What gun control laws should be adopted?

Questions

Should students refuse to go back to school until gun reform is passed?
Should there be nation-wide universal background checks?
Should the minimum age to purchase semi automatic rifles be 21?
Should AR-15s be banned?
Should assault weapons be banned?
Should handguns be banned?
Should the Second Amendment be repealed?
Should a gun buy back program be created?

Should teachers be armed?
Should school security be increased?
Should school surveillance be expanded?

Should schools discontinue active shooter drills?

Should Red Flag laws be passed?
Should the primary focus on stopping mass shootings be solving mental health problems?

Potential Legislation

From CNBC

  • The Raise the Age Act
  • Prevent Gun Trafficking Act
  • The Untraceable Firearms Act
  • Ethan’s Law
  • The Safe Guns, Safe Kids Act
  • The Kimberly Vaughan Firearm Safety Storage Act
  • Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act
  • The Keep Americans Safe Act

The combined legislation would introduce a range of regulations on the sale or use of firearms and associated equipment. The Raise the Age Act would lift the purchasing age for semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, while the Keep Americans Safe Act would outlaw the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of a large-capacity magazine. Ethan’s Law would create new requirements for storing guns at homes, especially those with children, and provide tax credits for secure storage devices.

General

US Gun Policy: Global Comparisons

Over 1 Million People Have been killed by firearms in the US in the last 30 years

November 24

US passes 600 mass shootings for third straight year

November 21

Diminished Majority Supports Stricter Gun Control Laws in the US

June 15

The Rifle that Ruined America

June 13

Weapons of Faith: The Arming of American Schools

June 12

What’s in the bipartisan plan for gun control

Bipartisan group of senators announce agreement on gun control

A bipartisan group of senators announced an agreement on principle for gun safety legislation Sunday, which includes “needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons,” they said in a statement.

Notably, the announcement includes the support of 10 Republican senators, which would give the proposal enough support to overcome the Senate filibuster. The agreement is significant given how divided lawmakers have been over the gun issue, but the actual legislative text is not yet written.

The proposal includes support for state crisis intervention orders, funding for school safety resources, an enhanced review process for buyers under the age of 21 and penalties foe straw purchasing.

“We’re expected to be human shields”: Teachers are unprotected — and scared

June 11

Enough is enough’: Thousands demand new gun safety laws

June 8

Red states aren’t following Florida’s lead on gun control

June 7

Matthew McConaughey tells the story of those killed in Uvalde in emotional plea for action on guns

Terror alert: Anger over U.S.-Mexico border, abortion case could lead to shootings, DHS warns

The Department of Homeland Security issued a new terror alert Tuesday warning that anger over the chaotic U.S.-Mexico border or a looming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights could lead to more mass violence. The department pointed to recent mass shootings and said the threat environment is “dynamic,” with a number of future events that could serve as focal points for those intent on carrying out attacks.

What a NY Republican abandoning his reelection says about gun reform

“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” Jacobs said in a May 27 press conference. He also mentioned limiting access to body armor and raising the legal age for buying high-capacity semi-automatic weapons to 21.

Backlash was swift.

Donald Trump Jr. dressed Jacobs down on Twitter, accusing him of chasing “glowing headlines from the mainstream media.” Conservatives started looking for a primary challenger. Gun rights activists circulated petitions asking Jacobs to reverse his position. Every GOP elected official that had endorsed him withdrew their support, Jacobs said, and someone posted his cellphone number online.

A week later, Jacobs announced that he would not seek reelection to New York’s newly drawn 23rd Congressional District, which covers some of the same territory as his current 27th District but includes much new terrain. He did not want to divide the GOP, he said, and make the election entirely about the gun issue.

June 6

Guns do more than kill

Gun laws update

Leading Republican senators involved in gun talks on Capitol Hill have signaled that it’s unlikely Congress will raise the age requirement for purchasing semi-automatic firearms from 18 to 21, instead saying they are looking at changing the criminal background check system. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina yesterday said officials are considering a waiting period of sorts for 18- to 20-year-olds purchasing semi-automatic guns, which he said could be “two to three weeks minimally” potentially to scour juvenile records. But he added Senate negotiators are looking at ways for gun purchasers to appeal for expedited processes. Separately, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia — the Senate’s most conservative Democrat — voiced his support yesterday for raising the age to 21 for purchasing semi-automatic weapons and questioned why individuals need to own high-powered AR-15-style guns.

We’ll get less than half a loaf on gun control. We should take it.

I’m all for red-flag laws, which are already on the books in 19 states and D.C. A CBS News report Monday quoted Montgomery County, Md., Sheriff Darren Popkin as saying that his state’s red-flag law, used nearly 400 times last year, helped avert a specific threat to a Bethesda high school made by a student. “This is not a theoretical approach,” Popkin said.

