Opinion

Need for stricter gun control is obvious

This file photo shows guns confiscated guns by Los Angeles area law enforcement agencies. The U.S. must enact gun control measures to stop violent extremists from carrying out their fantasies. This file photo shows guns confiscated guns by Los Angeles area law enforcement agencies. The U.S. must enact gun control measures to stop violent extremists from carrying out their fantasies. Photo: David McNew /Getty Images Photo: David McNew /Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Need for stricter gun control is obvious 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

While lowering the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina Statehouse was long overdue, it misses the real issue that should be addressed following the Charleston church massacre that killed nine innocent people. Our nation’s lenient policy on gun control is an accessory to heinous crimes that are occurring with alarming frequency.

From his website, we know that 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof, who launched his assault in the Emanuel AME Church, was motivated by white supremacy. We also know that he was using a weapon he should not have been able to buy given his criminal history.

This month, another instance of domestic terrorism was committed by a naturalized American citizen, Mohamod Youssuf Abdulazeez, who killed four Marines, a Navy sailor and wounded several others with an automatic weapon at two military facilities in Chattanooga.

That same day, jurors rejected an insanity plea and returned a guilty verdict on James Holmes for a shooting rampage in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater three years ago that killed 12 people and wounded 70.

Whether racism, terrorist ideology or insanity pulled the trigger, the availability of weapons was there for these and many other cases of mass murder in this country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, tracks extremist groups and individuals, and pays attention to their behavior. According to Mark Potok of the center, “It appears that extremists are leaving these groups for the anonymity of the Internet, which allows their message to reach a huge audience.”

The SPLC found an increase in the number of hate groups — from 926 in 2008 to a peak of 1,018 in 2011. The number declined to 939 in 2013 and 784 in 2014. But this decline was not also accompanied by a decrease in extremist violence.

And 90 percent of the domestic terror of all kinds since 2009 were one- or two-people attacks. Terrorist acts by lone-wolf extremists are not easily prevented when guns are so readily available with no record of who is buying them.

In response to the Charleston massacre, a weary President Barack Obama conceded that tightening gun control was not likely to happen in the foreseeable future because politicians fear retribution by the NRA.

So, our nation’s response to a horrific tragedy was simply to lower a symbol of resistance to civil rights, the Confederate battle flag. Good, but not enough. No gun control solutions were offered in the policy dialogue that followed.

In fact, the opposite — gun proliferation — was advocated by those on the far right. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee suggested that the Charleston killings might not have happened had the churchgoers been armed.

A month after the shooting, the San Antonio Express-News proposed a more thoughtful suggestion: Fix the flawed system of background checks and expand it to all gun sales. This would be a good start.

The Pew Research Center in a 2013 survey reports broad public support for many gun policy solutions, even though Americans are divided over the issue of gun control generally. More than 8 out of 10 people favor background checks in both private and gun-show sales; 9 in 10 support laws preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns; and 2 out of 3 support a federal database in tracking gun sales. Yet in April 2013 we saw the death of a background checks bill in the U.S. Senate and no action since then.

Failure of Congress to act on gun control may explain why more Americans now buy guns for self-protection. In 1999, ABC News/Washington Post poll found that one-fourth of gun owners purchased their guns primarily as a means of self-protection; by 2013 that proportion had doubled to one-half.

Until we change our politics to get control over the sale and distribution of firearms, the country will continue to be a place where extremists can act out their violent fantasies.

Robert Brischetto is the former executive director of the Southwest Voter Research Institute.