Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Congress should follow Biden’s lead on gun action

In one of several recent examples of the Republican Party’s insanity on guns, Tennessee abolished permit requirements to carry concealed handguns — and did it with the stated purpose of advancing the GOP governor’s “public safety agenda.”

In statehouses across the country, Republicans are taking similar actions. Iowa is on its way to making concealed-carry permitting requirements optional, which effectively will get rid of them. In Kansas, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would lower the age to 18 legally carry a concealed weapon. Yes, the Sunflower State doesn’t consider residents under 21 responsible enough to drink alcohol, but Republican lawmakers there see no problems with letting 18-year-olds walk around in civilian settings with pistols under their jackets or stuffed in their pants.

These state-by-state Republican-led assaults on gun safety laws show why President Joe Biden’s executive actions on the subject last week were critically needed, and why Congress should advance the ball even further.

The patchwork of state gun statutes in the U.S. presents a danger to the public and creates a headache for responsible gun owners in navigating state-to-state requirements and restrictions. The nation needs a much stronger federal framework of gun safety laws.

Biden took a step in that direction Thursday with his executive orders, which were aimed at reducing the proliferation of “ghost guns” — build-it-yourself weapons without serial numbers — and the creation of a model “red flag” law for states to use as guides. Biden’s actions also would reduce access to stabilizing braces that can be used to make pistols more like rifles and improve their long-range lethality.

The executive actions were a responsible response to the nation’s epidemic of gun violence, and not one would prevent a law-abiding American from owning a firearm.

But as we know, executive actions can easily be overturned by the next administration. That’s why Congress needs to move on gun safety by at least pursuing universal background checks for firearms purchases and restrictions on sales of assault-type weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Americans certainly would support them, as shown by poll after poll. Unlike Republican leaders and the gun lobby, Americans see reasonable, responsible gun policies as an effective method for addressing the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.

The GOP, on the other hand, is becoming an ever more reckless tool for the gun lobby and its demented mindset that the only way to solve gun violence is with more guns.

If that were true, why were gun-related deaths the highest in at least 20 years in America last year even though it was also a record year for gun sales? Why does America rank last in gun safety among high-income nations even though we have 46% of the world’s civilian-controlled guns? Why, in a nation where there are more guns than people, have gun deaths been on the rise for at least 10 straight years? Why is it that civilians here have more small-arms than the U.S. military, yet gun violence remains one of our nation’s top causes of death and injury?

The answers, of course, involve the glut of guns and our shamefully unprotective gun safety laws — which the GOP is trying to weaken even more.

Biden’s orders will help strengthen the safety net. But what’s really needed is for Congress to step up.