A Civic Take: Where Are All the Big Ideas to Prevent Gun Violence?
Over two nights last week, 20 Democratic presidential candidates discussed some big ideas — Medicare For All, Free College for All, and a Green New Deal — showing us that Dems are ready to think big when it comes to many of the problems we face as a country. But when it came to guns, most Dems opted to nibble around the edges. We need to demand a solution at the scale of the problem, just like we do with healthcare, education, and climate change.
Here’s the thing: regulation of firearms is no longer a controversial issue. The NRA, once a powerful and indomitable political force, is mired in an internal conflict that may very well spell the end of their fixture in American politics. In my home state of Washington, we’ve seen their political contributions go from the most of any state in the union in 2016 to a big goose egg in 2018.
Last year, I ran the only initiative campaign in the country to pass a gun violence prevention on the ballot. Yesterday, that initiative became law. It was the most ambitious and comprehensive package of laws addressing gun violence in our state’s history, and it passed with almost 60% of the vote.
So, my message to Democrats is pretty simple: We’re winning. Let’s run the table and go big.
A supermajority of American voters now support the full litany of gun violence prevention measures being promoted — from background checks to extreme risk protection orders and enhanced regulations on assault weapons. What do you call a proposal that 60% or more of people support? Not radical, that’s for sure.
The gun violence epidemic in America is a massive public health crisis, and we need our leaders to treat it that way. This means big ideas that get at the root of the problem, not tinkering around the edges in ways that only marginally reduce gun violence in this country. It also means actually knowing something about guns.
This may sound like a duh statement, but some Democratic candidates consistently make comments that have me feeling like I need to say that out loud. Bernie Sanders, in an interview with the New York Times, said that he supports banning all fully automatic assault weapons. Well whoopee for you Bernie, fully automatic assault weapons are already illegal in the US, so I guess your work here is done! If you’re going to say you support an assault weapons ban, I need you to be able to tell me what you actually mean by that. Otherwise, it just sounds like you’re pandering because you know this is a popular issue.
In the debates, Joe Biden touted his record on gun legislation, bragging that he’s the guy that banned multiple clips on a gun. One problem with that Joe, not only do guns not have multiple clips, they don’t have any clips at all. Here in the 21st century, guns have magazines. We expect candidates to have a high-level, nuanced understanding of issues like climate change, the economy, and healthcare, but we seem fine with them throwing out meaningless phrases on guns and dancing around the edges of actual solutions.
Cory Booker was the only candidate to even mention a gun licensing program, which research shows is one of the best ways to reduce gun deaths. States that have instituted gun licensing laws have seen their gun deaths decrease dramatically. Connecticut saw a 40% decrease in firearm homicides and a 15% decrease in firearm suicides. Conversely, when Missouri repealed their licensing laws, they saw a 25% increase in firearm homicides and a 16% increase in firearm suicides.
Not only do licensing laws work, they are also wildly popular. In 2019, 77% of Americans, including 68% of gun owners, support laws requiring a person to obtain a license to buy a firearm.
Moreover, it’s not like we need to reinvent the wheel here. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia all have some version of a gun licensing law. That’s fourteen examples of what works when it comes to preventing gun violence, which is more than we can say for Healthcare For All or the Green New Deal.
It’s rare that the biggest, best ideas already have decades of pre-existing case studies supporting them. All we need to do here is look at what has worked best to keep people safe and enact it nationally.
