(HOST) Commentator Bill Seamans is among those who think that the shootings in Virginia will revive the gun control debate.
(SEAMANS) Politicians are notoriously reluctant to take the initiative on provocative issues that might upset their constituencies or the special interest groups that have helped pave the financial path to their election. Traditionally our legislators have not acted unless forced to by some extraordinary pressure. Gun control is one of those sensitive questions.
For years the politically powerful National Rifle Association with tens of thousands of gun-owner members has lobbied against stricter gun controls. Their argument is based on the Second Amendment’s declaration of the citizens’ right to bear arms. Also, they declare that enough laws already are on the books to adequately control the sale of handguns to responsible people.
Surely, the massacre of students at Virginia Tech is a cataclysmic event that will force a renewed debate in Washington over whether existing laws are really adequate to prevent the sale of firearms to the unstable, the irresponsible or the criminal element of our society.
In recent months the news media have reported an unusual nationwide number of gun crimes, including incidents in which police have been killed. Meantime, one side of the gun control issue argues that it’s not the guns that kill people – it’s the persons doing the shooting. The other side argues that so many firearms are available so easily that there is something wrong with the legal safeguards that must be corrected.
We can expect that the dimensions of the Virginia Tech tragedy, the worst shooting rampage in American history, will result in a Congressional review of our present gun control laws. Although the perpetrator is dead, federal agents have the two pistols he used at their forensic crime lab. It’s expected that they will determine the source of the handguns and how they were acquired.
As a gun owner myself, I share the view that the firearm control laws must be reevaluated. It’s undeniable that the ease with which all kinds of firearms can be purchased illegally or through legal loopholes has reached crisis proportions. It is hoped that a consensus can be reached that will satisfy those who argue that stricter laws would contravene the Second Amendment and those who believe that tighter gun laws are truly imperative.
It’s said that something good somehow rises from the pain of great tragedies. Thus we hope that the terrible Monday at Virginia Tech will open a great debate over better control of firearms that will not deprive the responsible citizen of, as the Second Amendment says, the right to bear arms.
Bill Seamans is a former correspondent and bureau chief for ABC News in the Middle East.