Since the shooting in Parkland, Florida, the possibility of taking genuine action to promote sensible gun safety has seemed closer than it has in decades. The powerful, eloquent support provided by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has helped to keep the issue alive long after the usual “thoughts and prayers” period, and nationwide polls show unprecedented support for actions such as banning AR-15s and similar weapons.
Overall, 72 percent of Americans now say they favor a ban on assault-style weapons.
With the level of support for this issue and polls indicating near-unanimous support for some measures such as universal background checks, it should be no surprise that state legislative agendas contain a number of gun measures. And … it’s probably not a surprise that the great majority of those measures are designed to promote guns.
On February 15, the day after the Parkland shooting, Idaho lawmakers introduced a bill to strengthen the state’s “stand your ground” law to the floor. The measure would expand the definition of justifiable homicide to include not merely defending a shooter’s home but his or her vehicle or place of employment, as well. On Monday, the bill passed the majority-Republican Senate after a vote along party lines.
South Dakota passed a bill allowing people to bring their guns to private schools, West Virginia made it easier to carry weapons (and leave weapons) in cars, and Indiana voted to expand availability of guns both in schools and in churches because … that’s clearly what Jesus intended.
None of this may be what Americans want—but there certainly is one group that’s happy. And it won’t surprise you at all.
Following the slaughter of young children at Sandy Hook, the NRA moved to push pro-gun legislation in state after state, playing off the fear that someone might do something just because children were dying in mass quantities. They’re still at it.
In Virginia alone, the NRA took a victory lap for having defeated more than 60 restrictions on guns proposed to the general assembly during a single legislative session, including universal background checks, and a law that would have required gun owners to report firearms stolen.
Universal background checks enjoy the support of 97 percent of Americans: 97 percent. Pretty much the only people who don’t support them are politicians paid off by the NRA and whoever supplies Dana Loesch with fake beet juice.
Meanwhile, Republicans at the federal level are acting to … do absolutely nothing about guns.
The plan would authorize $50 million in federal grants to be offered to local school systems to help improve efforts at training and detecting possible threats to schools.
This is life in an armed camp, where the only proposed changes are … get used to life in an armed camp. Which will not change—until Republicans are gone.