Country needs national assault weapons ban

By: centraljersey.com
The horrifying gun rampage on Jan. 8 in Tucson demonstrates again the devastating effects of allowing a lobby (the NRA and its allies) whose main goal is to encourage the sales and profits of the gun industry to dictate gun laws. While most of the media attention about this tragedy to date has focused on those who promote extremism and violent imagery, such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, it is very difficult to reign in such enticement to violence as long as it’s not overt and targeting specific people. We should strive for curtailing it, but I’m not optimistic about chances for near term improvement.
But what is quite do-able, and has been done by almost every other industrialized nation, is to have sensible gun violence prevention laws that would prevent anyone who might succumb to such provocations from obtaining such lethality. The failure to do this amounts to allowing individual citizens access to weapons of mass destruction.
A case in point is the Assault Weapons Ban. I’m proud that the Coalition for Peace Action and our Project, Ceasefire NJ, were instrumental in New Jersey becoming the second state in the nation to enact such a ban in 1991. In 1993, we succeeded in beating back an attempt by the NRA to rescind New Jersey’s state ban, which remains the strongest such law in the nation.
Inspired by our success in New Jersey and other states, a National Assault Weapons Ban was passed in 1994. It banned ammunition clips of over 10 bullets, such as the 33-clip magazine the shooter in Tucson used. Tragically, the national ban expired in 2004, when the Bush Administration together with the NRA prevented it from being extended. So the shooter was able to legally buy the clips he used to wreak havoc in Tucson.
Other sensible gun violence prevention laws, like closing the loophole that allows guns of any lethality to be sold at gun shows with no background checks, have also been repeatedly thwarted by the NRA.
When guns are so easily accessible, it’s no wonder that the United States has by far the highest rate of gun violence in the industrialized world. Over 30,000 Americans die each year at the hand of a gun. The Tucson rampage is simply the latest dramatic episode in what is a daily occurrence in the U.S.
If we want to get serious about preventing such mass gun violence in the future, we must reinstate the National Assault Weapons Ban and pass other sensible gun violence prevention laws. Such laws would not inhibit gun use by hunters or sportsmen. They would only be sensible steps to make our streets and communities protected from such senseless carnage in the future.
Any reader wanting more information or to get involved in efforts to prevent gun violence can visit the Coalition for Peace Action website at www.peacecoalition.org or phone its office at 609-924-5022.
The Rev. Robert Moore Princeton
The writer is executive director of the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action and pastor of East Brunswick Congregational Church.