http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/06/white-house-nra-gun-control-reformsThe Obama administration is reportedly preparing to confront the might of the National Rifle Association and its gun-supporting allies in Congress with a sweeping package of proposals for tighter firearms controls that would go beyond previous attempts to combat gun violence.
An article in the Washington Post claimed on Sunday that a White House taskforce led by the vice president, Joe Biden, is looking at a range of proposals that would beef up federal monitoring and checks on all gun sales, seek to improve systems to prevent mentally-ill people acquiring weapons and introduce new penalties for carrying guns near schools. The taskforce, which was set up in the wake of the 14 December Newtown school shooting, in which 20 children and six school staff were killed, is expected to present its proposals to President Obama later this month.
So far the post-Newtown debate has focused on a revival of the 1994 federal ban on military-style assault rifles that was steered through Congress by Biden and other leading Democrats. In order to push the ban through Congress, a 10-year time limit was added to the crime bill. It lapsed in 2004.
The Biden taskforce is known to be considering a proposal to reintroduce the ban, that would prevent new sales of a range of AR-15 semi-automatic weapons as well as impose an upper ceiling of 10 rounds per magazine in an attempt to reduce the ability of shooters to inflict enormous carnage in a short burst of violence. The shooting spree carried out by Adam Lanza at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown involved a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle and lasted for less than 10 minutes.
But the Washington Post suggests that the taskforce is also minded to go considerably further than a revision of the assault weapons ban. In particular, Biden is taking a hard look at two of the most egregious weaknesses in the current system of gun controls in the US.
The first is the patchy system of background checks on buyers of guns. At present, anyone purchasing a gun from an authorised dealer has to go through a federal background check. However, if you buy a weapon from a private seller, operating on the internet or through gun shows, there is no such safeguard. The Biden taskforce is reported to be considering a move to close the private-seller loophole – a long-standing demand of gun control advocacy groups.
The second anomaly is the parlous state of national tracking systems to record and monitor the movement and use of weapons, in an attempt to prevent them falling into the hands of criminals and mentally ill people. A database operated by the FBI is notoriously patchy – while some states, such as New York, have contributed more than 100,000 names into the records, 19 states have offered fewer than 100 and Rhode Island has submitted none.
The gaps in the database make a mockery of the idea of national safeguards against the misuse of firearms. According to the New York Times, since 2005 more than 22,000 weapons have been bought by people who were later deemed to have been disqualified because of previous criminal behaviour or mental illness.
A proposal being reviewed by the Biden taskforce, the Washington Post says, would be to introduce a new modernized and comprehensive database to track the movement of guns under the auspices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The White House is evidently aware that it is likely to face fierce opposition from the NRA, one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country, to any measures that it might introduce. So far the only idea offered by the NRA towards the debate has been the call from its executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, for armed guards to be placed in all schools.
Obama has signaled that he intends to move swiftly to introduce new controls, in the hope of riding on the wave of revulsion created by the Newtown shooting, before the nationwide sense of outrage dissipates. Last week he told the television programme Meet the Press: "I'd like to get it done in the first year. This is not something that I will be putting off. And, yes, it's going to be hard."
The Washington Post indicated that the White House is examining how it could use the president's executive powers to push through reforms – thus allowing the administration to bypass a potentially bruising battle with Congress. A majority of Republican members of Congress, as well as a substantial minority of Democrats, are closely aligned with the NRA.
The administration is also hoping to dilute the influence of the NRA by creating a wide alliance of support for reforms, particularly among traditional supporters of gun rights. Biden has already convened a high-level meeting of law enforcement leaders – in a clear bid to enlist their backing – including police chiefs and sheriffs' associations. He is in close contact with the team of gun control experts assembled by Michael Bloomberg, the New York mayor, who is a leading advocate of reform.
The administration is also focusing on retail outlets such as Wal-Mart as potential allies. The idea is to appeal to such retailers for support in closing the private-seller loophole on the grounds that it would financially benefit their businesses by redirecting trade in guns through them.
