Now is the time to pass federal gun reform legislation

Connecticut is fortunate to have moral and unbending representation in the U.S. Senate, and Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal both have strong presences in making bipartisan and meaningful legislation happen. Murphy is now key, as he has been for years since the Sandy Hook school shooting, working on gun legislation. He is pushing for universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and limited sizes of  magazines for all ammunition. The bill passed the House in the middle of March, and awaits a vote in the Senate. 

The bill’s time has come; but we’ve said that before on gun control. Such legislation has seemed the rational approach to keeping outsized high-power weapons only in responsible hands. But the pushback from those who have had backing from the NRA and waved the Second Amendment as cover for their arguments has kept needed reform at bay. 

Take a look on Facebook, for instance, and do a search for “Petitions on gun control.” You will find that the majority of those that pop up are against any legislation ensuring universal background checks or limiting access to assault weapons or an inordinate amount of ammunition. So those who feel their right to bear arms is being threatened, worrying more about that than the right to vote, have louder voices on social media. This is a powerful platform that gathers large groups, as we saw on Jan. 6 with the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Is this the direction the majority of U.S. citizens want to see this country go?

The 2020 election would say otherwise. Those in power now need to act and implement gun reform, as they have received the mandate of the majority of Americans who want to know that those without morals or self control will have less chance of accessing the most dangerous weapons available to them. 

Now is finally the time for legislation on gun control to pass at the federal level of government. There are already too many guns, too powerful for hunting and more given to human tragedy like the ones we saw in Atlanta and Boulder this month, and so many others. Leaving the floodgates open will not improve the situation, but rather only make it worse. 

Things must change now. Without the effort in the right direction, they never will. And that would be tragic for the entire nation, for all of us.