In the wake of the barbaric massacre in San Bernardino, local congressional representatives are doubling down on their respective party’s gun control positions and light on new ideas.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa, echoing National Rifle Association Chairman Wayne LaPierre, intimated that only an armed public can reduce the death toll. An aid to the Republican North Valley congressman declined to make him available, but forwarded excerpts of an interview he recently gave to the Los Angeles Times.
LaMalfa noted that victims were on their own for four or five minutes before police arrived. LaMalfa called for “individual vigilance” and urged people to “be ready for this stuff.”
LaMalfa’s valley colleague, democrat John Garamendi meanwhile joined a chorus of lawmakers from his party urging that those on the FBI’s “terrorist-watch” and “no-fly” lists be barred from buying firearms.
LaMalfa’s reasoning may defy logic for some, while the idea championed by Garamendi is unlikely to advance to a congressional vote.
Diana Dwyer is a professor of political science at Chico State.
“Congress is completely divided on the issue of guns,” she said. “The Republicans are now in control of both the House and the Senate and they made it very clear that they’re not interested in further gun controls.”
She said the political power of the gun lobby and its absolutist positions have stymied debate.
“They don’t want to give any ground at all,” Dwyer said. “They see the Second Amendment as an absolute right, and any restrictions on guns would be a violation.”
While Democrats make political hay in equating Republican opposition to rhetorically supporting the arming of terrorists, it’s unclear how effective it would prove. One thousand four hundred people on those lists tried to buy explosives or firearms between 2004 and 2010. Ninety percent successfully did so. It’s unclear how many, if any of those buyers were involved in any of the mass shootings that have occurred since.
