Horowitz: Another Public Mass Shooting - It’s Time to Do More Than Nothing
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
The spectacle of Republican Presidential candidates like Jeb Bush or Donald Trump, who argue that we can determine the course of events in places like Syria with more decisive, American action, saying there is nothing we can really do to curb the mass public shootings occurring all too often right here in the United States would be amusing, if the subject wasn’t so serious.
Judging by the responses of nearly all the Republican Presidential candidates to the latest carnage, it seems that throwing ones hands up in the air and declaring that we are helpless to really do anything is the preferred political course to getting on the wrong side of the NRA by supporting any common sense measure to reduce gun violence. These startling declarations of impotence occurring in the wake of 9 people being gunned down last week at Umpqua Community College in Oregon by a disturbed individual who had an arsenal of weapons in his apartment demonstrates the gun lobby’s success in getting Republican candidates to toe the line.
Anticipating the reaction of the Republicans, President Obama in his response to last week’s senseless tragedy, spoke frankly about his frustration that as a nation we are becoming numb to the public mass shootings that are happening with stepped up frequency: “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this.We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun. And what’s become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common-sense gun legislation. Right now, I can imagine the press releases being cranked out: We need more guns, they’ll argue. Fewer gun safety laws. “
As the President accurately pointed out, all nations have their share of mentally ill people and people who want to do others harm, but we are the only advanced nation in the world that has a mass public shooting every few months. When put in place in other nations, common sense gun safety measures have worked and the result is fewer deaths and injuries.
Strengthening background checks for gun purchasers is the place to begin. We must close the gun show loophole, which now results in 40% of guns being purchased without a background check, and bolster the existing background check system by ensuring that all people who should be denied the ability to purchase a gun are on the list. This requires addressing the sensitive issue of ensuring that people with mental illnesses who show a propensity for violence are added to the data base. Strengthening background checks alone would not have prevented last week’s tragedy, but it would have prevented some of the others. Further, strengthening background checks is a popular measure with 90% of Americans and even 70% of NRA members indicating their support.
Admittedly, action in Congress on background checks or any other common sense gun safety measure is hard to envision Success in the short-term is highly unlikely, but over the long-term it is possible to achieve results—results that will save lives.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island
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