Share

07 August 2019

Prohibit the sale to civilians of assault rifles, deadly semi-automatic weapons like the AK-47 or the AR-15 protagonists of most of the massacres in America.

As after every mass shooting many people raise their voices for a federal ban that also includes the so-called "super loaders" capable of storing dozens of bullets. A measure considered by many to be common sense and which would limit the damage of many of the accidents.

Bill Clinton succeeded in 1994 , supported by three former presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan) after a couple of tragedies that left their mark: but the law expired in 2004 due to a clause strongly desired by the very powerful builders' lobby and of the owners of weapons. Since then, every other attempt has been in vain. The attempt by Barack Obama who tried after the most painful massacre, the one in which 20 children of the Sandy Hook Elementary School of Newtown were killed, also failed.

The breakthrough so far has been made impossible by a Congress - accuses those who call for the close - hostage of that Nra (National Rifle Association) which has always exercised an enormous bipartisan influence and is opposed with all its strength to a measure that would take away from the streets of city ​​weapons designed for battlefields.

Now to call for the ban, after the tragedies of El Paso and Dayton cost the lives of 30 people, there are many democrats, and among them almost all the candidates for the White House for 2020, from Joe Biden to Pete Buttigieg. Even some Republicans say they are ready to challenge the resistance of their part.

But the highest cry comes from a large part of public opinion, tired of so many massacres and asks politics to act once and for all.

However, President Trump holds back : "I will convince the Congress to take measures", he said, starting for Dayton and El Paso, but underlining that there is no necessary consensus on the ban on assault rifles. That consensus that, instead, according to him, is maturing for a strengthening of the controls on those who want to buy firearms, those background checks to check if the buyers have a criminal record or are suffering from mental disorders.

The hypothesis of a "red-flag law" at the federal level also takes its share : these are rules, already adopted to varying degrees in 17 US states, which allow the authorities and the police to seize weapons from persons judged to be various dangerous title by a magistrate. If Congress were to pass a similar rule - a text to be presented to the Chamber is ready - it would be the most severe measure against weapons in 20 years. Even stricter penalties are being studied for those who possess illegal weapons and more funds for initiatives aimed at tackling the problem of mental disability.