In United States, the Impossible Control of Firearms

One anecdote suffices to illustrate the Obama administration’s powerlessness on the issue of firearms, revived by the shooting in Roseburg, Oregon on Oct. 1. On Feb. 13, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives opened public comment on the possible revision of the status of an ammunition, the M-855, capable of piercing police bulletproof vests.

This type of ammunition has been theoretically forbidden since a law passed in 1986, but an exemption makes it possible “for sporting purposes.” On Feb. 17, the National Rifle Association mobilized its members and activated the lever of Congress. On March 9, a majority of senators and representatives, Democrats as well as Republicans, sent a missive to Byron Todd Jones, the Director of the ATF, to warn him against the consequences of an initiative overstepping, according to them, its powers.

In their letter, the elected officials insisted on the fact that the M-855 is the most widespread ammunition used for a weapon that is among the most popular in the United States, the AR-15 rifle — [but which] an uninformed observer would inevitably classify as a weapon of war. They added that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right of every citizen to own a gun, also extended to the bullets used for it. The following day, Byron Todd Jones surrendered and rejected, sine die, the revision. The ATF pointed out that, in a few weeks, it had received more than 80,000 comments, the vast majority of which were resolutely hostile to any modification.

Democrats Also Oppose Any Regulation

It is the NRA that the president blamed Thursday, responsible, according to him, of maintaining “the notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom and our Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon” — an attack immediately denounced as “leftist” by conservative forums.

But when it comes to this topic, the accusation does not take into account the complexity of the electoral map. Stricter regulation of the sale of firearms can be defended by Republicans, as proven by the following cases:

• One of the arms control-related laws was defended by a former adviser to Ronald Reagan, James Brady, gravely injured during the assassination attempt that targeted the Republican president.

• The former Republican Mayor of New York and businessman Michael Bloomberg, today an independent, is also very engaged in this struggle.

But it is sometimes the Democrats who oppose any regulation:

• The candidate for the Democratic nomination considered the most leftist, Bernie Sanders, has been distinguishable several times in the Senate where he sits as an independent, by votes against any attempt at toughening the legislation.

• If the Democrats are actually less committed than the Republicans to an intractable defense of the right to own a gun, it is the opposition by 15 of them that ended, in April 2013, the Obama administration’s most significant attempt to regulate firearms. This initiative followed the massacre at Sandy Hook, in December 2012.

Republican Party control in both houses of Congress since January prohibits, until further notice, the least reform on the subject, no matter how feeble. The NRA does indeed pass the bulk of its efforts onto the states, arguing tirelessly against any form of background check for gun purchasers, for the extension of authorizations to carry arms in public places — as demonstrated by the Republican governor of Texas’ green light in June for universities — and against any limitation aimed at the semi-automatic weapons targeted after Sandy Hook.

The battle on the state level is not always one-way. In May, it had manifested itself in Oregon by the adoption of background checks — legal or psychological — for gun buyers. It is true that this West Coast state, known to be very liberal in the Anglo-Saxon sense of the term, is governed by a Democrat, Kate Brown, who on Thursday ruled out any emergency reform. However, a clear majority of states, 31 out of 50, is controlled by Republicans.