In Uvalde, Texas, a teenager wielding a semi-automatic
rifle killed 19 students and two teachers in Buffalo,
New York. A white supremacist shot and killed
ten people at a grocery store.
Shortly after the initial shock and grief, renewed
momentum for gun safety picked up steam in
Washington, D.C.
before.
We have not seen this type of bipartisan type of coming
together to push this legislation in decades.
Recent mass shootings have mobilized gun safety
advocates, but their efforts did not result in
meaningful legislation.
Now, with a new gun safety bill signed by President
Biden, the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo may have
spurred the most meaningful changes to firearms laws in
decades.
All of us who have met with survivors in the wake of the
tragedies have heard their message loud and clear.
We must do something.
That's not stopping backlash from Second Amendment
advocates. Today they are coming.
After Americans, law abiding American citizens, Second
Amendment.
Liberties. A lot of people have AR 15 that's used for
for sporting events, for sporting activities all the
time. That's pretty common.
In a recent Supreme Court case, could have a huge
impact on concealed carry laws.
This decision has made every single one of us less safe.
From gun violence.
With so much changing, can the gun industry survive a
polarized nation?
And what is the future of guns in America?
Recent mass shootings in Texas and New York have been
carried out by semi-automatic rifles, which
means they have a higher rate of fire.
And they also can have larger magazines, which
allows for more ammunition, which means more people can
be killed or wounded in a shorter time span.
Semi-automatic weapons and these large magazines can
kill a lot of people before a good guy ever arrives.
Not all think that the weapons used are at the root
of the problem.
I know this is sort of grotesque and uncomfortable
to think about, but when you give an individual who
is bent on violence 78 minutes to barricade himself
in a room with fourth graders, it doesn't matter
what his magazine capacity is, it doesn't matter
whether he has a shotgun or a revolver or a
semiautomatic rifle without a pistol grip.
At that point, you are going to see horrific
carnage and the failures come before that.
Gun safety proponents hope that by breaking down and
fixing certain problems with gun ownership, that
some issues can be addressed politically.
What do you think is the main cause of gun or the
main category of gun deaths in America?
Suicide. And the biggest chunk of the murder is 90%
of the murders. It's mostly gang and gang violence in
the cities that we have mass shootings, we have
accidents, and we have other things like domestic
abuse situations.
But the idea now is to take each of those different
problems and each of those require some different
solutions.
Meanwhile, the evolving technology of guns since the
founding of the nation, which now fire quicker, have
more powerful bullets and are much easier to use, have
run into the political realities of the modern
United States.
Predominantly, most Republican lawmakers are
hesitant to pass new legislation, which could be
seen as curtailing gun rights.
Nationally, there tends to be little movement on major
bills because of this that could be changing with the
Safer Communities Act.
This bipartisan bill passed in both the Senate, in the
House and signed by President Biden will create
tougher background checks for gun buyers who are 21
and under. It will close the so called boyfriend
loophole restricting gun purchases by domestic
abusers. It will also fund mental health initiatives,
grants to assist red flag laws and moves to increase
school safety.
I think for those in the movement who have longed for
change, the idea that we could get ten Republican
senators to endorse any kind of package is a big
deal. And we should celebrate that.
That some parts are very promising, other parts
perhaps less so.
I also think it falls short of both what what President
Biden was was hoping for, but also falls short of what
we might, as researchers say, is is the best case
scenario, which might be closing the private sale
background check loophole and perhaps trying to
implement a licensing system for purchasers.
In some Democrat controlled states.
New pushes to increase gun safety are resulting in
legislation in Republican majority states.
It appears unlikely that any new legislation that
puts new restrictions on guns could gain traction.
States are an incubator for this issue, and of course
you're going to see things moving forward and things
moving back. When I look at the landscape in the States,
though, it's much more advancement for gun safety
than Byzantine laws that make us all less safe.
They're not actually getting at any root causes, and they
all have very serious constitutional concerns.
When you look at raising the minimum age for gun
purchase or possession to individuals who are 21.
You're dealing with a fundamental right of
citizenship and a segment of the population that, for
all other intents and purposes, are legal adults.
18 to 20 year olds vote.
They serve on juries.
One final hurdle for national legislation is the
Supreme Court. The conservative wing of the
court currently holds a 6-3 majority and will for years
to come. This also presents a problem for states that
try to pass gun control legislation as these laws
can be challenged in court and eventually struck down
as unconstitutional.
In the last three months, the stocks of Ruger and
Smith and Wesson, two publicly traded companies
that make firearms, have had mixed success.
They've begun to bounce back since the Supreme Court
ruling that overturned New York state concealed carry
rules. Stock prices for these same companies have
seen constant gains over the past several years,
despite the growing number of mass shootings like the
one in Las Vegas that left 60 dead and more than 400
injured in 2017.
One point of contention in the gun debate is the amount
of liability that these companies should hold.
In California, for example, some lawmakers are calling
for gun owners to hold liability insurance.
Other states have their own proposals.
Delaware, that is thinking about removing the
restriction on suing the gun industry for its
products.
So this goes back to to their 2004, 2005 law called
the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
And again, I think there's a lot of misunderstandings
about what this law does.
It is not some broad sweeping immunity for gun
manufacturers or sellers.
What it does that is at its core is say you cannot try
to sue gun manufacturers and sellers who legally sell
their firearms in compliance with state and
federal laws. You can't sue them for damages that that
occur after someone somewhere down the line
takes that firearm and uses it illegally to harm others.
If there's so many things which are dangerous to
society. The tobacco industry went through that.
Other industries, you know, at the very least civilly,
you know, they should have to pay the the cost of what
their products are inflicting on our society if
they want to make money off this.
There's two sides to that equation. So they should
have to pay the cost as well.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has ruled on a case out of
New York that could have ramifications for concealed
carry throughout the US.
In light of today's ruling by the United States Supreme
Court in this case, we cannot idly stand by and
just watch our streets be flooded with guns due to
more people being permitted to legally carry firearms in
public.
So I think this is just going to be the court
telling these minority of states, look, it's time the
Constitution demands this.
You've got to sort of get get on board with this
constitutional framework.
There are many state laws that are in place now that
might be challenged and many new ideas, new policy
proposals might have to overcome another hurdle
before they're passed.