The Answer on Guns is Staring Us in the Face

Where do we go next? What do we do now?

The answer is staring us in the face.

We ban assault weapons. Every last damn one of them. They’re the weapon of choice for mass murderers. They exist only to kill as quickly and efficiently as possible. The only people with a right to one are law enforcement and the military. I don’t need one. You don’t need one either.

After all, the United States had an assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004. And it worked, as my friend and colleague John A. Tures, a political science professor at LaGrange College just an hour from Atlanta, recently wrote.

“From 2005 to 2021, there were an average of 5.1176 mass shootings per year, far more than the 1.6 from the [ban] years, and our year isn’t over yet,” Tures wrote. “And yes, the difference in means was statistically significant. Lumping the non-ban years with the ban years shows more mass shootings, on average, per year, during the years without an assault weapons ban, than during the years with [a ban].”

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called on the Senate to act on two previously approved House bills tightening background checks and eliminating the so-called “Charleston Loophole,” which allows the sale of a gun to continue even if a background check is not finished if three business days have passed.

Biden told lawmakers he knows Congress can pass an assault weapons ban, observing that “I got that done when I was a senator. It passed, it was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings.”

Biden also made similar promises during his campaign, when he pledged to ban the sale of automatic weapons and high capacity magazines. He also said he’d implement a program for owners of semi-automatics to either sell them to the government or register their weapons under the National Firearms Act.

During a news conference in Pennsylvania earlier this week, the Rev. Bob Birch, who ministered to congregations in two communities shattered by gun violence - Newtown, Conn., and Nickel Mines, Pa. - argued the moral case for action.

“All of those killed were my neighbors. I cannot be a neighbor to those killed and their families, if I do not seek justice,” he said. “If I am to follow the way of Christ … I must work to end the cycle of hurting.”

That’s the moral test our lawmakers have faced and failed again and again. Given the opportunity to end the cycle of hurting, they have chosen not to act.

What do we now? Where do we go next? We know the answer. It’s been there all along.

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.