After a few months of angry debate on gun control, it is clear that very little is going to change in the US. The gun rights lobby has been efficient in spreading its message. That message is that any effort to reduce access to guns is a 2nd amendment violation and probably a direct violation of some previously unpublished commandment from Moses. In the last generation the 2nd amendment has become something close to holy writ. Still there is no reason to grant this particular amendment special status. There are all sorts of constrictions of first amendment freedoms. The right to assemble is controlled in many places by the need for parade permits or the practice of cordoning off demonstrators. The right to a free press is controlled through libel laws, pornography laws, copyright laws. All these restrictions make good sense and I wouldn’t propose removing them.
The gun rights lobby is well funded the NRA in particular is supported by the gun industry and it is able to get its message out to those it wants to convince, in particular to Democrats in red states. The gun control lobby is much less well funded and doesn’t seem to be able to get its message out except to those already convinced. So, the current filibuster rule in the Senate means that only a weak gun control bill has even a remote chance of passing. The Republican’s gerrymandered control of the House means that nothing of note will pass in the House.
The Newtown tragedy was the starting point for the gun control effort but at this point it appears that there will be no attempts to control either high capacity magazines for assault weapons in any bills up for passage.
The gun rights people are unwilling to consider that guns may be part of the problem. Most gun owners live in suburban communities are rural ones. Most gun violence is urban. So, the people most interested in gun rights don’t see the violence of the cities on a daily basis. What they don’t consider is how violent the US is compared to other countries. The US is unique among the wealthier countries both in its lax gun laws and in the amount of gun violence. The murder rate in the US is much higher than that in Europe.
Unfortunately the paranoia among gun owners is very high. Especially in the South there is a firm belief that the Obama administration has a plan to confiscate all firearms. There is also a very strong belief in a minority of gun owners that the US is verging on collapse and riots will break out in the streets. Any student of history would know that it would take a long time for the social order to collapse. It certainly didn’t collapse in the 1930s during the depression. It didn’t even collapse in most of Europe during and after WWII.
The only way to lower gun violence is to lower the number of guns in the US. Until gun owners themselves understand that we will go nowhere with this debate.