Florida has issued nearly 9,000 “emergency risk protection” orders since enacting its red-flag law in 2018, after the Parkland school massacre. But New York, with a similar population and much tougher gun laws, issues only about 500 such orders to confiscate guns per year. The accused shooter in last month’s Buffalo massacre reportedly had shown warning signs of a potential spasm of violence. However, red-flag laws require not just that family members, friends, acquaintances and others pick up on those signs but also that they report their concerns — and that a judge be persuaded to sign a confiscation order.If all states had such laws and enforced them aggressively, some lives would surely be saved.

70 percent of American prioritize laws reducing gun violence over gun rights: poll

America’s deadly weekend of more mass shootings raise stakes for Senate gun talks

June 5

Toomey says Biden not ‘helpful’ amid negotiations on gun legislation

What would it mean to treat guns the way we treat cars?

What does the Second Amendment mean in 2022?

NRA contributions underscore grip in GOP

Toomey says Biden not ‘helpful’ amid negotiations on gun legislation

Bipartisan gun measure ‘close’ but won’t include assault weapons ban: senator

Kansas City mayor advocates for tougher gun laws

June 4

Are AR-15’s weapons of war? Here’s what a former Fort Benning commander had to say

Yes, we can do something about gun violence

Partisan divide on guns just grows larger with each tragedy

Graham: ‘It is time to mobilize our retired and former service members’ to secure schools

Biden’s long quest for the assault weapons ban

What is an ‘assault rifle’? Language to know as leaders discuss gun legislation

Uvalde victim’s family, staffer signal possible legal action against gunmaker

June 3

Everything you need to know about a federal assault weapons ban

Our ‘best case scenario’ in school shootings is badly misguided

June 2

Biden deliver speech on gun violence

New York passes bill to raise age to buy, own semiautomatic weapons

Gun groups ready for aggressive effort against ‘red flag’ legislation

Haunted Democrats fear gun control measures could cost them in the midterms

The problem with schools turning to surveillance after mass shootings

Democrats’ sweeping gun package could be bigger

June 1

America’s unique, enduring gun problem

Florida’s red flag law, championed by Republicans, is taking guns from thousands of people

Biden, Democrats out of sync in pushing assault weapons ban

Handful of House GOP lawmakers open to assault rifle ban

How the gun debate will be won or lost in the suburbs

Weary and doubting, gun safety activists try to trust the Senate

Shootings prompt debate on purchase age for AR-style rifles

Polling is clear: Americans want gun control

Opinion How Florida’s red-flag law helps stop potential mass shootings

May 31

Bipartisan discussions on “red flag” laws make progress as Sens. Graham, Blumenthal revise gun control proposal

The 4 Common Sense Reforms Right and Left Can Agree on to Stop Mass Shootings

On gun reform, neighboring Canada takes a different tack

Firearm stocks spike after mass shootings as investors dismiss the chance of tightening gun laws

The lasting consequences of school shootings on the students who survive them

Justin Trudeau Points to U.S. Gun Violence in Vow to Freeze Handgun Sales in Canada: ‘This Is About Freedom’

Biden Wouldn’t Back Trudeau-Style Handgun Ban in U.S.: White House

May 30

Opinion: Have the gun debate. Now.

Canadian PM Trudeau announces legislation to ‘freeze’ handgun ownership, buy back ‘assault-style weapons’

Hutchinson raises minimum purchase age, ‘AR-15-style weapons’ for ‘conversation’ in gun reform negotiations

Students Should Refuse to Go Back to School. Despite the hopelessness after Uvalde, we’re closer to understanding the kind of social movement that might actually affect gun reform.

May 28

Pro-gun rights lawmakers want to arm teachers, but there’s little evidence these programs work

Are active shooter drills worth it?

Gun Sellers Push Quick Buy Now, Pay Later Financing

May 27

Mass shootings usually lead to looser gun laws not stronger ones

Two paths Congress could take on gun control

12 stats to help inform the gun control debate

What research shows on the effectiveness of gun control laws

Arming teachers is hard: Even in gun loving Texas

School Shootings Are Raising Anxiety and Panic in U.S. Children

May 26

How does US gun control policy compare with the rest of the world?

How to prevent gun massacres? Look around the world

Biden points to assault weapons ban as “rational option”

The science is clear: Gun control saves lives 

Why gun control feels out of reach and why there is still hope

How America fails children

America’s unique, enduring gun problem

6 Charts show the role firearms play in American gun culture

America’s gun violence epidemic in one chart

Robb Elementary had security. It didn’t stop a massacre.

May 25

Australia confiscated 650,000 guns. Murders and suicides plummeted.

A child can’t be a “good guy with a gun”

The real reason America doesn’t have gun control

The long failed history of gun control legislation

2021

Key Facts About Americans and Guns

2018

John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment