There is no Second Amendment obstacle to a ban on assault weapons or large capacity magazines

How many mass shootings must there be and how many people must die before this country adopts meaningful gun control?

The killings in Boulder and Atlanta — the latest massacres committed with guns — should be the motivation for Congress to finally act. Nearly 40,000 people a year die in the United States from gun violence, according to CDC data from 2019. There is no constitutional obstacle to gun control. Yet no one realistically believes that action will be taken now any more than after all of the other gun-related tragedies in America.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill to close loopholes for background checks before people can acquire guns. The bill would extend federal background check rules to transfers by unlicensed sellers at venues like gun shows and on the internet, which currently occur without checks in some states. Polls have shown that over 90% of Americans favor such legislation.

Such bills have passed in the House of Representatives before, only to die in the Senate. In 2018, after the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the House passed bills extending background checks to private sales and extending the time limit to conduct background checks on gun purchasers. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the bills from coming to a vote.

The Democrats being in control of the Senate isn’t going to be enough. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he opposes the House bill because it does not have enough exemptions. Besides, a certain Republican filibuster means that 60 votes would be needed to pass the House Bill and that is not going to happen.

Another essential change is to ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines — weapons that serve no purpose except to shoot a large number of people in a short period of time. In September 1994, Congress adopted a ban on such weapons, but it applied only to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban’s enactment and the law expired after 10 years. There have been many efforts to reinstitute it, but none have passed Congress. Opinion polls show that over 70% of people favor such a prohibition, and it has been urged by President Biden. But no one thinks it realistically will be adopted.

State and local governments can adopt gun control laws too, but often the same political forces that are present at the national level thwart such efforts. In fact, in 2018, after the Parkland, Florida shooting, Boulder’s city council in Colorado unanimous passed an ordinance banning the sale and possession of assault weapons, high capacity magazines and bump stock devices. Earlier this month, a state court judge, acting on a lawsuit filed by gun rights activists, invalidated the Boulder ordinance on the ground that it was preempted by Colorado law.

Unjustified myths help to thwart gun control. One myth is that gun control efforts don’t work, but statistics disprove that claim. Every other developed country in the world has dramatically fewer guns and dramatically fewer gun deaths. Americans are 4.4% of the world’s population and own 42% of the world’s guns. States with stricter guns laws — like Illinois, Iowa and New York — also have fewer gun deaths.

Another myth is that gun control violates the Second Amendment. Only once in American history has the Supreme Court struck down a gun control law. In 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court invalidated a 35-year-old District of Columbia ordinance that prohibited ownership or possession of handguns. The Court held that there is a right to have guns in the home for the sake of security.

But the Court was explicit that the Second Amendment is not absolute. The Court explained that the government can regulate who has guns, such as by prohibiting firearm ownership by those with criminal records or a history of serious mental illness. In other words, background checks and licensing are constitutional. Additionally, the Court said the government can regulate the type of weapons people can possess. There is no Second Amendment obstacle to a ban on assault weapons or large capacity magazines.

We watch with horror time after time when a gunman goes on a rampage in a store or a school or a hotel or a business. We know that it could be any of us or our loved ones who has the bad luck of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But we allow our politicians to do nothing year after year.