Senate Defeats Gun-Control Measures Inspired by Mass Shootings

Advocates of stricter gun laws suffered a significant setback Wednesday with the defeat of measures that would have expand background checks for guns bought online or at gun shows, and banned assault weapons and high-capacity guns.

The failure of the measures does not bode well for related efforts to increase background checks and gun restrictions in the wake of mass shootings such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings or, closer to home, the Salon Meritage slayings in Seal Beach.

While President Barack Obama called the measures' defeat “a pretty shameful day for Washington,” the National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, released a statement praising its defeat.

“This amendment would have criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens, requiring lifelong friends, neighbors and some family members to get federal government permission to exercise a fundamental right or face prosecution,” Cox said in a written release. “As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools.”

For Paul Wilson, whose wife, Christy, was slain along with seven others at Salon Meritage in Orange County’s deadliest mass shooting, the measure’s defeat reflected political cowardice by the nation’s leaders.

“It just shows the inability of our elected officials to make the right decision based on the right thing to do versus politics. It’s apparent we have an epidemic on our hands: gun violence. To see them drop it in light of everything that has happened in the last couple years ― all the mass murders, all the wives, sons and daughters killed ― it’s alarming,” said Wilson. “This is not about politics, it’s about the right thing to do.”

Wilson said he was not deterred by Wednesday's defeat in the Senate. The tide of public opinion is turning in support of common-sense gun control, he said. Wilson is working with California legislators to pass Christy's Law, a measure that would prohibit people who are going through divorce proceedings or child custody disputes from owning or possessing a firearm, and would require them to temporarily surrender their existing guns.

What do you think of the measures? Did the Senate make the right decision?