The First Gambit in the Assault Weapons Battle

Almost four weeks after the holocaust at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the momentum for legislating sanity in America's weapons laws seems to be slowing.  The issue remains, for the moment, front-burner, but the forces opposed to reasonable weapons laws are expert at delay, and the politicians who have finally found their spines would probably be happy enough if they didn't have to make use of them.

President Obama has been a notable exception, and he has assigned Vice-President Joe Biden - the Administration's designated manly man - to confer with all sides and seek some sort of consensus.

Which, of course, isn't going to happen.  Most American gun owners - even many American gun lovers - are reasonable people, but the gun lobby serves the interests of weapons manufacturers, and it has - for many years - been at pains to recruit its members from segments of the population which are, shall we say, not noted for their erudition or rationality.

In other words, the forces of sanity and public safety are opposed by corporate greed, backed by a solid phalanx of people who see the world through the lenses of bigotry, eschatology, hyper-individualism, and downright paranoia.

Now, if this offends any sane, humane, civic-minded defenders of the Second Amendment out there - I'm  sorry.  But you've got to consider the company you're keeping.  It's that company the weapons industry wants in the vanguard of its manufactured "movement".  You're just along for the ride.

All of this is to say that the forces favoring reasonable weapons laws are beginning to lose momentum - and lose the fight.  If the Administration takes a few months to draft a decent Federal response, Congress will dawdle around until summer, and the whole thing will die a slow and pitiful death.

What's needed is a fight - right now, while the larger weapons policy is being drafted.  And luckily, thanks to the NRA, there's a perfect occasion for such a fight.

For some years now, a special provision in the Federal budget has essentially prohibited the funding of research by the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, part of the Centers for Disease Control, which used to do considerable research on the role of guns and large-capacity weapons in America's rates of civilian deaths and injuries.  In 1996, Congress stripped funding for this research and added language - which has survived from year to year - essentially banning scientific research on the role of personal weapons in America.

At about the same time, the Justice Department's Institute for Justice also found its research funding cut.

In other words, the NRA  and its allies quietly, but deliberately, cut off funding for research which seemed likely to establish a scientific basis for rational weapons laws. 

Because, like Big Tobacco before them - like Big Coal and Big Oil and Detroit on the issue of climate change - they know that the facts will do them no good.

So here's the opportunity.  If the Obama administration wants to move the ball down the field, right now, the President should demand the restoration of funding for research by the CDC and the DoJ.  He should openly challenge the weapons lobby to oppose the search for scientific evidence.  He should force them to fight him on losing ground - or to retreat.

It's a no-lose proposition.  The country wants action, but isn't sure what that action should be.  What could be simpler, or more appropriate, than to re-start the search for relevant evidence?

Why not demand the facts?