[Disclosure: I am a consultant for Democracy for America]
Longtime readers know that I have never used this page to advocate for tighter handgun control. I think if you go back and read my reactions to the mass gun killings that have happened over the years I’ve been writing on the blog, you will probably see that I supported the ban on assault rifles and bans on large ammunition clips. But, as a general matter, I have not supported the strict handgun laws associated with New York City and Washington DC. My main rationale is that we have a lot of urban neighborhoods where the police are simply incapable of protecting people in their homes or apartments, and as long as our cities are shooting ranges, people need to have the right to own a handgun for personal protection.
I also think federal gun laws are difficult to construct in ways that are equally appropriate in a city and in rural areas of our country. It’s even difficult for most states to create uniform standards.
On Saturday, I asked if people had changed their minds about the “politics of guns” since the shootings in Connecticut. I asked because my views had changed. But note that I asked about the politics, not the guns by themselves. There are a lot of things that concern me but that I don’t devote a whole lot of energy to because I know that there is no political will to address them. Prison reform and the war on drugs and Guantanamo fit into this category. That’s where gun control resided on my radar last Thursday. I was more concerned about the routine violence in our cities than the occasional massacre. But I wasn’t even on board with the classic liberal solutions to gun violence in our cities because I saw them as basically ineffectual as well as being a political dead end.
I haven’t changed my mind about everything, but I definitely feel differently now about the politics. I’ve heard the president’s call to action. For starters, we need to restore the Assault Weapons Ban. If you agree with me, please sign this petition. I think we can do it.
It won’t be easy, just look at the comments in this piece about my Saturday post. There are a lot of people who simply refuse to recognize that semiautomatic weapons present an unacceptable danger and should not be legal.
Some of those commenters assumed that I am only trying to take advantage of a tragedy to pursue a pre-existing agenda. That’s not true. The Assault Weapons Ban has never been high on my agenda, and I haven’t been much of an advocate for gun control of any type.
The Newtown Massacre changed some of my views; it changed my priorities, and it changed what I think is possible. I agree with the president. We can’t accept that we are powerless to stop these massacres. We have to change, and that starts with me.
