Guns: What now, what next, then what?
Everything has been said, but not everyone has said it. My thoughts on the gun debate are not entirely original, but hopefully helpful.
The first thing to note about the outrage after most recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo and elsewhere that the debate isn’t new. As a high school student in the early 1980s I had a “ban handguns” button on my knapsack. In college I phone banked for Handgun Control, Inc. Congressman Sam Coppersmith’s (D-AZ) district office, in which I worked, was marched on by armed protesters after Coppersmith voted for the Brady Bill. I was a chief of staff in the US House when a gunman stormed into the US Capitol and shot and killed two Capitol Police officers, and was still there when Columbine happened a year later. The evening of the Sandy Hook shootings I was at an event at the White House. I was at the first national conference for Americans for Gun Safety, which became Third Way. Somewhere in there I was a guest on White House Chronicle arguing that in the wake of the most recent mass shooting public outcry would pass, but new legislation wouldn’t. Unfortunately, I was right. Here’s how I can be wrong this time.
Gun laws are public policy. Gun policy won’t change until policymakers change. Advocates need to change policymakers.
