The gun control legislation being considered in Congress could still play a key role in reducing gun violence, particularly in urban communities, even if does not include bans on high-capacity magazines or assault weapons, which gun control advocates have pushed for.
The two key provisions that could be approved in the legislation are increased background checks and stiffer penalties for “straw purchases,” when a person buys a gun for someone who is not legally allowed to have one. Under the legislation being considered by the Senate, straw purchasers could be subject to up to 20 years in prison.
While they don’t have precise data, officials in Chicago, where a wave of gang-related violence resulted in more than 500 homicides last year, believe that many of the killings in the city are the result of gun-trafficking rings and straw purchases that make it easier for criminals to get firearms. Guns aren’t allowed to be sold within Chicago city limits, but often come from surrounding counties and other states.
Denying guns to the ineligible
And expanding background checks could also limit purchases by criminals: in 2009, more than 150,000 people nationally were denied guns because they were not eligible to buy them
“By taking steps to dry up the flow of illegal weapons to dangerous drug gangs, it is my hope that we will make our neighborhoods safer without compromising the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who is one of the few Republicans leading the gun control push in Congress.
Despite the attention on the assault weapons ban in particular, these two provisions may actually have a broader impact. More than 70 percent of gun violence crimes in U.S. involve the use of a handgun, meaning a ban on assault weapons would have a limited impact. And many of those shootings do not involve the use of high-capacity magazines.