The saddest ritual cycle in modern life is a school shooting. Kids get killed. Yellow ribbons, balloons and guidance counselors appear. Everyone wonders why and how. And then, we shrug and feel helpless that nothing can be done because the all-powerful gun lobby will move mountains to ensure that crazy people can always get a firearm.
But all is not futile. Washington State just broke the pattern. More than a week ago, four students, including the shooter, were killed in a high school north of Seattle. And in Tuesday’s election, voters approved of a ballot measure that is designed to keep felons, the mentally ill, people under certain kinds of restraining orders and others from buying weapons through unlicensed dealers — mainly gun shows and through the Internet.
Would this measure, Initiative 594, have prevented a 14-year-old from murdering his classmates? No, given the circumstances of the Marysville-Pilchuck shooting. But it’s likely to limit other mass killings, or at least make it much harder for unstable people to get guns.
Politically, this issue is a no-brainer, and shows both how broken the current American legislative system is and how to get around the politicians owned by the gun manufacturers. Universal background checks are supported by 92 percent of voters, and a nearly equal percentage of gun owners, according to Quinnipiac Poll this year. Republicans and independents — same sentiment.
If ever there was an issue that demonstrates how the will of the people can be stifled by an uncompromising minority, this is it. What passed in Washington is not gun control. Nominally sane people can still stock up on insane quantities of firearms, including assault weapons. All this measure does is try to filter out the people who should not be waving weapons of mass carnage around in public.
And yet, background checks could not even pass the Senate after the slaughter at Newtown, Conn. “These senators have heard from their constituents,” wrote Gabby Giffords, the congresswoman who was shot in Arizona. “And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.”
Shame is not enough. But Washington showed the model for other states. If you take the issue out of the hands of cowed politicians and put it directly in front of the voters, the results are as expected — the will of the people prevails.
Now, gun extremists will point to the money spent to back the measure in Washington — about $11 million, including sizeable contributions from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the philanthropist Bill Gates.
But the gun lobby did not sit on their hands. In an act of predictable hypocrisy, they put a countermeasure on the ballot, Initiative 591, which would block expanded background checks if they go beyond the nearly nonexistent federal standards. See, they’re all for states rights ... until they aren’t.
That measure, designed to confuse voters and tie the background check initiative up in court, was failing. So take heart, all of you who’ve had the optimism kicked out of you by the gun lobby. Democracy can still work, and common sense can still prevail. State by state.