America
Compromise on gun laws: is sanity finally returning to the land of unlimited mass shootings?
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Democrat and Republican senators agree to tighten gun laws. And although this declaration of intent does not represent a major breakthrough, it is an important step.
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A memorial for the murdered 19 children and 2 teachers at the primary school Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (Texas).
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Nobody is really happy. Left-wing activists, who have been campaigning for years to tighten America’s federal gun laws, say, “This bill should be the beginning, not the end, of the work of Congress.” And right-wing hardliners rant: “Senators want to take away the guns from law-abiding Americans.”
But perhaps this criticism is also an expression of the fact that the compromise negotiated by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans in the Senate over the weekend is not a pipe dream – because both left and right MPs had to make concessions.
Response to massacres in New York and Texas
The framework agreement is a direct response to the rampages in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, in which two young men murdered a total of 31 people in cold blood last month. The package envisages billions in investments with a focus on mental health and the safety of school facilities.
In the case of gun deals, the background check should be tightened if the gun buyer is younger than 21 years old. Washington also wants to encourage the 50 states to pass “Red Flag” laws with the help of millions in subsidies. These regulations allow the authorities to temporarily confiscate rifles, revolvers or pistols if there are warning signals from the weapon owner’s environment. Experts say such “red flag” laws could not only prevent the next massacre, but also reduce the high number of suicides. In 2020 alone, more than 24,000 people in America took their own lives with the help of a gun.
Prohibition of individual weapon categories not majority capable
On the other hand, the package is silent on a ban on certain categories of weapons or on raising the minimum age for gun purchases. These left-wing demands, which President Joe Biden recently made, cannot win a majority in the Senate due to the outdated rules of the small chamber of parliament. Because in the Senate, a minority of 40 of the 100 deputies can block unpopular bills.
The Republicans, currently with 50 seats in the Senate, take the position that such bans or restrictions, which would primarily target AR-15 semi-automatic weapons, are unconstitutional. This view is, in principle, also shared by the Supreme Court. In a landmark decision in 2008, the US Supreme Court held that Americans have the right to use a gun to defend themselves.
NRA will continue to oppose any effort to insert gun control policies, initiatives that override constitutional due process protections & efforts to deprive law-abiding citizens of their fundamental right to protect themselves into this or any legislation.https://t.co/QYmvCz7o3X
– NRA (@NRA) June 12, 2022
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Due to this basic attitude, which is also supported by gun lobbyists, all attempts to tighten gun laws in the Senate over the past few decades have failed. The last successful attempt to ban an entire category of weapons (the so-called assault weapons, a term that is often translated in German as assault rifles) was therefore more than 25 years ago.
The Democrats now appear to have accepted this fundamental Republican opposition. Your Senate negotiator, Chris Murphy from Connecticut, therefore did not enter the latest round of negotiations with high hopes. “It’s difficult, but we want to save lives,” he said instead. His opponent, Texas Republican John Cornyn, was deeply saddened by the Uvalde massacre. With reference to the political reality – in America there are more guns than people – he also warned against exaggerated expectations. Parliament must proceed “in stages”, he said.
In a next step, the 20 senators will now present a fully formulated draft law. This should be available before the summer break; all 50 Democrats and at least 10 Republicans in the Senate must support the package for it to pass. The bill then goes to the House of Representatives; in the grand chamber, the democrats currently hold 220 of the 435 seats.
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