Gun Control Legislation: Hold the Applause
After three weeks of negotiations, a group of senators today announced agreement on gun control legislation. The Democrats and Republicans are touting the accomplishment, although neither assault weapons nor the killers who purchase and use them will face any bans. The senators, of course, deserve a round of applause. But it's worth considering the price of their accomplishment as the carnage has continued while they were doing their deal.
One of the reasons why the real problem—controlling the hardware in the hands of adolescents and others now flying out gun shop doors—wasn’t on the negotiating table is simple: the death and injury from mass shootings wasn’t on the front page. Unlike the news about Uvalde Texas where 22 died and 17 were injured in the mass shooting at an elementary school, reporting is meager on how much the nation’s tally of dead and wounded from mass shootings has continued to rise.
More blood will spill before this bill becomes a law. Indeed, in horse-racing parlance, the proposed legislation—among other things, to add mental health resources, expand teenagers’ background checks, protect domestic abuse victims, and crack down on straw purchasers—is still in the backstretch. As a GOP aide told the Wall Street Journal, it’s “an agreement on principles, not a legislative text.” Adding the fine print and putting money behind its words will take weeks. It's not just about legislators’ time. There’s also the price in lives.
In the 18 days since the Uvalde massacre on May 24th, the country has experienced 47 mass shootings, defined as an event involving four people or more, not including the shooter. The total casualties: 54 killed and 200 wounded. While the events span 20 states, or 40 percent of the country, most Americans haven’t a clue about the toll. The reason: the vast majority of episodes only make local news and then, like other stories, disappear from print, the news feed in your palm, and the living room screen.
Does keeping a tab on these horrors in the news media make sense? Consider the sum of dead and wounded likely to accumulate from mass shootings—since Uvalde, on average 2.6 per day, each with one death and five wounded—as the negotiations to draw up a new gun control law move forward. Congress will recess on August 8th or 56 days from now. It’s not unrealistic to suggest given the contentious history of gun legislation that’s when a bill could well appear for a final vote, if it appears at all.
The math tells the story: 145 more mass shootings totaling 56 dead and 280 wounded. A daily scorecard? Americans just might want to know the price of this “breakthrough legislation”—as the Washington Post headlined on Sunday—that doesn’t take a single assault rifle off the street.
Keep an eye out for “In the National Interest” on Mediavillage.com this week for more on the news, guns and what people need to know.