In the Aftermath The past and future of gun legislation By Nick Pryor
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Guest Writer
he aftermath of every shooting is the same. Initial shock leads to conflict over gun legislation, followed by the inevitable politician shutting down the conversation. Then the public silently accepts it and moves on as another story rolls around. But when the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School refused to back down following the mass shooting on Valentine’s Day, a massive partisan debate developed over the best possible way to address and prevent these shootings from taking place. The debate rapidly turned from discussion to insult: Maine Republican House candidate Leslie Gibson recently referred to MSD shooting survivor Emma González as a “skinhead lesbian.” It’s still important to look closer at what the options are in terms of legislation to slow down, or altogether stop, these mass shootings with everything on the table, from locking schools down like prisons to banning the weapons used in these mass shootings. Many are opposed to the ban of weapons, pointing to its unconstitutionality. However, from 1994 to 2004 the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, better known as the “Federal Assault Weapons Ban,” forbade the sale and production in the United States of weapons such as the AR-15. The law’s history dates back to 1989, when a gunman opened fire on the schoolyard of Cleve-
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land Elementary setts at Boston School in Stockreviewed the data “WE URGE YOU TO LISTEN TO ton, California. from the gun THE AMERICAN PUBLIC...AND He fired 106 massacres during rounds in three the past 50 years SUPPORT A BAN ON THE FURTHER minutes. 34 were in the United MANUFACTURE OF THESE wounded and States. Klarevas’s five children were findings showed WEAPONS.” killed. This led that while comRonald Reagan to the passing of paring the 10-year Jimmy Carter the Roberti-Roos period, the ban Gerald Ford Assault Weapons was enforced to Control Act of the 10 years lead1989 in Califoring up to it, there nia, which made was a 37% deit illegal to own or transfer over 50 different types crease in gun massacres and a 43% decrease in the of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns. and pistols in number of people who died in these massacres. the state. After no action on a national level, an- However, when the ban ended in 2004, Klarevas’s other two shootings followed. findings show a 183% increase in the number of This time, however, Senator Dianne Feinstein gun massacres and a 239% increase in the number (D-CA) authored the Federal Assault Weapons of deaths in gun massacres. Ban in response to the then three major mass The law banned the manufacture of certain shootings in four years. After passing the Senate semi-automatic pistols, rifles and shotguns that in 1993, the bill faced considerable pushback in were deemed “assault weapons” along with magathe House. zines deemed “large capacity” for civilian use. But In 1994, former U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford, what exactly qualifies as an assault weapon? Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan wrote a joint There’s actually a legal distinction between statement to the House in support of the Assault an assault weapon and an assault rifle. An assault Weapons Ban, citing a CNN/USA Today/Gallup rifle is, at a basic level, a military-use rifle capapoll from 1993 which showed that 77% of Amer- ble of toggling between semi-automatic and fulicans supported the ban of the manufacture, sale ly-automatic firing. Fully-automatic assault rifles and possession of assault weapons, saying that have been banned from production in the Unit“this is a matter of vital importance to the pub- ed States since 1986, making them now both exlic safety. While we recognize that assault weapon tremely expensive and rare, and in order to attain legislation will not stop all assault weapon crime, one, there are extensive background checks. An statistics prove that we can dry up the supply of assault weapon (although the definition fluctuthese guns, making them less accessible to crimi- ates) usually applies to semi-automatic rifles with nals. We urge you to listen to the American public detachable magazines and a pistol grip. and to the law enforcement community and supFor a semi-automatic weapon to be placed port a ban on the further manufacture of these under the ban, it had to possess a few key charweapons.” The co-signing from the three former acteristics. These banned assault weapons inpresidents greatly helped the push for the bill, clude semi-automatic pistols with detachable and in 1994 it became law as a part of the Violent magazines, along with two or more military-style Crime Control and Prevention Act of 1994. features such as a magazine that extended beSince the ban was abandoned in 2004, gun yond the barrel, a semi-automatic version of a violence experts have seen a large increase in the fully-automatic pistol, or a pistol grip. This innumber of mass shootings in the United States. cluded the AR-15, the weapon used in Parkland. Louis Klarevas from the University of Massachu-