In the wake of another senseless mass murder, this time in Las Vegas, Congress must again examine our country’s gun laws. In the United States, gun control legislation is almost always met with harsh opposition from a proud, vocal, and relatively small group of gun owners, who clings to their Second Amendment right to bear arms. It is estimated that just 3% of Americans hold around 50% of the country’s non-military firearms; meanwhile, 78% of Americans own no guns. Furthermore, the United States accounts for around 4.4% of the global population, yet has 42% of the world’s civilian owned guns. Data shows that higher gun ownership rates (at both a nation and statewide level) correlate with higher rates of gun death. Almost 115,000 people are shot every year; approximately 34,000 people die from gun violence each year. Although rarely discussed, about 62% of firearm deaths in the United States are suicides. Whereas other methods of suicide are ineffective (cutting and poisoning kill people only 5.1% and 7.4% of the time, respectively), suicide by firearm results in death 96.5% of the time. Homicides, on the other hand, penetrate the national conscience. On average there is more than one mass shooting per day in the United States and, since the Sandy Hook massacre in December 2012, there have been at least 1,500 mass shootings., In that same timeframe, Congress has done nothing to slow the constant epidemic of gun deaths. The last major piece of gun control legislation to pass through Congress was Sen. Feinstein’s Assault Weapons Ban in 1994. That law expired in 2004. The effort to renew the legislation was halted by Republicans in 2013, as was the Manchin-Toomey bill closing the gun show loophole, as were increased background checks, as was preventing people on the no-fly list to purchase guns; as was banning high capacity magazines. Over 100 policy proposals, both big and small, have been rejected by the Republican Congress since 2013. Not one has passed. Despite Democrats’ sit-ins and filibusters, Congress has continued to allow crazed people to commit atrocities in schools, universities, movie theaters, Navy yards and Army bases, nightclubs, and concerts. Congressional action is far overdue.
While it alone won’t be enough to stop gun violence, Rep. Donald Payne’s (D-NJ) “Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act of 2017”—H.R. 3613—would get firearms off the street. This bill, which has twice previously been introduced in the House of Representatives (where it failed to advance from committee), would “authorize the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance to make grants to States, units of local government, and gun dealers to conduct gun buyback programs.” Simply, the bill would allocate $360 million per year from 2018 through 2020 in order to buy firearms from civilian owners. Payments would be made in the form of “smart prepaid cards,” which are essentially debit cards. These cards can be used for any purchase excluding firearms and ammunition. Furthermore, the cards cannot be swapped for cash. The Director will determine the market value of different guns, and the grant-receiving administrator (either state or local government, or gun dealers) will pay 125% of the determined value for the weapon. The purchased weapons will then be destroyed and recycled. Ammunition can also be collected and destroyed, but there will be no monetary compensation. Up to 10% of grant funds may be used to recycle the guns; 15% may be used for administrative costs. Each gun purchased will be subject to a criminal database search. If the weapon were used in a crime, it will be presented to the prosecuting authority—this lack of immunity is a significant difference from other gun buyback programs in the United States (which either have been on much smaller scales, privately funded, or both) and abroad. Plainly, this bill wants to get guns off the streets, an objective which strongly correlates with lower rates of gun violence. A massive international study published in Epidemiologic Reviews in 2016 found that an increase in gun regulations is followed by a decrease in gun deaths. Furthermore, U.S. states with the most guns had the most suicides, most police officer deaths, and a 114% higher firearm homicide rate.,, In a 2010 study, Andrew Leigh and Christine Neill estimate that 200 lives are saved each year in Australia due to their 1996 buyback. This evidence clearly necessitates a bill lowering the amount of existing guns on the street—this bill.
The National Rifle Association, which staunchly supports the right to bear arms, opposes this legislation. On September 1, 2017, in response to the reintroduction of the bill, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action argued that gun buybacks (or as the NRA prefers, “turn-ins”) are ineffective and a waste of money. This is unsurprising due to their constant opposition to any legislation with a semblance of gun control, as well as their failed effort to prevent the Australian buyback in 1996. The NRA is currently resisting a ban on bump stocks, an accessory used in the Las Vegas shooting that allows a semi-automatic weapon to perform similarly to an automatic weapon—which suggests that regardless of bloodshed, the NRA will not relent to any serious form of gun control, such as a buyback. The Gun Owners of America have taken an even stricter stand against banning bump stocks, and would certainly oppose a buyback as well. A New York Times opinion column, published on October 7, 2017 and written by a gun owner, notes that almost 90% of gun owners do not belong to the NRA. The author calls on gun owners to take a stand for gun control.
On the other side, the Coalition Against Gun Violence (CAGV) has been organizing gun buybacks for years in coordination with local police departments, such as in Santa Barbara and Cleveland.,, New Jersey had three gun buybacks in July; Los Angeles bought back nearly 800 guns in May; Hartford, Connecticut purchased a record number of guns at a buyback in July—backed by the Newtown Action Alliance.,, Everytown for Gun Safety, a Michael Bloomberg-founded, moderate group, also supports gun buybacks. On October 9, 2017, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson called for a national gun buyback.
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the staunchest advocate for gun control in the Senate, should add this bill to his suite of gun control reforms. Sen. Murphy took office in January 2013 in the immediate aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 26 of his constituents. The event has focused Murphy on gun control, which has shaped his Senate career; Murphy rose to prominence over his filibuster demanding votes on background checks following the Orlando nightclub massacre., He supports universal background checks, “no-fly, no-buy”—which prevents those on the terror watch list from purchasing a gun, licensing requirements for handguns, and bans on high capacity magazines and military-style weapons. Murphy has been outspoken, demanding that Congress take action. However, Murphy has not yet been an active advocate for a gun buyback program. Introducing a companion bill to H.R. 3613 in the Senate to get guns off the street is both a necessary and logical next step in Sen. Murphy’s fight for gun control.