by Ralph Scharnau

In 2008 the Supreme Court controversially interpreted the Second Amendment as giving an individual constitutional right to gun ownership.  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged, however, that the right was not unlimited.  He recognized exceptions for the “longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” [and] “prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’”

In the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, the current gun control debate in the United States takes place in a highly emotional atmosphere.  The NRA has directed its heated rhetoric about weapon deaths at deranged individuals and criminals.  One study found that guns kept in the home for self-defense were far more often fired in accidents, criminal assaults, homicides, and suicides.  Statistics show that a gun in the home represents a much greater danger to a household inhabitant or guest than to an intruder.

Among the 23 wealthiest countries in the world, the United States has the highest gun homicide rate, the highest number of guns per capita, and accounts for 80% of all gun deaths.  The nearly 300 million guns in this country nearly equal our population with guns in half of the nation’s households.

According to the NRA, the cure for gun violence is more guns.  But scientific studies indicate that places with more guns have more violent deaths, both homicides and suicides.  And no evidence shows that more guns reduce crime.  Gun-control critics argue that “Guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.”  Gun-control advocates argue that “Guns don’t die.  People die.”

Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision, the NRA has worked to broaden the market for weapons.  It has lobbied state legislatures to allow concealed weapons in churches, schools, and other public places, to restrict the discretion of law enforcement officials in granting gun permits, and to enact “stand your ground” laws, a kind of freelance vigilantism.
States with strict gun-control laws have significantly fewer firearms deaths.  The issue here is control, not confiscation.  Incredibly, guns are exempt from consumer product safety regulations.

Obama’s gun control measures, a mix of executive orders and proposed new laws, will not limit any law-abiding American’s right to own guns for hunting, or sport, or collection, or self-protection.  His executive orders consist of modest initiatives to toughen enforcement of existing laws, to encourage more information sharing between federal agencies and state governments, and to improve access to mental health care.

Recognizing gun violence as a public health threat, one of the President’s executive orders lifts the prohibition on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health from conducting research on the causes and prevention of gun violence.  We study drivers and cars to reduce motor vehicle injuries and death.  Likewise, we should study gun users and guns.  We should also require gun owners to register, license, and insure them.

Obama’s other arms control measures need congressional approval.  One would require universal criminal background checks for all gun sales, eliminating the gun shows, private sales, and internet sales loopholes exempting 40 percent of firearms sales from oversight.  He called on Congress to ban military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and armor-piercing bullets.

As President Obama noted, no laws or regulations can prevent every violent tragedy.  But any reasonable step that helps to reduce gun violence and save lives should be tried.  At the very least, we have a civic duty to find ways for gun ownership and public safety to better coexist.

Ralph Scharnau teaches U. S. history at Northeast Iowa Community College, Peosta.  He holds a Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University.  His publications include articles on labor history in Iowa and Dubuque.  Scharnau, a peace and justice activist, writes monthly op-ed columns for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald.