President Barack Obama laid out his recommendations for the regulation of firearms on Wednesday. Based on a white paper crafted by Vice-President Joe Biden entitled Now Is The Time, Obama held a news conference to propose universal background checks for all gun purchases, and a ban on assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips. He also signed multiple executive orders to make schools safer, improve mental health services, lift the ban on federal research into gun violence, outlaw armour piercing bullets, and other initiatives to mitigate gun violence.

For an American president, this was a bold initiative. Praise too for Biden, who was able to pull together a set of policy consultations and recommendations in short order. The proposals and executive orders directly challenge the powerful gun lobby represented in the public mind by the National Rifle Association.

As a Canadian, I wish the proposals were more robust, taking lessons from the successful regulation of guns in Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. This would include but not be limited to the following.

• A national registry of guns and gun owners.
• A national registry for those prohibited from owning weapons.
• A recurring license to own and operate various categories of guns.
• Mandatory firearms training for each of those categories.
• Mandatory buyback of assault weapons (permitted exceptions).
• Required safety devices (e.g., biometric trigger locks) and storage regulations (e.g. lockable gun cabinets).
• Mico-stamping of ammunition.
• A ban on armour piercing and antipersonnel ammunition.

These are but a few of the many good ideas out there. Owning and operating a weapon as lethal as a handgun or rifle should have as much or more oversight as driving a car. Limits on assault weapons and clips will help reduce the number of massacres in the US. So too will better mental health services and more trained police officers. Yet the president’s initiatives will do little to address the public health epidemic of handgun violence that afflicts homes and neighbourhoods to the tune of 30,000 or more lives per year.

One reason Obama and his team avoided the broader issues is the difficulty getting even modest proposals past a Republican controlled House of Representatives. After the 2010 census, congressional seats were reapportioned. State republican parties took maximal advantage to gerrymander congressional districts to favour their party. Thus while Republicans lost the popular vote for the federal House of Representative in 2012 by a wide margin, they retained a large majority of the seats. To use a sports analogy, the game was rigged. Republican allies of the NRA are thus well insulated from the voice of public opinion, standards of honest government, and sensible policy making. Ironically, the political corruption of the House gives Democrats in the Senate political cover as well. Democrats afraid of the NRA can point to obstruction in the House, rather than develop strong legislation themselves. How it all turns out is anyone’s guess.

As a society, about one-third of Americans own guns, and a majority believes that the right to bear arms includes the use of weapons for self-defense in the home, hunting, or sport shooting. They do not believe, however, that this translates into unregulated sales of military style assault weapons. And they are sickened by the series of massacres that are the tip of the larger problem.

It may not be enough to address the wider problems of gun violence and gun culture, but the Obama administration’s proposals are a step in the right direction. Let us hope they will not be the last.

Image: Charles Dharapak, AP Photo,