Another Shooting and the Gun Debate Goes Nowhere

April 17, 2007 — -- Though the mass shooting at Virginia Tech is being called one of the worst in U.S. history, it certainly isn't the only high-profile shooting to spark national debate about the Second Amendment and the issue of gun control.

Politicians have mostly stuck to condolences and words of prayer for the grieving in the hours since the shooting, but if history is any indication, the debate will heat up again soon.

But that same history shows us that even in the face of unfathomable tragedies at the end of a gun barrel, the gears of law move slowly, and that in the end, they may not be very effective at protecting us anyway.

While laws are regularly debated, refined and enacted to prevent gun violence, the issue hasn't changed much in the last 50 years.

A History of Violence

Several months before Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy, debate had begun in the halls of Congress over the regulation of interstate firearms trafficking.

Then-Sen. Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut, was pushing for the bill after a report showed that firearms were rapidly replacing switchblades and "zip guns" -- improvised guns usually firing one shot -- on city streets and were being widely distributed by mail order.

Even then, the well-organized and impassioned members of the National Rifle Association fought to ensure the bill didn't limit the rights of gun owners nationwide.

The assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. brought the issue to the lips and minds of politicians and the public, but it still remained a debate with no tangible results.

On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, a former Marine and student at the University of Texas at Austin, climbed to the top of a tower on the university's campus and used a rifle to kill at least 12 people and injure more than 30 before being shot by police.

Again, the incident sparked debate, but still no laws were enacted.

It wasn't until the shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, on June 5, 1968, that the rhetoric reached a fever pitch and went from talk to action.

"I think the time has come when we will have to follow the example of other civilized countries and make the registration of guns compulsory," Dodd told The New York Times in 1968. Unless this is done, he added, "I am profoundly afraid that our land will be the scene of more assassinations and assassination attempts."

Shortly after, the bill was signed.

It took almost a decade of debate, years of vacillation and three of the most significant shootings in U.S. history to enact legislation aimed at curbing it. Yet 40 years later, shootings on significantly greater scales are an almost common occurrence and legislation has followed sluggishly.

Guns: American as Apple Pie?

"We have 300 million firearms in circulation in the U.S. in about 40 percent of households and it severally limits the options when it comes to legislation," explains professor James Jacobs of the NYU School of Law and the author of 2002's "Can Gun Control Work?"

Jacobs said he's a skeptic when it comes to gun control legislation's ability to prevent massacres like the one at Virginia Tech or the Columbine High School shooting.

But he also thinks gun control is unlikely to have any real effect on crime at all.

"I don't believe there's any gun control answer to the crime problem or these kinds of rundown mass murders," he said. "80 percent or more [of criminals involved in shootings] didn't get their guns from a licensed dealer, they got them from some guy on the street."

It's important, he said, to think about what we mean when we call for gun control.

"The idea of a prohibition should be taken off the table," he said. "Guns are very deeply embedded in American society…they are possessed and used by people at the very center of our society. You have presidential candidates saying they hunt regularly and have guns for protection."

Jacobs argues that we'll never get rid of guns in this county and that it's virtually impossible to stop someone who is wants to harm others and is willing to die.

"How can you stop that with some general policy," Jacobs asked rhetorically. "We have a steady state of these mass killings -- maybe one every year or two. It's a big country and there are a lot of unhinged people."

The Power of the NRA

At the center of the gun control debate is what's arguably the most powerful member organization in the United States, the NRA.

Its long history of fighting for the rights of gun owners has put the group at center stage in the argument over gun control for decades.

"The NRA has been extremely well-organized and effective," said Kristin Goss, assistant professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University and author of "Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America."

Goss said the NRA is a model for other grassroots organizations with their ability to get gun owners involved in government and out to polls.

"It's really an open question to what extent NRA votes have flipped elections," she explained, "but there are certainly people who believe Gore lost on the gun issue."

Though the anti-gun and pro-gun control groups in the United States have battled hard and long for their beliefs, their inability to keep up with the NRA's grassroots organization have made their voices harder to hear.

Politicians also tend to avoid the question if they're in favor of gun control, preferring to not risk losing votes over such a hot button issue.

"Members of Congress tend to be risk averse," she said. "[They] are very nervous when gun control becomes the issue."

Is There a Solution?

As the dust settles from the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech, the voices of both pro and anti-gun activists and politicians will likely grow to a deafening chorus.

Laws will be proposed and shot down. Civilians will cry that their rights or their lives aren't being protected.

But gun violence is not likely to be an issue solved by one congressman, senator or even president. If ever solved at all.