by Rekha Basu
Starting Thursday, Iowans will be allowed to buy handguns from private sellers, and carry them, without permits. In other words, you’ll have even less confidence than before about whether the unhinged person sitting next to you and baiting you about a face mask is armed.
We won’t be allowed to sue gun and ammunition manufacturers except for breaches of contract or defective products — not for criminal use of their products, which left innocent people dead.
Even as gun casualties rise, lawmakers in multiple states like ours loosen restrictions. Laws like these were passed in the wake of 611 mass shootings in the U.S. last year — almost 12 every week. That was a nearly 50% increase from the year before, and the carnage left 513 people dead and 2,543 injured. Already in 2021, the online Gun Violence Archive has recorded almost 300 mass shootings.
Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have passed laws this year to prevent federal gun laws from being enforced by states or localities. In O’Fallon, Mo., a St. Louis suburb, the police chief resigned over a new state law that allows officers to be sued if they try to enforce federal gun laws. It would leave cities whose officers who seize firearms vulnerable to $50,000 fines. Even though federal law trumps state law under the U.S. Constitution, Missouri’s governor and attorney general plan to enforce the restriction. The city and county of St. Louis have filed suit to block the law.
A study by the Center for American Progress found the 10 states with the weakest gun laws had three times more gun violence than the 10 states with the toughest gun laws.
For 30 years I’ve been advocating tighter restrictions on buying and carrying guns, only to see things move in the opposite direction, thanks in part to campaign contributions from the gun lobby to receptive lawmakers. A few of Saturdays ago it became personal. One of my sons and several of his friends were forced to flee a mass shooting in Oakland, Calif., where he was visiting them. One is a childhood friend from Des Moines.
The Des Moines Register carried this news item about the shooting:
OAKLAND, Calif. — A 22-year-old man was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting in Oakland near the city’s Juneteenth celebration, though it wasn’t known whether the violence was connected with the event, police said.
When the gunshots broke out, a crowd estimated by news reports at 5,000 began running for their lives or, as my son described it, seeking refuge behind anything that might conceal them, like a tree. The injured ranged in age from 16 to 27. No suspects had been identified as of June 23.
If this happened in a state with some of the toughest gun laws, I shudder to think how many more could have died if more firearms were involved.
The same week also brought mass shootings in Austin, Texas; Cleveland; Chicago; and Savannah, Georgia, leading police to worry about a bloody summer to come. “One thing is clear,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler was quoted saying, “greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety.”
Iowa also passed a law to put a constitutional amendment on voters’ ballots next year declaring the right to keep and bear arms. Stripping any limits on the ability to own and carry weapons is promoted by the Legislature’s Republican majority as personal freedom. But don’t you freedom-loving women dare try to exercise yours to have a safe, legal procedure to end your pregnancy: A second constitutional amendment, on track to be put before voters in 2024, would declare Iowans have no constitutional right to an abortion.
These news items from the Register describe some of what’s happened around the country in the past month:
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A suspect shot and killed one central Illinois police officer and wounded another during a shootout at an apartment complex early Wednesday in which the suspect was also killed.
BRIDGETON, N.J. — A shooting at a birthday party in New Jersey that left two people dead and 12 injured was not a random act and was a reflection of gun violence that has swept the nation, Gov. Phil Murphy said.
NEW ORLEANS — Seven separate shootings that killed three and inured 12 happened across New Orleans in a violent Memorial Day weekend that saw a 12-year-old among the dead, according to … the city’s police department.
KERRVILLE, Texas — Authorities in Texas arrested a man accused of plotting to carry out a mass shooting at a Walmart, and a search of the suspect’s home turned up firearms, ammunition, and materials officials described as “radical ideology” paraphernalia.
Shootings happen so often around the country, we may be developing a collective numbness that helps us detach emotionally. You might tell yourself: “I have no one there. I don’t work at that kind of job site or attend that place of worship. I don’t go to risky places or or hang out with sketchy people.”
But none of that matters as the pace of these incidents accelerates, as people travel more and carry more guns, as rage boils over and mental health crises go untended. They can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone. And each time, on top of the injured and the dead, uncounted numbers of people are left to live with the trauma of what they escaped, and couldn’t prevent.
Rekha Basu is a columnist for the Des Moines Register. Readers may send her email at rbasu@dmreg.com.
