The massacre in Newtown, Conn last December in which 20 first-graders and six staffers were murdered was a brutal wake-up call to our nation and the world.  In the wake of this tragedy millions of Americans called for an end to the madness, and President Obama and Vice President Biden promised to promulgate a comprehensive proposal to address our national epidemic of gun violence.  This past Thursday, standing amid 21 mothers who have lost children to shootings, our President urged our nation to pressure lawmakers to back what he calls the best chance in more than a decade to tame firearms violence.

Unfortunately, while political momentum favoring responsible gun control reached a crescendo in the weeks following the Newtown massacre, it has flagged as the Senate prepares to debate gun restrictions next month.

Quoting from an article in yesterday’s Daily Star:  “Thanks to widespread Republican resistance and a wariness by moderate Democrats from southern and western states – including six facing re-election next year – a proposed assault-weapons ban appears doomed and efforts to broaden background checks and ban high-capacity ammunition magazines are in question.”

At the heart of the Obama – Biden strategy is a proposal to expand federal background checks to private sales at gun shows and on-line sales.  While background checks are required when guns are purchased from licensed dealers, some 40 percent of all gun sales take place in “person to person” transactions conducted at gun shows and over the internet - where no background checks are required.

Recent polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of Americans favor requiring background checks for all gun sales; those favoring universal background checks include a majority of NRA members.

The National Rifle Association, however, staunchly opposes expanding the background check requirement.  The reason why the NRA is so vehemently opposed to expanded background checks is easy to decipher – all one needs to do is follow the money.  Rather than espousing the wishes of the majority of its membership, the NRA remains beholden to the gun manufacturers, from whom it receives the lion’s share of its support.  That being the case, it is not terribly surprising that the NRA leadership will not rest until every man, woman, child, dog and cat in this nation is “armed to the teeth”!

Upcoming Senate vote

Democratic sponsors within the Senate will most likely need a super-majority of 60 votes to prevail.   Why the super-majority requirement is being imposed is totally beyond me; that requirement, however, will pose a daunting hurdle since Democrats have just 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, plus two Democratic-leaning independents.   And sponsors of the expansion proposal cannot rest assured that all Democratic senators will back the proposal.  Witness the following quote from Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) earlier this week: “I do not need anyone from New York City to tell me how to handle crime in our state.  I know that we can go after and prosecute criminals without the need to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding North Dakotans.”

Open letter to Senators McCain and Flake

As polls repeatedly indicate that the majority of Americans favor background checks for ALL gun sales, it is difficult to fantom why this common-sense measure is in jeopardy of passing on the Senate floor.  In light of this reality,  we must implore all Senators to support its passage.  Toward that end I am sharing with you the following open letter to our two Arizona senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake:

Senator John McCain

Senator Jeff Flake

Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20002

Subject: Gun Background Checks

Dear Senators McCain and Flake:

Last December’s massacre in Newtown, Conn in which 20 first-graders and six staffers were murdered was a brutal wake-up call to our nation and the world.  In  the wake of this tragedy millions of Americans and governmental leaders at all levels are calling for decisive action to stem our nation’s epidemic of gun violence.

As you are  aware, our President’s proposal for universal background checks to apply to all gun sales is currently under debate in the Senate.  Recent polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of Americans favor universal background checks, a common sense measure that is totally in keeping with Second Amendment provisions concerning the right to bear arms.   Indeed, those supporting universal background checks include the majority of NRA members.

As Arizonans, we are still recovering from the tragic shooting in Tucson on the morning of January 8, 2011 that took the lives of six innocent people and injured 19 others.  We are deeply saddened that this senseless shooting cut short the political career of a brilliant Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, a highly effective and compassionate public servant  with a heartfelt commitment to reaching across the aisles to make things work.

Senators McCain and Flake, decency demands that we honor the victims of the Newtown and Tucson shootings and their families members, together with the 32,000 Americans who die each year due to gun-related violence and accidents.  In this spirit I urge you to lend your wholehearted support to passage of the Senate proposal for universal background checks applying to all gun sales.

Respectfully yours,

John Newport, PhD

Tucson, AZ

Author: The Tucson Tragedy: Lessons from the Senseless Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords

Tucson Citizen Columnist “Healing Tucson and Our Nation”

A call to action

Gaining senate approval is the necessary first step toward enacting the President’s proposal for universal gun sale background checks.  It is critically important that we do everything possible to gain the full support of this measure from our two Arizona senators.

Accordingly, I urge you to contact the offices of both senators TODAY urging them to support this vitally needed legislation.  If you wish to reference this column in your email, the link is  http://tucsoncitizen.com/healing-tucson/2013/03/30/gun-checks-an-open-letter-to-sens-mccain-flake/

Below is the contact information for both senators:

Senator John McCain, access email contact form via www.mccain.senate.gov

Senator Jeff Flake, access email contact form via www.flake.senate.gov

Let’s stand up and make our voices heard!

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Tuesday afternoon the Tucson City Council approved a measure requiring background checks at all gun shows held on city-owned or managed property.  The measure, co-sponsored by Councilman Steve Kozachik and Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, received a unanimous vote of support from all Council members.  This measure will effectively bar gun shows from the Tucson Convention Center, unless the operators agree that background checks will be conducted on individual gun sales.

Commenting on the measure’s passage, co-sponsor Karin Uhlich stated “The response to this measure has been overwhelmingly in support of reasonable, safe guns for the public.  It is very clear to me that Tucsonans want us to take any and every step that is within our power until there are safeguards in place and reasonable laws put in place [and enforced] at the national level.”

I strongly agree with the editorial in this morning’s Daily Star,  urging the county to follow suit and require gun-sale checks at all gun shows conducted on county-owned or managed property.  These measures are not treading on anyone’s second amendment rights.  To the contrary, they will simply impose a reasonable requirement for background checks for gun show sales,  to make it more difficult for felons and other persons legally barred from gun ownership to procure  these deadly weapons.

As year ago January I was appalled that the Crossroads organization, which operates gun shows throughout the west, held a widely-published gun show at the Pima County Fairgrounds on the very weekend that marked the first anniversary of the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others.  This massacre perpetrated by a deranged individual, which took the lives of 6 innocent people, in all likelihood cut short the political career of a brilliant, fair-minded and extremely dedicated public servant.   Again, I am appalled by the arrogance and insensitivity that the proprietor of this event demonstrated by staging a gun show in our community on the  first anniversary of that  horrific  event!

I personally believe that the greater majority of gun owners are responsible, law-abiding citizens who advocate both responsible  gun use and responsible, common sense restrictions to ownership of these deadly weapons.  Along these lines, it is interesting to note that the Associated Press recently reported a  survey of NRA members, whose findings  indicated that the majority of NRA members are in favor of background checks for all gun sales!

In closing, the City Council’s unanimous vote in favor of the background check requirement for all gun shows held on city-owned or managed property represents an important victory that all Tucsonans should rightfully be proud of.

WOW – I sure got raked over the coals on my latest post titled “NRA vows to sabotage federal gun control proposals”.  Fortunately I was able to extricate myself from the line of fire when my two key antagonists got into an extremely spirited battle with each other.

Returning briefly to the NRA, I applaud their pushing for measures to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, until the person desiring to purchase a gun is able to submit convincing evidence that he or she has been restored to an appropriate level of mental-emotional stability.  I remain, however, staunchly opposed to the NRA’s posture of intimidation in going all-out to block reinstatement of the federal ban on assault weapons.  As I stated in a recent post, the law banning assault weapons was passed in 1994 under the Clinton administration and expired in 2004 under the Bush administration, when supporters were unable to garner sufficient support to extend the ban.

OK now – what about my claim that the majority of Americans want strong gun controls?  The Associated Press issued a release carried in this morning’s papers that contained a sidebar summarizing findings of a recent Pew Research Center survey to assess the level of support for various gun control proposals.  The Pew Center is a highly credible opinion research organization and their report is based on findings of a poll of 1,502 adults conducted over January 9-13, 2013.

Findings of the Pew Center survey include:

• 85 percent of respondents support background checks for private and gun show sales.  (According to the Brady Committee, a full 40 percent of all gun sales take place either at gun shows or via the internet, and are currently exempted from background check requirements.)
• 80 percent believe that people with mental illness should be barred from purchasing guns.
• 58 percent support a ban on semi-automatic weapons, and 55 percent support a ban on assault-style weapons.
• 54 percent support bans on high-capacity ammunition clips, and 53 percent support a ban on on-line sales of ammunition.

Significantly, while 64 percent support presence of armed security guards or police in more schools, only 40 percent responded that they would like to see more teachers and school officials with guns in schools.  I suspect that many of these respondents might believe that serving as part-time guards may compromise the teacher’s primary role as an educator, and question whether teachers and school officials should be expected to put their lives on the line in the event of a threatened shooting.

