The AR-15: America’s Shame. When Will Democrats Take Up the Cause?

A good deal of media attention was aroused when the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature expelled two of its members on April 6. The expulsion was a response to those members’ actions in leading a protest against the failure of the legislature to address gun violence. The protests were sparked by a mass shooting at a Nashville school with an AR-15 (herein including AR-15 style assault weapons), on March 27. That shooting killed six people including three children.

The two expelled legislators were African American men. They had been joined by a third legislator, a white woman, who was not expelled. Both expelled members have now been returned to the legislature by their local constituencies.  Thus, in a single stroke, the Tennessee legislature managed to make itself look mean-spirited, arguably racist, and ineffectual. Par for the course for Republicans these days. But if the expulsions count as a scandal, the bigger scandal is — just as the protesting members had claimed — the failure of the legislature to address the gun violence poisoning their city and state. Woeful as the performance of the Tennessee legislature was, it was hardly untypical. As of April 10, there had been 145 mass shootings in America so far in 2023 with little response from our political system.

The results of gun violence are particularly grim in terms of the toll that it has taken on children. As Nicholas Kristof pointed out in the New York Times:

American children and teenagers are 57 percent more likely to die young compared with children and teenagers in other advanced countries, and guns are one important reason. One study found that Americans ages 15 to 19 are 82 times as likely to be shot dead as similar-age teenagers in our peer countries.  

On April 10, only two weeks after the Nashville shooting, another shooter, again armed with an AR-15, opened fire in a Louisville bank. This time, five people were killed. It is all but certain that another mass killing will occur within days of this writing.

Not all mass shootings involve AR-15 style rifles, but they are the weapon of choice for deranged shooters because they can kill more people, more quickly, than any other readily available weapon. Thus, ten of the seventeen deadliest mass killings in the U.S. since 2012 involved AR-15s. Moreover, those who are merely wounded by an AR-15 are often severely maimed because of the unique physical damage the rifle inflicts. Readers with sufficient fortitude are urged to read a report in the Washington Post, “The Blast Effect,” documenting in graphic detail “how bullets from an AR-15 blow the body of a victim apart. In short, it is a weapon that will seem to many as disgusting as it is dangerous.

Nevertheless, the assault weapon enjoys bewildering popularity in our country. The vast majority of AR-15 owners are law abiding citizens who would not think of harming their neighbor, but the romantic attraction the gun seems to have for them is difficult for many of the rest of us to understand. A Washington Post article “The gun that divides a nation,” explores the history of how the AR-15 arrived at the dominant position it occupies today. Massive and cleverly crafted advertising by gun manufacturers tells much of the story, but the rest involves the political, cultural and psychological cross-currents that mark America in the 21^st century.

The heading of this blog was addressed to Democrats because, quite frankly, Republicans are hopeless on this issue. Their Party is the handmaiden of the NRA, the gun industry and Second Amendment absolutists. Indeed, it was an occasion for wonderment and celebration last year when a small coterie of Republicans were persuaded to defy their Party’s orthodoxy and to pass a modest bill on the subject of gun violence. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act included a tightening of background checks for gun purchases, allowed states to introduce “red flag” laws to prevent dangerous individuals from acquiring guns, and beefed up programs to tackle mental illness. It did nothing, however, with respect to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

President Biden has called on Congress to ban assault weapons but, given the composition of the current Congress, he had as much effect as King Canute telling the tide to halt its inward flow. Hence the issue must be taken to the electorate and Democrats must respond to that challenge with a vigorous, coordinated national message. There will, of course, be political pushback. But Democrats overcame pushback against their stand for abortion rights after the Dobbs decision, and were rewarded by the electorate. As in the case of abortion, the polls show strong public support for gun control.  (See, e.g., Gallup.) Hence, there is reason to believe that a strong campaign for effective gun regulation would be not only the right decision morally but sound politics as well.