This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Will Virginia shootings spur Congress to Act?
There is a lot of talk about how these shooting will affect gun control laws. I dont forsee any thing to come into action in this congress but who knows. I feel as though congress has enough food on their plate, that even if legislation is written, it will either die in committee or take way too long to make it through all the steps we talked about Tuesday in class. This could be an interesting way though, for a freshman member of congress to get noticed....what do you guys think?
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3 comments:
I would agree that althought this raises the issue of gun control to a higher public awareness, that nothing will happen with it. Most states have pretty good gun control policies in place, however they can't stop a person who snaps, with no prior history of violence or crime, from buying a gun and killing someone. They are meant to keep guns out of the hands of previous criminals, not to predict who is a future psychopath.
Going against the norm for Democrats, Rep. Jon Tester (D-MT) used the sly tactic of using reasons of propriety to discourage a congressional debate on gun control. I credit him for delaying congressional talk on gun control because not only does allowing more time to pass between the VT incident and the resuming of the GC debate favor his efforts on behalf of gun owners’ rights, it also increases the likelihood that members of Congress will be more level-headed and less emotionally swayed by gun control advocacy. Tester recognized that the highly publicized shooting spree may have shifted the median congressional preference to a more pro-control gun policy (at least temporarily) and hence aims to give the median preference to move to a more permitting gun policy (perhaps approximating the status quo before the VT incident).
Normally I would say that gun control laws should be passed as soon as possible and it is unfortunate that something so horrible had to spur action, but since 9/11 and the action spurred from it, I really question the ability of Congress to act rationally in these cases.
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