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◼ BLOOMBERG OPINION
● After a weekend of atrocities carried out by homegrown terrorists, it’s time for the U.S. to channel disgust
and dismay into political action. By Michael R. BloombergMaybe this time will be different. That’s the thought on the
minds of many Americans now.
Two mass shootings in 24 hours have left 31 people mur-
dered and many dozens more wounded. This, just a few
days after a shooter at a festival in California killed three and
wounded a dozen. Other shooting sprees over the past week
have also left people dead, dozens wounded, and commu-
nities shaken.
President Donald Trump addressed the nation but failed
to mention the two most important words in this debate:
background checks. While he said he supports a federal red-
flag law, which allows law enforcement to remove guns from
those who pose serious mental health risks, he’s yet to push
for it. And he pinned more blame on video games and the
internet than on our laws that enable such horrific violence—
the usual dodge.
And so a familiar ritual threatens to repeat. Politicians
express sympathy for the victims, hint at openness to insuf-
ficient actions, then run out the clock as public attention
moves elsewhere. It’s an appalling cycle of political mal-
feasance that’s in danger of recurring even now—after
a weekend in which a man in El Paso murdered 22 and
wounded dozens, and the very next day a shooter in Dayton
killed nine and wounded 27.
This mustn’t be allowed to happen. These new atroci-
ties need to change the political dynamic. Senator Lindsey
Graham stated: “Time to do more than pray. Time to enact
commonsense legislation in Congress to empower states to
deal with those who present a danger to themselves and oth-
ers—while respecting robust due process.”
He’s right—only it’s past time. And it’s not enough.
I spent the morning of Aug. 2 with thousands of volun-
teers from Moms Demand Action and Students Demand
Action. They had come to Washington to do exactly that:
demand action.
Over the past few years, millions of Americans have
joined together to push for commonsense legislation—and
it’s working.
From Connecticut and Florida to Colorado and California,
states have made strides on gun-safety legislation, especially
when it comes to red-flag laws that deny guns to dangerous
people. But state lines are porous: The shooter at the festi-
val in California got his gun in Nevada. For commonsense
reform to move forward everywhere, America’s post-
massacre ritual has to stop. The anger must be sustained
and channeled into political action—as it was in last year’sDon’t Let This Moment Pass
midterm elections, when volunteers from groups like Moms
Demand Action elected dozens of gun-safety proponents to
the House of Representatives.
For too long, too many states—along with Washington—
have bowed to the demands of the gun lobby, which pretends
that reasonable gun regulation proven to save lives is incom-
patible with the Second Amendment, even though the
Supreme Court, in a majority opinion authored by Justice
Antonin Scalia, found otherwise.
The Second Amendment isn’t the problem. The problem
is that the National Rifle Association doesn’t advocate for gun
owners, the vast majority of whom support commonsense
gun-safety laws. It represents and is financed by an industry
bent on selling as many guns to as many people as possible.
The two states where the most recent tragedies occurred
are examples of this. Both Texas and Ohio have gun laws
endorsed by the gun lobby. These are excellent laws if your
only aim is to sell guns to anyone. They do little to restrict
purchases by the enraged and unhinged while also encour-
aging residents to carry guns everywhere out of fear that the
enraged and unhinged will turn their arms on them.
Instead of sensibly regulating gun purchases and pos-
session, Texas and other gun-lobby protectorates have
outsourced their responsibilities to the “good guy with a
gun.” Yet time and again, people are shot before the good
guy, who in reality almost always wears a badge, can stop
the carnage. Ohio law-enforcement officers encountered the
Dayton shooter within a minute. It was too late. There are
countless cases of accidental shootings, rage-induced homi-
cides, and alcohol-fueled attacks for each instance of an
armed civilian stopping a shooting. A recent Federal Bureau
of Investigation report gives zero credence to the good-guy-
with-a-gun myth.
Until the superheroes turn up, laws will have to do. The
House of Representatives passed a hugely popular com-
prehensive background-check bill in February, along with
legislation to close the loophole that let a racist mass mur-
derer acquire the weapon he used in a church in Charleston,
S.C., in 2015.
Senate Republicans have failed to act on both those pro-
posals. That will change only if more Americans demand
it—and send a clear message to their representatives that vot-
ing against gun safety will cost them on Election Day.
This time can be different. But only if we reward political
leaders who protect public safety, and drive those who don’t
from public office. We cannot let this moment pass. <BW>August 12, 2019