“We have fought hard for an ambitious deal that reduces the risk of shootings in schools, summer camps or terrorist attacks with legally held firearms,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission, declared last week in hailing the proposals as a milestone for Europe. Terrorism is not the only risk linked to firearms, the commission emphasized. Over the last decade, 10,000 homicides were committed with firearms in Europe. This is just a small fraction of the more than 300,000 gun deaths in that time in the United States, where citizens own guns at far higher rates.

The final compromise did not ban all of the most dangerous semiautomatic weapons, like the AK-47, as some nations wanted, nor limit ammunition magazines to 10 cartridges for all of them. But it would require member nations to share more information to prevent gun sales in other jurisdictions after a buyer is rejected by one country. The rules also aim to control the problem of guns that are pronounced deactivated as collector items but then refitted for sale as weapons.

The European move on gun safety is not a cure-all, but it is a worthy public health initiative that deserves emulation in the United States. Congressional leaders, unfortunately, show no sign of mustering the courage of the Europeans.