Making it easy for criminals to get guns is one way conservatives are soft on crime. (photo: stock image)
20 April 13
hat
can Americans learn from the bitter debate over the gun reform bill?
Perhaps the most obvious lesson is that the leadership of the National
Rifle Association, the Gun Owners of America, and their tame Republican
politicians have all earned an epithet of derision they used to hurl
regularly at liberals.
Yes, the gun lobby and its legislative servants are "soft on crime" - although they routinely pretend to be tough on criminals.
During the Clinton presidency, NRA president-for-life
Wayne LaPierre raised vast amounts of money with direct-mail campaigns
against both Bill and Hillary Clinton for supposedly coddling criminals.
Dubbed "Crimestrike," the NRA crusade pushed prison construction, mandatory minimum sentencing, and sundry other panaceas
designed to position the NRA as the bane of muggers, rapists, and
murderers. Those themes echoed traditional Republican propaganda
messages dating back to the Nixon era, when the presidential crook
himself often derided judicial concerns about civil liberties and promised to restore "law and order." (When Nixon henchmen like the late Chuck Colson went to prison themselves, they often emerged as prison reformers and civil libertarians, of course.)
But in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, with the
NRA angrily opposing any measure designed to hinder criminals from
acquiring firearms, the public is learning who is really soft on crime.
Police officials across the country want universal
background checks, magazine limits, and stronger enforcement against
illegal weapons sales, but the NRA and its Republican allies insist that
such changes will penalize legitimate gun owners. Or they complain that
criminals mainly obtain weapons by stealing them, so restrictions on
sales won't make any difference.
Even a cursory examination of the facts demonstrates
those claims are false. Gun trafficking experts at the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have long known that less than 15 percent of all crime guns are stolen
from their original owners. Much more common sources of guns used by
criminals are so-called "straw purchases," where a person with a clean
record buys a gun on behalf of a criminal, and corrupt purchases, where a
licensed gun dealer knowingly sells to a criminal. Bipartisan gun
legislation now before the Senate would crack down on these sales, by
increasing penalties for straw purchasers who willfully help criminals
buy guns. The NRA has offered tepid support for that provision - but it
is virtually meaningless without universal background checks, which the
gun lobby opposes.
As Will Saletan pointed out in Slate last January, the NRA has consistently (and successfully) sought to kill
the most basic efforts to keep guns away from convicted criminals and
other dangerous characters - including abusive spouses under court
protection orders, drug dealers, and even individuals listed on the
Justice Department's terrorist watch list.
In the wake of the Boston bombing, as the nation
ponders how to bolster its security, the gun lobby's tender concern for
the Second Amendment "rights" of terrorists and thugs ought to
permanently discredit them and their political servants. Instead they
have achieved another bloody victory in Washington.
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