, take a page from David Hogg, survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting in 2018, and co-founder of March For Our Lives. “If our government can't do anything to stop 19 kids from being killed and slaughtered in their own school… it's time to change who is in government,” Hogg said at a recent March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C.
