Trump renews attack on Florida deputy: 'I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon' Read more

The mass shooting that left 17 dead at a high school in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month has led to new calls for gun control legislation in the US. Polling indicates that public support for such a move is at its highest point in two decades – although Republican support is soft, making an act of Congress less likely.

Here we assess the likelihood of federal action on five policies that have risen to the fore after Parkland.

State action may also be possible. That’s significant, because gun laws in the United States vary dramatically from state to state, with respect to types of guns that are permitted, where they are permitted, how they can be purchased, how they may be used, how they must be registered and more.

It’s notable that none of the measures being discussed on Capitol Hill after the Parkland shootings rank at the top of the list of measures that experts have identified as the most urgent for reducing gun violence in the United States. To learn more about those, read our investigation: What could actually work to fix gun violence in America – and what doesn’t.

Ban bump stocks

Donald Trump on Monday vowed to ban bump stocks – rifle accessories used to mimic automatic fire – telling a group of governors: “I am writing that out” and “I’m getting rid of them.”



The Trump administration may be able to take unilateral action to do this, though some legislators have warned that such a ban would be a matter for Congress, and any such action is likely to face legal challenges. “The only way to close this loophole permanently is legislation,” the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said of a bump stock ban.

For Trump to enact the ban, his justice department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would have to overturn a previous ruling that bump stocks could be regulated under the 1934 National Firearms Act, which strictly regulates machine guns and other especially dangerous weapons.

A bill to ban bump stocks sponsored by the California senator Dianne Feinstein after the accessory was used in the country’s deadliest mass shooting, last year in Las Vegas, stalled out in Congress but could be revived.

Background checks

A strong majority of Americans support stricter background checks for gun purchases. And a piece of bipartisan legislation currently before Congress, the Fix Nics 2017 Act, could start to tighten the country’s background checks system. (Nics stands for the National Instant Background Checks System.)

Trump has signaled his support for better background checks:



Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!

But as the Guardian’s correspondent on gun violence, Lois Beckett, has explained, the “Fix Nics” legislation, which has been endorsed by the powerful gun lobby group the National Rifle Association (NRA), is very far from universal background checks for gun buyers:

The bipartisan Fix Nics Act that Trump is now supporting does not change the categories of who is barred from buying a gun, or even require all gun buyers to pass a background check before they can purchase a firearm ... Instead, it simply provides federal agencies with a few more incentives to submit records to the background check system – something they are already required by law to do.

At least three men who went on to commit high-profile mass shootings should have been barred by law from buying guns, but got them anyway because of background check system failures.



The House of Representatives has passed a version of the “Fix Nics” bill but packaged it with legislation to allow national concealed carry of handguns, which is a top legislative priority of the NRA. The package together is not seen as passable in the Senate, and John Cornyn of Texas, a key Senate sponsor, has said he would try to pass the Fix Nics legislation separately.

Critics also consider the Fix Nics legislation insufficient to ensure screening for mental health problems or domestic abuse patterns among potential gun purchasers.



Q&A Why is the National Rifle Association so powerful? Show Hide It’s not (just) about the money. In 2017, the NRA spent at least $4.1m on lobbying – more than the $3.1m it spent in all of 2016. But for comparison, the dairy industry has spent $4.4m in the same period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). The National Association of Realtors, one of the biggest spenders, has paid out $32.2m lobbying on housing issues. The NRA has plenty of cash to spend. It bet big on the 2016 US elections, pouring $14.4m into supporting 44 candidates who won and $34.4m opposing 19 candidates who lost, according to CRP. But “the real source of its power, I believe, comes from voters,” said Adam Winkler, a UCLA professor of constitutional law. The 145-year-old organization claims 5 million active members, that number is disputed, but whatever its actual size, membership is a powerful tool, said Robert Spitzer, a professor at the State University of New York at Cortland. “They have a very powerful ability to mobilize a grassroots support and to engage in politics when most Americans can barely be bothered to vote,” he said. “And because so few Americans do those things, if you get a bunch of people in a locality who are all prepared to go out to a meeting they can have a big effect." Read more Photograph: Mark Humphrey/AP

Age limit rise

The Florida governor, Rick Scott, last week proposed a rise in the minimum age – from 18 to 21 – for purchasing semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15. Three Republican senators have signaled support for the idea.

The proposal was seen as out of character for Scott, a Republican with a top rating from the NRA. He made no comparable call for gun control after the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 and wounded 58.

But the NRA vehemently opposes changing the national minimum age for purchases of so-called long guns, and Cornyn, the Texas senator, recently dismissed the idea, making passage in the Senate anytime soon unlikely.

Semi-automatic weapons ban

In a march on the Florida statehouse in Tallahassee following the Parkland shootings, students who had survived called for a new assault weapons ban, starting with a ban in the Florida legislature.

But a proposal last week in Florida to debate a ban on semi-automatic weapons never even made it to the floor of the legislature.

On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, a Democrat in the House introduced a ban on military-style assault weapons and others, but with Republicans in the majority that bill seemed a non-starter.

Beckett, our correspondent, has noted the suggestion of experts that it may be more effective to focus simply on limiting ammunition capacity rather than on banning military-style weapons.

Arming teachers

“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” Trump said in a meeting with students after the Parkland shootings.

But almost no one with substantial experience in schools – teachers’ groups and school boards – thinks the idea is a good one. State legislative efforts to arm teachers in Alabama, Indiana and elsewhere have gathered no steam. All but four states have laws restricting guns in school zones. Nevertheless, Trump has continued to push the idea.