opinion

After Broward mass shooting, time to restrict new semi-automatic rifle sales | Our view

Nikolas Cruz's mug shot might be a testament to the banality of evil.

Cruz, 19, is accused of killing 17 and wounding at least 16 on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. In his booking photo he appears slightly agitated, slightly defiant, slightly tired; but mostly, his expression is blank.

Does he look like a mass shooter? Well, what does a mass shooter look like?

Cruz, alleged to have committed the nation's worst school shooting since Sandy Hook, was a troubled young man. He'd been expelled from Douglas High School. On Wednesday, he appeared to seek his revenge.

And he apparently knew just what tool to use.

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Cruz's weapon of choice was an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, according to investigators. And despite his history of behavioral issues, despite his apparent obsession with guns, he was nonetheless able to legally acquire the weapon, and use it for the same purpose so many other troubled young men have.

Indeed, these guns, commonly called "assault rifles," have been used in some of the nation's worst mass shootings, including Las Vegas, Sandy Hook and Columbine. And each time these weapons make the headlines, a rising chorus calls for a ban.

In the past, we've resisted joining that parade. We've called, instead, for a ban on the high-capacity magazines, reasoning that smaller magazines would force shooters to stop and reload more often, potentially saving lives.

But while Cruz reportedly had "countless" magazines, none of them appear to have been high-capacity models.

For this reason and others, after this tragedy close to home, we've begun to think restricting the size of magazines isn't enough.

Maybe it is time to consider a ban on new purchases of semi-automatic rifles.

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To be sure, they are rarely the weapon of choice for mass shooters. Mother Jones Magazine maintains an online database of U.S. mass shootings since 1982; of the 98 incidents listed, only 24 — one in four — involved a semi-automatic rifle. The most commonly used weapon, by far, is the semi-automatic handgun.

Yet "assault" rifles were used in four of six of the most recent mass shootings, including the horrific murder of 58 people in Las Vegas last October. And as one expert told USA TODAY, some mass shooters make a point of choosing the AR-15 "because of the reputation is has gotten from being used in other mass shootings."

It's got cachet, in other words, specifically because it's good at killing a lot of people in a relatively short period of time — the very task for which it was designed.

As we've said in the past, it's difficult to understand why any American needs to own one of these modified weapons of war. Yet at least 8 million AR-15s have been sold; the National Rifle Association calls the weapon the "most popular rifle in America." The Sig Sauer MCX and other semi-automatic rifles also are in the homes of millions.

We're not suggesting legally acquired weapons can or should be taken away. Logistically, it's impossible; and there's no justification for seizing guns from law-abiding citizens. It's simply not going to happen.

But restrictions on new purchases might help stem continued proliferation. And after this latest mass shooting, can't we at least agree that however many of these weapons are out there, we don't need more?

There are other, creative possibilities. But all are destined to be controversial, with some saying they go too far while others insist they don't go far enough.

Extremism drives our national debate on guns. And this, more than anything else, is the reason the needle never moves.

The pro-gun right believes every proposal, no matter how innocuous, represents the leading edge of the wedge, the first steps toward a total ban on guns. The anti-gun left, in its rhetoric, all too often validates that fear.

But in the face of continued bloodshed, a reasonable people must be able to forge a reasonable compromise.

Guns, by and of themselves, are not responsible for what happened in Broward County. Yet it's impossible to escape the conclusion that if Cruz sought to become a killing machine, we as a society made the tools for his task readily available.

We do not delude ourselves into thinking that new restrictions are "the" answer.

But this is not an excuse for inaction. We must, instead, search for small solutions, measures that can make it tougher for the next mass shooter to rack up such a high body count, while doing more to discern why they want to kill in the first place.

We owe that, at least, to the victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to the dead — and the living.

Editorials of Treasure Coast Newspapers/TCPalm are decided collectively by its Editorial Board. To respond to this editorial in a letter to the editor, email up to 300 words to TCNLetters@TCPalm.com.