Despite the tough talk at the Republican National Convention this week about “making America safe,” there was scarcely a word about gun violence or police slaying of unarmed black citizens. And certainly nothing about passing new laws to control who gets guns or what kind they can possess.
No surprise since the National Rifle Association has a firm grip on the majority of elected Republicans. Even most of those who don’t take NRA money have bought into its extremist ideology. That boils down to: The more Americans who appear on our streets armed—carrying their firearms concealed or in the open—the more peaceful life will be.
That was certainly the message delivered with an ample dose of Hillary hate at the convention on Wednesday by Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist and chairman of its political action arm, the NRA's Political Victory Fund.
The deep-fried hypocrisy of this view was on full display in Cleveland. On the streets outside the Quicken Loans Arena were many armed people, carrying pistols and rifles legally under Ohio’s open-carry law. Inside the arena, however, firearms were forbidden. Just as they were at the NRA’s annual convention in Kentucky in May. The progenitors of our weakened gun laws are unwilling to take the risks to themselves that the policies they back present to the rest of society.
While guns barely got a mention from the podium outside Cox’s speech, the party faithful did add some new gun language to the GOP platform:
We support firearm reciprocity legislation to recognize the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms to protect themselves and their families in all 50 states. We support constitutional carry statutes and salute the states that have passed them. We oppose ill-conceived laws that would restrict magazine capacity or ban the sale of the most popular and common modern rifle. We also oppose any effort to deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms without due process of law. We condemn frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers and the current Administration’s illegal harassment of firearm dealers. We oppose federal licensing or registration of law-abiding gun owners, registration of ammunition, and restoration of the ill-fated Clinton gun ban. We call for a thorough investigation — by a new Republican administration — of the deadly “Fast and Furious” operation perpetrated by Department of Justice officials who approved and allowed illegal sales of guns to known violent criminals.
“Constitutional carry” is short for carrying a firearm anywhere, anytime, openly or concealed, without being required to have a permit or license. It’s another step in the gun lobby’s highly successful 35-year effort to loosen gun laws state by state.
One of the first phases in that campaign was to push state legislatures to make it easier to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Almost every state made it difficult or impossible to get one in 1986. Now, all but eight states make it easy. But the gun lobby isn’t satisfied with a system that at least gives lip service to checking out the history of people who carry hidden firearms.
For the past few years, the NRA has worked to get laws enacted to eliminate the permit/license requirement. In 2010, only two states—Vermont and Alaska—allowed people to carry concealed firearms without a permit. In the past six years, eight more states have joined this “constitutional carry” crusade. There’s little doubt that still more states will sign up for this lunacy. No wonder so many gun reformers are frustrated, if not in flat-out despair.
However, amid the proliferation of loosened laws, there is still widespread support—among Democrats, Republicans, independents, gun owners and NRA members—for universal background checks on every gun purchase or transfer. Huffington Post editor Igor Bobic found some of that support among the RNC delegates:
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” said Ben Proto of New Mexico. “I have no problem with anyone who wants to buy a gun having a background check. I think if you are a felon, if you’re someone who has a mental illness, that you shouldn’t own a firearm. Now, I also understand, that by definition, criminals break laws and that’s what they do, and they can probably still get them, but I don’t have a problem with background checks.”
John Taylor from Mississippi echoed the sentiment, saying background checks could be valuable in certain circumstances but that there shouldn’t be other limitations on who can purchase guns.
This is another indication that an across-the-aisle effort could manage to get universal background checks through Congress despite the failure to get it done in the wake of the 2013 Sandy Hook massacre of first graders and their teachers. Reformers should realize that gun owners could be the most powerful voices in getting universal background checks past the obstacles imposed by the gun lobby. Out of such an ad hoc alliance could come additional sensible reforms.