A school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has led to renewed calls for gun control measures. But common obstacles – and some new ones — will make any change difficult.
Nearly ten years after a young man shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Primary School in Newtown, Connecticut, a similar tragedy occurred at Uvalde Primary School in Texas.
Sandy Hook’s shooting caused a national uprising and led to emotional outrage at US President Barack Obama. But efforts to advance the gun control law in Congress have stalled.
Now, following the deaths of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, there are similar calls for national politicians to take action. President Joe Biden joined Mr Obama in calling for change.
“Why are we willing to live with this catastrophe?” he said. “Why do we keep allowing this to happen? Where in the name of God is our backbone so that we may have the courage to face it and fight against lobbies?”
While Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the presidency in this regard, efforts to pass new gun control laws face similar challenges – and new ones that may be even more difficult.
Here’s a look at some of the potential lessons and obstacles they will have to overcome.
Old roadblocks in the ANC
In the weeks following Sandy Hook, most US senators have passed a law that would require an extension of the background test in order to purchase firearms. Because of the filibuster – a parliamentary process that requires at least 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to pass more laws – a simple majority was not enough, however.
Today, only a handful of 50 Republican senators today seem to be open to a new gun law, suggesting that any new efforts will meet the same end.
That did not stop Democrats from considering new proposals and promised to work with Republicans to get whatever they agreed upon.
“I think it’s a little too much hope, too little, too little,” Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer said of a successful revolution on Thursday. “We’ve burned many times before.”
To date, the only Republican-sponsored contribution has been to create national data safety measures for schools.
Negotiations for further action have begun, however, with a number of Republicans participating. Properly supported proposals include “red” legislation that could prevent mentally ill or criminal individuals from buying firearms and extended background checks on firearms buyers that could include confidential gun sales.
American gun culture – on seven charts Although polls show that the majority of Americans support such efforts, most Republican senators represent regions with large communities that support guns. And Republican voters who need their support to win the general election (the electoral process within each party) are even more opposed to change. So unless emotions change within that region, Republicans are less likely to change course.
And even if the proposed law is passed, it may be an incomplete solution. There is a mass shooting of red flag laws and background checks that have not stopped you – and they will do nothing to reduce the 393 million guns currently in the US.
Countries press forward
Although the ANC’s efforts were thwarted in 2015, gun control activists have made great strides in passing new laws at the state level.
In Connecticut, for example, there has been widespread support for reforms from communities that were shaken by the brutal Sandy Hook attacks. Some democratically controlled states – such as New York, Maryland and California – passed their own laws, closed down gun display openings, restricted magazine sizes, and banned the sale of certain types of guns.
In Vermont in 2018, after a shootout was foiled, Republican Governor Phil Scott resigned from his post and worked with Democrats to pass a new law in the region that used to deal with firearms. The law, which includes raising the age of buying a gun to 21, reducing magazine sizes and requiring new background checks, has angered many of his former right-wing fans. He easily won the re-election in 2018, however.
A Republican who changed his mind about guns But the majority of political parties that need to pass gun control laws have already done so. And in many Republican-controlled provinces, the pressure on the gun issue is aimed at less control, not more. In April, Georgia became the 25th region – the whole of the Republic – to allow its citizens to carry concealed firearms without a license from the government.
Democrats in those provinces, frustrated by a lack of action, may point to the Uvalde massacre as a reason for doing something. Former congressman Beto O’Rourke, a member of the Democratic Alliance running for the state of Texas in November, expressed the outrage that many left-wing members felt in the old provinces when he faced Republican Governor Greg Abbott at a press conference in Uvalde on Wednesday.
“It’s time to stop the next shot now, and do nothing,” he shouted, before being harassed by the Republicans on stage and taken out of the building.
Mr O’Rourke spoke to reporters after the event and listed arms embargoes, international inspections, red flag laws and safe gun control laws as steps his government could take in the aftermath of the attack.
While many of those offers have popular support, everything will be harder to get through in Texas. The most likely response would be an increase in funding for law enforcement and school safety measures, such as a call by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to provide additional firearms to teachers.
Courts are another battleground Whether political figures change in the ANC or in states such as Texas that have been reluctant or completely opposed to gun control laws, there is a growing and growing obstacle to any reform efforts – the courts.