(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Recent gun massacres — meaning this month’s massacres, not the previous month’s — have elicited a flurry of words from the gun lobby’s political spokesmen in Washington. President Trump, elected with the help of an unprecedented outlay by the National Rifle Association, said last week that he now supports “very meaningful” background checks on gun purchases. He didn’t say what “meaningful” means.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose Republican majority has been anchored by tens of millions of additional spending by the NRA, is talking too. He said that after the Senate returns from recess in September he’ll put background checks and red-flag laws “front and center.”
This kind of talk is familiar. It happened after the slaughter of children in Newtown, Connecticut. After the Pulse nightclub shooting. After Las Vegas. After Parkland. Every time, the gun lobby has opposed comprehensive background-check legislation. Each time, craven politicians have done the gun lobby’s bidding despite overwhelming public support for sensible legislation.
Amid all the discussion going nowhere, it’s easy to forget what the fuss is about.
Since the Brady Bill went into effect in 1994, all federally licensed firearms dealers have been required to conduct background checks on purchasers. Background checks have blocked more than 3.5 million gun sales to restricted individuals, including felons and convicted domestic abusers. But the law has a massive loophole. Unlicensed, private dealers are not required to do background checks when they make a sale. Consequently, many criminals buy guns from unregulated sellers via the internet or from unlicensed vendors at gun shows, a favorite source of guns trafficked by and for criminals.
An investigation found that one in nine people seeking to purchase a firearm on the website Armslist.com was a prohibited person. A survey in 2015 found that 22 percent of Americans who had acquired their most recent gun in the two years prior to the survey had done so without a background check.
This two-tiered system is an insult to common sense and undermines public safety. It undermines other gun laws, as well — including red-flag laws to keep the suicidal or homicidal from buying guns. Those measures won’t work without effective background checks. In an especially gruesome case in 2012, a domestic-violence offender prohibited from possessing a gun purchased one without a background check from a private seller. He used it to kill three people, including his wife, and to wound another four.
The NRA states that it opposes background checks because they “don’t necessarily stop criminals from getting firearms.” This appears to be the organization’s most compelling argument. One wonders whether the NRA would apply it to laws against murder, assault and the like — which also don’t “necessarily” stop those crimes. Few lawmakers in Washington can be swayed by such patently ridiculous reasoning. But the NRA’s money and electoral muscle talk, so Americans keep needlessly dying.
The House of Representatives earlier this year passed legislation for comprehensive background checks. If the horrors of El Paso and Dayton have made McConnell think again, he’ll move similar legislation next month. Or perhaps the intention is to let the recess drain the urgency from the issue as popular outrage subsides. If so, voters should ensure that doesn’t happen.
Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.
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