With new leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the Democrats’ plans is to revisit gun control — timed for the anniversary of the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats will introduce a bill to expand background checks for sales and transfers of firearms on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, the eighth anniversary of the day Giffords was shot in the head at a constituent meeting in Tucson, Arizona.
The bill expanding background checks “marks a critical first step toward strengthening America’s gun laws and making our country a safer place to live, work, study, worship and play,” Giffords said.
This is a pro-active action, rather than the same old rhetoric that regularly follows a tragic shooting. One of the more recent was 11 months ago in the wake of the school shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school, where 17 people were killed.
At that time the proposed answer was to raise the age for purchasing certain guns. U.S. law dictates that a person must be 21 or older to buy a handgun. However, one need be only 18 to purchase long guns — rifles, including AR-15s and other military-style weapons. Then-Sen. Jeff Flake co-sponsored legislation to raise the age requirement; coincidentally, the state of Washington on Jan. 1, 2019, raised the age to 21 for all gun purchases, after voters passed a similar measure. (This does not solve the issue of 18-year-olds entering the military and giving them a gun.)
Not surprisingly, Democrats promised swift action on gun control after the party regained the House majority. It has been a debate point every time a shooting happens.
But nothing gets done.
