Read: Ronald Reagan’s 1991 Call for More Gun Control
German Lopez, Vox: Read: Ronald Reagan’s 1991 Call for More Gun Control
Reagan, who was himself a shooting victim during his time in office, wrote:
It was on that day 10 years ago that a deranged young man standing among reporters and photographers shot a policeman, a Secret Service agent, my press secretary and me on a Washington sidewalk. …
[F]our lives were changed forever, and all by a Saturday-night special — a cheaply made .22 caliber pistol — purchased in a Dallas pawnshop by a young man with a history of mental disturbance.
This nightmare might never have happened if legislation that is before Congress now — the Brady bill — had been law back in 1981.
Even when background checks are necessary under the law, it’s entirely possible that they won’t be completed in the three days given to law enforcement — because the background check system is notoriously underfunded. This has seemingly led to deaths in devastating cases: According to the New York Times, mass shooters in Charleston, South Carolina, and Binghamton, New York, managed to obtain guns despite red flags in their history, because federal background checks weren’t adequately completed in time.
But the Senate, through a mostly Republican filibuster, blocked even a modest bill in 2013 that would have provided the background check system with more funding and closed some loopholes. As a result, many guns in the US are bought without a background check — despite Reagan’s plea to make sure this kind of thing can’t happen anymore.
That is the GOP today: crippling enforcement of a law that Saint Ronald himself endorsed, while at the same time complaining we don’t need new laws, we just need to enforce current laws (which they make sure can’t be enforced).