Another mass shooting and more prayers. Suwanee, Chattanooga, northern Maine, now Lafeyette. One website that tracks such things (shootingtracker.com) shows 203 so far in 2015 with 259 dead and 744 in mass shootings alone, but that number is low because it is four days behind in reporting.
And we’ll pray. For families, for kids, for Marines, for the US…then we will go back to doing nothing about it.
Pray, then what?
July 24, 2015
Another mass shooting and more prayers. Suwanee, Chattanooga, northern Maine, now Lafeyette. One website that tracks such things (shootingtracker.com) shows 203 so far in 2015 with 259 dead and 744 in mass shootings alone, but that number is low because it is four days behind in reporting.
And we’ll pray. For families, for kids, for Marines, for the US…then we will go back to doing nothing about it.
But there is so much that could be done. Recent reports indicate that at the federal level the Social Security Administration will be using information about whether people are competent to handle their financial affairs to help determine whether they should have access to guns. A recent NY Times editorial (http://www.nytimes.com/...) proposed using federal purchasing power through the Pentagon and DOJ to force gun manufacturers to better monitor gun retailers and push for smart gun technology. Great. It’s something.
But we can do so much more, with minimal impact on the ability of most people to get guns. Here’s two for starters.
First, register all gun sales and transfers. Over time this will build a database of firearms (yeah, I know, this will piss off the paranoid right who fear Obama will take away their guns, but who cares, really?). This way, when a police officer responds to a report of domestic violence, as happened on Tuesday night in Suwanee, he can know if there are guns at the residence or registered to the parties and secure them if necessary.
Second, do away with “default proceeds”. This is what allowed the Charleston church shooter to get his guns even though his background was not cleared. Since they did not have a “red light”, the retailer could proceed with the sale instead of waiting to secure a “green light”. This loophole was inserted into the original Brady Bill at the behest of the NRA. This can be done at the local level or even at the retail level. Walmart decided years ago to delay these “yellow light” background checks until they could be fully completed. Using the Pentagon and DOJ incentives above, gun manufactures could easily be motivated to require all their retailers to follow this practice.
These are two. There are many more. Why don’t they get done? Public apathy and the fact that many of our elected officials are bought and paid for by the NRA to act contrary to the will and interests of their constituents. The latter is not going to change anytime soon, but I hold out hope for the former.