Commentary

It is evident from these findings that in the heels of the recent Newtown tragedy, the greater majority of American are now in favor of strong gun control measures.  Members of both houses of Congress who may be timorous to buck the NRA on this issue should take heed to the desires of their constituents!  While the NRA clearly supports placing armed guards or police in schools, I suspect that they will be staunchly opposed to the other reform measures requiring Congressional approval covered in the Pew Center survey.  This obstructionist stance is clearly out of step with wishes the majority of Americans and, I suspect, a large proportion of the NRA’s own membership base.

I personally have mixed feeling regarding the NRA’s proposal to protect our children by placing armed guards or police in our schools.  I am OK with this, as long as costs of stationing these guards on campus do not come out of education budgets and are covered by other sources, such police or sheriff’s department budgets.  Lord know our country has fallen way behind many other industrialized nations concerning the quality of education in our public schools: we most definitely cannot afford any further teacher cutbacks!

The take-home here is that if we truly want our federal Representatives and Senators to support the strong gun control measures that our President unveiled earlier today, we must take very seriously the words of our President at this press conference: “I will put everything I’ve got into this and so will Joe [Biden], but I tell you the only way we can change is if the American people demand it!”

Tuesday, January 8 marks the second anniversary of the brutal shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others by Jared Lee Loughner.  Six innocent victims were mercilessly slain that day, including Dorwan Stoddard, Gabe Zimmerman and Judge John Roll, who died as a consequence of their heroic action to save other’s lives.

Just three weeks ago on December 14 our entire nation went into shock as we witnessed the ghastly slaying of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut by 20-year old Adam Lanza.  The morning of the shooting he shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, who kept an arsenal of guns in her home, before heading off to Shady Hook Elementary School to massacre 20 six and seven year old students and six staff members.  The slain staff were Dawn Hochsprung, principal; Mary Scherlach, school psychologist; Rachel D’Avivo, a behavioral therapist; and three teachers – Anne Marie Murphy, Lauren Rousseau and Victoria Soto.  In a valiant final act of courage, Victoria Sota, a first-grade teacher, gathered her students together and hid them in a closet as the shooter approached her classroom.  Anne Marie Murphy, a special ed teacher, died shielding the bodies of the students she loved.

Once again our nation stood in shock and disbelief in the wake of yet another senseless massacre.

The tide is shifting

For decades the NRA, arguably the nation’s most powerful lobbying group, has held both houses of Congress hostage in charging forward with its extreme pro-gun agenda.  Among other things they have successfully blocked reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.  Indeed, many lawmakers from both parties toe the line with the NRA as they view that organization’s support as constituting the difference between winning and losing.  In recent years this has particularly applied to Democrats seeking election in relatively conservative districts.

Since the Newtown, Connecticut massacre many political observers perceive that the balance of power appears to be shifting.  Democrats are vocally pushing for change and many Republicans are now hesitant to speak out against gun control.  Locally here in Tucson Steve Kozachik, a Republican member of the City Council, has pulled together with the cooperation of the Safeway Corporation a gun buy-back by the Tucson Police Department, to be held on January 8.

Days after the Newtown tragedy, President Obama announced that he had appointed Vice President Biden to lead a team charged with fast-tracking specific legislation designed to stem our nation’s epidemic of gun violence.  Biden has been directed to deliver his recommendations in January and the President has pledged to move to swiftly enact them.

Specifically, Obama has cited the need to ban the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, and to close existing loopholes that permit persons to purchase guns at gun shows without background checks.

Currently 40 percent of guns are sold by so-called private sellers and the buyers are consequently exempt from background checks under federal law.  And speaking of gun shows, were you aware that last January while the rest of Tucson was mourning the first anniversary of the brutal shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, a proprietary organization named Crossroads held a very well attended gun show at the Pima County fairgrounds!

On December 17 New York City Major Michael Bloomberg held a press conference, flanked by dozens of shooting survivors and relatives of victims of gunfire around the country.  Tucsonans actively participating in this conference included Pam Simon, former staff member for Congresswoman Giffords who was seriously wounded in the January 8, 2011 shooting; Roxanna Green, mother of Christina Taylor-Green, the youngest victim in the Giffords shooting; Mary Reed, also wounded on January 8; Patricia Maisch, who kept the shooter from reloading; and Nancy Bowman, a nurse on the scene who gave lifesaving aid to those who had been shot.

