Shunning the guns

After 26 people died in the horrible Newtown school shooting in Connecticut last month, many American politicians are seriously contemplating stricter gun control.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has signed the first gun control bill since the Newton tragedy, which strengthens the state’s existing assault weapons ban, limits the number of bullets allowed in magazines and fortifies rules that govern the mentally ill. New York already had the most stringent gun control laws, but following the appalling violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the state has passed what has been described as the toughest gun control laws of the country.

And there’s a possibility of similar federal action following suit. President Barack Obama has also proposed an assault weapons ban and better background checks for gun buyers on Wednesday, constituting a package to curb gun violence. The proposals will constitute executive and legislative measures and the latter are expected to be the subject of intense debate in the Congress.

While New York has successfully passed stricter gun control laws, doing this at the federal level will be a massive challenge. The ban on assault weapons, signed in 1994 by then-president Bill Clinton, expired in 2004, mainly due to the pressure exerted by the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA). While several proposals were subsequently floated to renew the ban, they became defunct before reaching the floor of the House.
And the Congress seems in no mood to renew the prohibition on assault ammunition even now. One of the reasons for that is the NRA’s influence over the legislative body. According to a report by USA TODAY, the NRA has spent $21 million to lobby Congress and federal agencies during the last decade — an amount that is ten times more than the one spent by America’s most prominent gun-control lobby, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. It’s no wonder that NRA President David Keene recently asserted with great confidence that there was little chance that the assault weapons ban would be renewed by the Congress.

" In American politics, guns have historically generated a deeply polarising debate, despite credible proof that the ease of procuring ammunition has a direct correlation with incidents of gun violence "

The NRA has, in fact, brazenly defied criticism that it has faced in recent times, by releasing a shooting video game on Sunday — just when Obama was expected to push for greater gun control. But following an outcry by liberal organisations, the NRA increased the recommended age limit of the limit to 12 and made it unsuitable for pre-schoolers. In American politics, guns have historically generated a deeply polarising debate, despite credible proof that the ease of procuring ammunition has a direct correlation with incidents of gun violence. The struggle to impose stricter control on guns will be a Herculean task for Obama, but given the rise in the incidence of tragic mass shooting in the US, it’s one definitely worth undertaking. Khaleej Times