Guns On Campus
What are the effects of the Columbine shootings?
After the Columbine shootings in 1999, there was a lot more focus on violence in schools, on the easy access to dangerous weapons, to the fact that there weren't any background checks at gun shows--that's how the Columbine killers got their guns: through a gun show. But very little was done in terms of laws. There was nothing that was passed at the federal level. Something did pass in the state of Colorado, not because of the legislature but because the folks pushed it through in a referendum. In effect, there was outcry, there was anger, there was a sense that something needed to be done. But 8 years later, nothing happened, and the danger for us as a country is that we don't learn from these tragedies. We don't learn that something can be done to prevent these things from occurring in the future. We need to face up to the fact that there will always be deranged youngsters, there will always be people that want to do violence, but that when we allow easy access to semi-automatic weapons with no background checks, and allow those to be taken easily into various parts of our communities, we're going to see high levels of violence.
What are the effects of the Virginia Tech shootings?
How have the Columbine and Virginia Tech incidents affected gun laws?
After Columbine, there was a hope that something would be done to strengthen the laws to make it harder for dangerous people, like the Columbine killers to get their guns. While something was done in Colorado to close the so called gun-filled loop hole, nothing was done nationwide, and very little was done in the other states. After the Virginia Tech killing, we've started to see some movement. The NRA has joined with us in calling for a more complete records in the federal database. There's a bill pending in Congress that pass the house that would give money to the states to make sure that the databases are taken care of. The Bush administration has sent down a bill to congress, post Virginia Tech that would add suspected terrorists to the predators of purchasers list. It's amazing, most people don't realize that you could be on the terrorists watch list, and still buy a gun legally in this country. Since the federal government says that records of approved purchases are destroyed within 24 hours, it's even hard to follow-up on that, but the Bush administration now agrees with us and feels that it should be a prohibited category. We've seen and asked in a number of states to strengthen their Brady Background Check records, to get more records of mental illness and felons into the database; about 4 states have acted since April 16th to get that done. I think we're seeing our recognition; my elected officials, and my average citizens think there are gun laws in this country that are too weak, and that it is too easy for dangerous people to get guns, and there are things that we can do to make it harder for dangerous people to get guns. Whether you call that gun control or not, whether it's something that the Brady campaign gets the credit for or not; it can make us safer. Hopefully that's going to continue.
