The United States is a country increasingly steeped in gun culture. Ranging from the philosophical to the horrific, the ramifications of a society whose identity is shaped by the fundamental right to bear arms – as well as to freedom of expression, religion, to privacy, to a speedy and fair trial and to protection from cruel and unusual punishment, among others – are complex. Debate aside, guns are too often – and with growing frequency – used in brutal attacks on innocent people. On that, we should all be able to agree.
Whether involving mentally disturbed or ideologically radicalized gunmen or women, gang or race-related violence, or one-off incidents of rage or crime, they are facilitated to at least some degree by the widespread availability of guns, often through unregulated channels. Attempts to curb those unchecked avenues toward gun ownership are unlikely to put an end to the devastating gun violence witnessed in the U.S. every day. If they can slow it somewhat, though, that is positive progress.
President Barack Obama, through modest executive action, aims to do just that. By expanding federal background check requirements, requiring more dealers to be licensed to sell firearms, and providing more resources to enforce existing gun laws, the president is attempting to balance the pragmatics of keeping guns out of criminals’ hands against the politics of any gun-related restrictions whatsoever. Obama is, of course, being roundly criticized by the right – including Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, and Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez – who claim that the president is both overstepping his authority and undermining the U.S. Constitution. Neither is true, of course.
Obama, unlike Congress, has taken a meager yet essential step in attempting to counterweigh the alarming number of gun violence incidents in the United States. Thus far in 2016, there have been nearly 600 such episodes, resulting in 167 deaths, according to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization. In 2015, there were more than 52,600 incidents that killed 13,344 people. Those numbers must force the conversation beyond Second Amendment ideology and into practical – and reasonable – ways to reduce gun violence.
Background checks, as Obama proposes expanding, are one such tool with proven results. In Colorado, which began requiring universal background checks in 2012, more than 27,000 gun sales to unqualified buyers have been prevented, according to Gov. John Hickenlooper. While it is impossible to quantify the corresponding effect on public safety, those facts reiterate that gun culture must not be one of lawlessness. Obama’s action would reinforce this position, while further closing loopholes that allow off-the-books gun purchases.
While these actions will certainly not stop all future gun violence, Obama’s policy is a reasoned and reasonable approach. Law-abiding citizens will still have access to the weapons they desire, while those for whom gun ownership is a risk to public safety will find fewer means of obtaining weapons. The conversation about gun control and gun violence in the U.S. must soon shift away from ideology and toward common ground. Obama’s is an important, welcome and – in practical terms – small step toward finding responsible solutions to a sharply divisive debate. The momentum must grow from here.
