It's Not A Dead Issue

Reasonable Gun Restrictions Are Still Needed

All It Takes Is Leadership

Indeed, there is evidence that this is happening - in defiance of the conventional wisdom that the gun-control debate is over. Just look at Colorado, Oregon and California, which closed their gun-show loopholes, reducing the number of straw purchases in those states while still allowing gun shows to flourish. Recently, the legislature in Minnesota (a state with a strong tradition of gun ownership) overwhelmingly passed a bill to upload state records to the National Instant Check System to block gun sales to those adjudicated mentally ill.

We can build on these efforts. Legislation to close the gun show loophole nationally is pending in Congress. Childproofing handguns so only owners and authorized users can fire them would save many lives. The notion that guns in our national parks will make vacationing families safer should not carry the day. And surely we can agree that civilian ownership of military-style assault weapons, which make mass slaughters possible, serves no positive purpose.

Guns have killed 300,000 and maimed another 700,000 in the past decade - a million victims since Columbine. Had we done more 10 years ago, how many of those million might we have saved? Ten years from now, do we want to be asking ourselves the same question?

We have not achieved so much in this country by giving up. We are capable of compromise. Let us summon the strong, courageous leadership to put in place sensible laws that will protect against violence while still allowing responsible gun ownership. Let us come together so that 10 years from now, we can say many fewer died because we got it done.

J. Joseph Curran Jr. is the former attorney general of Maryland. His e-mail is [e-mail].