Bill Straub: Disregarding the facts, Republicans still unwilling to address gun violence seriously

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday of this week, President Obama signed a modest set of executive orders designed to reduce gun violence by, among other things, requiring anyone who sells firearms to obtain a license and conduct background checks on everyone making a purchase.

He also took steps to keep arms out of the hands of the mentally ill, something that obviously should have been done long ago were Congress not cowed by groups like the National Rifle Association.

There’s little question the president would have preferred to do more – the small steps will likely do little over the long haul to stop the ongoing carnage – but his hands are understandably and correctly tied by the Constitution. Regardless, if his actions save only a handful of lives the effort will prove worthy.

Obama moved in face of more than 330 mass shootings that plagued the United States in 2015 – almost one per day – according to the Gun Violence Archive, which also reported 52,607 gun-related incidents nationally over the same period.

“The United States of America is not the only country on Earth with violent or dangerous people,’’ Obama said in announcing his plan. “We are not inherently more prone to violence.  But we are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence erupt with this kind of frequency.  It doesn’t happen in other advanced countries.  It’s not even close.  And as I’ve said before, somehow we’ve become numb to it and we start thinking that this is normal.’’

Among those who apparently consider these mass shootings as normal, display indifference to the more than 30,000 Americans who are killed as a result of gunshots every year and see it as a cost of doing business are most members of the Kentucky congressional delegation, the lone wolf being Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, the only Democrat representing the commonwealth in Washington.

Over the past few years, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, and other members of his GOP flock have rendered it more difficult for public health experts to conduct research into gun violence and make it harder to collect data that could be used to develop strategies to address gun violence.

Even after the tragic shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California last December, resulting in 14 deaths and 17 serious injuries, they refused to take the necessary action to make it harder for terrorists to purchase semi-automatic weapons. 

And now, of course, the sky is falling because the president is taking reasonable actions in hopes of limiting future tragedies.

In a weak response even by his low standards, McConnell asserted, “At a time when the American people are looking to the Commander in Chief to provide real leadership in countering terrorist threats from ISIL and Al Qaeda, what Americans seem to get instead are lectures, distractions, and attempts to undermine their fundamental Second Amendment rights,’’ as if battling terrorism and protecting the citizenry from getting its guts constantly shot out were mutually exclusive propositions.

And of course there’s old reliable, the Whiz Kid, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, who offered up this canard, one of the greatest hits in the gun nuts quiver, in an op-ed that appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: “Unfortunately, gun control advocates never acknowledge that criminals and terrorists by definition have no respect for the law. Therefore, passage of stringent gun control measures only disarms and punishes honest, law-abiding citizens.’’

Of course, as should be obvious by now, the president’s executive orders empower no one, not the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, not the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not no one not no how, to confiscate anyone’s guns, stop any qualified individual from purchasing a gun or permitting a citizen from keeping a gun in his or her home. The administration is simply saying if you sell guns you need to get a license and perform a background check.

Simple.

But of course such a common sense notion requires a smokescreen from the likes of Massie, who seems to take great pride in being the nuttiest of the congressional gun nuts, a veritable tool of the weapons lobby. He has a bumper sticker on his 1993 Mustang that reads, “If you know how many guns you own THEN YOU DON’T HAVE ENOUGH.’’ The Whiz Kid has sponsored legislation to repeal the Gun Free Zones Act of 1990, which keeps firearms not only out of schools but out of the vicinity of same, explaining that “gun violence almost ALWAYS occurs in so called gun free zones. I say ‘so called’ because only criminals can bring guns into those areas.’’

That assertion is provably untrue since most mass shootings are a result of domestic disputes, taking place in private residences, often involving a husband, a wife, their children and any other unfortunate who happens to be hanging around.

But the Whiz Kid continues: “A bigger federal government can’t solve this problem. Weapons bans and gun-free zones are unconstitutional. They do not and cannot prevent criminals or the mentally ill from committing acts of violence. But they often prevent victims of such violence from protecting themselves.’’

Good lord, when are these gun myths ever going to end? The Supreme Court did indeed hold that the original Gun Free School Zones Act, sponsored by Vice President Joe Biden when he was a senator from Delaware, by the way, was unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause. The law was amended to address the deficiency. It has not been addressed by the high court but it has been reviewed and upheld by several United States Circuit Courts since the changes were adopted.

The U.S. Supreme Court has, indeed, upheld the right to bear arms under the Constitution. It also has expressly stated that such a right doesn’t prohibit the imposition of reasonable restrictions. The state of New York, which has experienced a relatively low level of gun homicides compared to the rest of the nation, has laws requiring gun owners to obtain permits and has banned the sale and possession of assault weapons.

And the fact that the number of children under 18 killed by firearms over the last decade certainly indicates that the number of fatal accidents or attacks involving guns outweighs any protection claim. The number of children aged 11 or younger killed by gunshots in 2015 reached 692. The number of teens killed or injured was 2688.

Massie and McConnell are not alone. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Mayfield, who is retiring after the 114th Congress – to be replaced, no doubt, by an equally gun happy lawmaker — said the president’s orders represent “yet another example of his disregard for the Constitution. This president’s consistent pattern of executive overreach is shameful, but not surprising based on his past seven years of failed leadership.’’

And blah, blah blah.

The facts don’t lie. The most recent statistics show that Alaska, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Wyoming and Montana sport the highest per capita gun death rates in the nation. Each of these states have extremely lax gun violence prevention laws as well as a comparatively high rate of gun ownership. Meanwhile, the six states with the lowest rates of gun-related deaths in 2013 were Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey, who maintain relatively strict gun policies.

States with the most gun laws experience the fewest gun related deaths.

Meanwhile, the United States offers more guns per resident, at around 0.89, than any other nation in the world. The U.S. possesses better than 50 percent more firearms per capita than the next two highest nations, Serbia and Yemen.

“So the gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage,’’ Obama said in signing his orders. “We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom.’’

Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.