Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)that prevents them from getting strong gun control laws passed. It's a good excuse for why they have such a difficult time passing such legislation at the national level.
The NRA has only 5 million members out of the 80 million gun owners in our nation. The simple fact is that while the NRA is an effective lobbying group, the real reason it is so hard to pass gun control legislation is that a high percentage of the gun owners show up at the polls and VOTE. That vote can make the difference in a close election and many elections are close.
You state:
"There doesn't have to be a UK style ban in order to address the problem of criminals with guns. If guns designed to kill a lot of people in a short space of time become the norm, those will become the type of guns criminals will be buying in unregistered private sales in the future without legislation to prevent it."
First semiautomatic weapons are already the norm and have been for several decades. I'm considered a dinosaur in the shooting community as I prefer revolvers rather than semiautomatic pistols.
A law requiring universal background checks might have passed in Congress if only Dianne Feinstein hadn't pushed for another Assault Weapons Ban. That, more than the NRA, guaranteed no gun control legislation would pass at the national level that year.
This year nobody was interesting in pushing gun Control laws trough the Congress because of the upcoming midterm elections. Democrats knew that trying to push gun control would be political suicide. Changes are Republicans will gain control of the Senate in November and if so the chance of any gun control legislation passing before 2016 is extremely slim.