US needs new sheriff on gun laws

With surveys showing 45 per cent of adult Americans own guns, it is not difficult to understand the imperative felt by Republicans running for office to parade themselves at the annual convention of the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby. To understand that imperative, however, should not be to excuse it. That is especially so when there already have been a staggering 163 mass shootings in the US so far this year, with innocent teenagers at a “Sweet 16” birthday party in Alabama and even younger schoolchildren in Tennessee among recent victims of well-armed shooters exercising their so-called constitutional right to bear arms.

That grim reality, and the prospect that there will be well more than 600 mass shootings by the end of the year, did nothing to deter Donald Trump from making an ingratiating, “I’m your boy” appearance at the NRA convention in Indiana last weekend to seek its support to be the Republican candidate in next year’s White House race. Gun violence in the US may be worse than it has ever been but that did not stop Mr Trump from proclaiming: “I was proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-second amendment president you’ve ever had.” He was cheered when he added: “With your support in 2024, I will be your loyal friend and fearless champion once again as the 47th president.”

The remarks of his main challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, were no less obscene in the context of the horrifying surge of gun violence. Fresh from signing legislation making carrying guns in Florida even easier by dispensing with permits or training, Mr DeSantis declared the right to bear arms was “the last backstop of freedom and the foundation upon which all our other rights rest”. Even the normally sensible former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, in her quest for NRA votes, spoke of a “lifelong commitment to the second amendment”. She boasted of her “concealed-weapons permit”. Given the appalling daily toll caused by America’s gun madness, it would be hard to conceive of a more disgraceful display of gross political cynicism and expediency than that of the Republican politicians at the NRA convention.

Joe Biden was right when, in the aftermath of last week’s appalling tragedy in Alabama, he asked: “What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear? Guns are the leading killer of children in America – and the numbers are rising, not declining. This is outrageous and unacceptable.” Mr Biden at least has tried to do something about the crisis. Last year he signed into law the first major gun-restriction legislation in decades. It is focused on mental health and other checks on buyers under the age of 21, factors that in a different society would long since have been elementary. But with Republicans, under Mr Trump’s influence, unwilling to legislate effective gun control, and a ruling by the US Supreme Court that Americans have the constitutional right to carry guns in public, plus state officials such as Mr DeSantis making it even easier to do so, the prospects could hardly look more bleak or more tragic. The unrelenting – and, to many, unfathomable – American gun control tragedy is encapsulated by surveys showing there are 120 guns for every 100 people. On an average day 321 people are shot in gun violence. Gallup polling consistently shows most Americans want strict regulations on gun buying. Yet with Republican leaders such as Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis in what has been described as “a political doom loop with the voters they need to win elections”, the prospect of effective gun control is as remote as it has ever been.

With each new incident of gun violence, the world’s most powerful democracy is further diminished. Even Mr Trump, in his manic quest for another term in the White House, should be able to understand that. So should Mr DeSantis and other Republican leaders. The crisis over guns in the US needs strong leadership by responsible Republicans as much as Democrats. Not cynical, spineless “I’m your boy” kowtowing to the odious NRA.