Bloomberg convened this conference as co-founder of “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”, a group that is now 700 members strong.  The conference featured a roll-out of the “Demand A Plan” videos, produced by the mayors’ group, which features testimony by 34 people around the country who have been intimately affected by gun violence.  The take-home from the conference was an unequivocal call by Bloomberg and his entourage to our President and both houses of Congress for immediate decisive action to produce tougher gun laws combined with tighter enforcement.

The December 23 edition of the Daily Star carried an insightful opinion piece by Roberto A. Villasenor, Tucson Chief of Police, titled “We are all responsible for our violent society”.  He stresses that we all need to take responsibility for the violent society we have developed: we must address the issues of violence in the media and entertainment industry, evaluate how the mentally ill seem to have such unrestricted access to weapons in our society, and enact and strictly enforce truly responsible gun control measures.

Another telling sign of growing support for responsible gun control is provided by results of a recent Washington Post-ABC New poll conducted shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre.  Survey findings indicate that for the first time since 2007 significantly more people strongly favor stricter gun control laws (44 percent) than strongly oppose such laws (32 percent).  Yes, a number of signs indicate that the recent Connecticut tragedy appears to have precipitated a major shift in which growing numbers of Americans are demanding that our nation’s leaders enact and enforce truly responsible and effective gun control measures.

Licensing gun owners

For the past five years the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has issued a 100-point scorecard ranking all 50 states on the basis of laws that can reduce gun violence, such as background checks on all gun sales, permit-to-purchase requirements and  mandatory reporting of all thefts of firearms.

The six top ranking states, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Hawaii registered scores ranging from 81 to 50, respectively.  The three lowest ranking states, Arizona, Alaska and Utah each registered “0” (zero) scores.  The 2011 Brady Report also cites that the 31 states with the weakest gun laws export guns used in crime at a rate 9 times higher than the states with the strongest laws.

All of this points to the case for mandatory licensure of gun owners.  While mass carnage such as the recent Sandy Hook massacre makes for screaming headlines that compel us to pause for sober reflection, are you aware that every day in America 34 people are murdered with guns?  That is equivalent to one major massacre every day!

Another sobering set of statistics:  Currently 36,000 American die each year as a result of motor vehicle accidents.  Running closely behind are deaths due to firearms, which total 31,000 annually.  The majority of these gun-related deaths (55.6 percent) are suicides, with homicides making up 40.5 percent of the remaining deaths.

While every state has stringent regulations pertaining to licensure of motor vehicle drivers, very few states require licensure of gun owners.

In New York State a license to carry or possess a pistol or revolver is required to purchase a handgun.  In Westchester County, just north of New York City, an applicant is required to complete a firearms safety course and pass a test as a condition for licensure.  And throughout the entire state an investigation is conducted regarding all statements required in the application.  This includes fingerprinting the applicant and forwarding the prints to the FBI for a criminal background check.  I am, however, unaware of any stipulations in the current New York State licensure requirements calling for a background check pertaining to the applicant’s mental status.

My proposal:

I strongly advocate mandatory licensure of gun owners, that would require each prospective owner to attend an approved gun safety class, including hands-on firearms training, and education as to the deadly nature of firearms, particularly in the hands of persons prone to depression and/or domestic violence.  Furthermore, requirements for licensure should include a written examination regarding gun safety, together with clearance concerning one’s fitness to bear arms.  The latter should be based on a criminal background check combined with a review of information provided by a comprehensive data base that would enable at least a rudimentary assessment of the applicant’s fitness for gun ownership, based on available indications concerning his or her mental stability.

What would motivate states to enact the licensure requirements I am proposing?  I would urge that a leading edge organization that advocates responsible gun control – such as the Brady Campaign or Mayors Against Illegal Guns – draft model licensure legislation and exert its influence to rally our citizenry and lawmakers in the various states to enact this legislation.  Concurrently, the federal government should assume a leadership role in developing and implementing a comprehensive database to provide a basis for responsible assessment of an applicant’s fitness for gun ownership.  This assessment should include a review of the applicant’s criminal record and available indications concerning his or her mental stability.

While not presenting a perfect solution, I believe that implementation of the above recommendations would go a long way toward striking a reasonable balance between maintaining citizens’ second amendment rights and promoting responsible ownership and use of firearms.