Editorials: Can’t disengage from shootings if you want change

One person slaughtered 49 people and wounded 53 others in Orlando, Florida, thanks to the kind of advanced firepower the founding fathers could not have imagined.

A madman doesn’t run up that kind of toll with a flintlock or a musket. But he can with today’s weapons, even he is on a terrorist watch list. The FBI hasn’t said whether Omar Mateen, the shooter at the Orlando nightclub, was on a watch list. But if he were, he could’ve still legally purchased his weapons.

In December, the Senate voted down a measure that would’ve blocked people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns. Opponents said they worried people could land on the list in error and have their Second Amendment rights abridged.

The bill set up a process for people to challenge their appearance on watch lists, but it didn’t matter. The gun lobby is absolutist on restrictions, and it absolutely didn’t want this common-sense counterterrorism tool. Plus, it is powerful enough to scare members of Congress and state legislatures away from regulations that most Americans want.

Mateen’s spree was a clear act of terror. He was a radicalized Muslim with apparent animus for the LGBT community. And he lived in a country that makes it relatively easy to purchase weapons and act on that hatred.

We often ask what makes America the most violent advanced country in the world. We wonder what makes mass shootings so much more common here than everywhere else. We aren’t alone in having violent movies and video games. We are not alone in having radicalized citizens among us. However, we are pretty much alone in allowing such easy access to firearms.

Viewed through the prism of our laws, we seem more frightened by the prospect of one legitimate purchaser being inconvenienced than a hundred dangerous people loading up on guns and ammo. Polls show this isn’t how the general public feels, but politicians fear the gun lobby more than the public.

Like the terrorist watch-list bill, extending background checks to gun shows and private purchases is also overwhelmingly popular with the American people, but federal and state lawmakers won’t budge. The new regulation in Washington state came via a citizens’ initiative.

One reason is that politicians are more apt to hear from the minority of people who are convinced the government is coming to seize their weapons. The gun lobby helps stoke this irrational fear. This debate is often billed as a showdown, but it really isn’t. Only one side makes it the top priority and consistently patrols the halls of Congress and legislatures. Our laws reflect this.

So if you truly want change, you’re going to need to be vocal and persistent. Advocates of sensible regulations must be viewed as legitimate threats to the careers of officeholders. The gun lobby already is.

If reason alone were enough to prevail, it already would have. History shows it will take sustained political activity backed by a citizenry that will no longer disengage until the next tragedy.

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