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Congress vs. the States on Guns
Last edited Wed Jun 22, 2016, 12:25 PM - Edit history (1)
On Monday, the Supreme Court decided to not take up Second Amendment challenges to laws in Connecticut and New York that ban the sale or possession of many semiautomatic assault rifles and large-capacity magazines in those states.
With those denials, the latest of more than 70 rejections of challenges to gun regulations, the justices have made it clear that reasonable gun-control laws are fully consistent with Second Amendment rights.
Yet Congress has refused time and again to help protect Americans from rampant gun violence, and so it has fallen on state lawmakers to address this national crisis. Some state and local governments have banned or restricted certain types of ammunition, or prohibited classes of people, like those convicted of multiple instances of drunken driving, from possessing guns. Others have imposed universal background checks and safe-storage requirements on gun owners.
These are all good efforts, but a patchwork solution is not enough. Anyone who cannot buy a gun in one state can simply drive to the next to find looser laws. The Orlando massacre only made clearer the need for national legislation. Yet in a familiar scene on Monday, four separate measures in the Senate — to block people with suspected terrorist ties from buying guns and to close loopholes in background check laws — were defeated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/opinion/congress-vs-the-states-on-guns.html?
With those denials, the latest of more than 70 rejections of challenges to gun regulations, the justices have made it clear that reasonable gun-control laws are fully consistent with Second Amendment rights.
Yet Congress has refused time and again to help protect Americans from rampant gun violence, and so it has fallen on state lawmakers to address this national crisis. Some state and local governments have banned or restricted certain types of ammunition, or prohibited classes of people, like those convicted of multiple instances of drunken driving, from possessing guns. Others have imposed universal background checks and safe-storage requirements on gun owners.
These are all good efforts, but a patchwork solution is not enough. Anyone who cannot buy a gun in one state can simply drive to the next to find looser laws. The Orlando massacre only made clearer the need for national legislation. Yet in a familiar scene on Monday, four separate measures in the Senate — to block people with suspected terrorist ties from buying guns and to close loopholes in background check laws — were defeated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/opinion/congress-vs-the-states-on-guns.html?
ALEC/NRA/ILA puppets in Congress place the blood money pipeline above the needs of their constituents, and have for years. It is past time to replace them with Democrats.
On a brighter note, many states (like Hawaii) have put sane, reasonable gun control laws into place and the Second Amendment wasn't even bruised. Help your state achieve what the NRA bought-and-paid-for Congress can't.