Romney Voices Opposition to More Gun Laws

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 26, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

             Jetsetting to London for the opening of the Olympic Games July 27, GOP presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney voiced his opposition to more gun laws in the wake of the July 20 Aurora, Colorado massacre.  When 22-year-old neuroscience Ph.D. student James E. Holmes opened fire July 20 on innocent moviegoers at the Batman “The Dark Night Rises” premier, he left 12 dead and 58 injured, some with life-threatening injuries.  In the weeks before his rampage, Holmes purchased an AR-15 assault rife, two .40 mm Glock semiautomatics, a 12-gauge Remington shotgun, all from local gun dealers in a matter of weeks.  Buying 6,000 rounds of ammo off the Internet, Holmes was well-equipped to commit mass murder.  “A lot of what this young man did was clearly against the law,” Romney told NBC’s “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams July 25, opposing new gun laws.

            Romney’s position parallels the National Rifle Association, insisting that preserving the Second Amendment is the top priority.  “But the fact that it was against the law did not prevent it from happening,” said Romney, suggesting that all gun laws restricting access to assault weapons, handguns and ammo don’t reduce gun violence.  Romney’s position is clear:  “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  Romney parrots the NRA’s position because he seeks support of its members.  Access to guns is one of the most decisive factors in gun violence, not whether gun owners possess the maturity to responsibly use guns.   Surely Romney knows that many unbalanced individuals would commit less lethal violence if guns were less accessible.  Hitting, kicking, clubbing or knifing people are less lethal than pulling the trigger of a high-powered firearm.

                 After meeting with the victims of last week’s massacre, President Barack Obama vowed “to leave no stone unturned” to reduce gun violence, short of sponsoring new legislation during an election year.  Any changes in gun laws “should not be controversial, they should be common sense,” said Barack, disagreeing with Romney that nothing should be done about gun violence.  Romney insists that restricting Internet gun or ammo sales would not “prevent people who want to provide harm from being able to purchase things to carry out that harm,” said Mitt, barely making any sense.  Barack’s suggestion to restrict access to guns or ammo sales to mentally ill citizens would be a step in the right direction.  While there’s no perfect gun law, ambulatory psychotics should not be able to waltz into gun shops and buy ammo and guns even with today’s 10-day waiting period.

            Second Amendment backers, like the NRA, don’t get that too many U.S. citizens die from gun violence every year.  While it’s true that the “finger pulls the trigger,” gun violence researchers have also shown that “the trigger pulls the finger,” namely, that access and availability of firearms paves the way to gun violence.  More restrictions on mentally ill citizens would be a positive first step in keeping guns out of the hands of lunatics like Holmes.  Second Amendment advocates often argue that the guns’ black market gives criminals easy access to guns.  What gun advocates don’t get is that deranged people, like Holmes, often buy their guns from reputable retailers.  Gun dealers need to perform more than Department of Justice background checks.  Gun retailers need laws that provide background checks for mental illness before automatically releasing guns to buyers.

            Romney believes more enforcement of existing gun laws and putting more police on the streets would help curtail gun violence.  “What I wanna do is find the people who represent a danger to America and find them and keep them from having the capacity to use or buy things that could . . . hurt other people,” said Romney, not sure exactly how that would work.  Law enforcement personnel are not going to pluck the mentally ill off the streets to determine who’s most dangerous.  Gun laws must give retailers the tools to identify mentally disordered gun buyers before the gun dealers put firearms into the hands of the criminally insane.  Romney’s idea that the police should find potentially violent citizens on the streets has implications for civil liberties.  Gun laws must give gun dealers the tools to block gun sales to buyers that don’t pass mental health background checks.

            When James E. Holmes appeared before Arapahoe County District Judge William B. Sylvester July 23, he appeared dazed and confused.  Whether he’s feigning mental illness or not, the orange-died-hair killer showed all the signs of the kind of behavior that should have prevented him from buying firearms.  Romney talks about “changing the heart of the American people” but refuses to come to grips with the limits of the Second Amendment that must keep firearms out of the hands of mentally ill citizens.  “Their agenda is not entirely identical to my own,” said Romney, over typical NRA policies that oppose most or all gun control legislation.  “I don’t know if I line up 100 percent with . . . almost anybody,” said Mitt, hedging his bet against orthodox NRA views.  Instead of sitting on the fence, Romney should state clearly whether he’d support keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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