Why has the US not taken action on gun violence?

Political divides

The polarization of American politics has deepened. As happens after every shooting, US politicians are engaged in a war of words. Democrats, who support stronger gun regulation, accuse Republicans of failing to address the problem of gun violence in the US, while Republicans emphasize mental health problems and accuse Democrats of politicizing tragedy. Partisan recriminations have become routine after mass shootings, The Washington Post reported.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat representing New York, signaled on May 25 the chamber will not quickly vote on a pair of House-passed background check bills, giving Democrats and Republicans time to negotiate a possible but improbable bipartisan deal to address a spate of horrific mass shootings, NBC News reported.

Republican senators are likely to filibuster any proposed gun-control legislation, and Democrats do not have the 60 votes needed to advance those bills.

In March 2021, House Democrats passed two bills to impose universal background checks for gun purchasers and close the "gun show loophole" that allows buyers to forgo a background check if they buy a gun at a gun show or online.

Both bills passed with overwhelming Democratic support but were never taken up in the evenly divided Senate due to a lack of Republican support.

In the intervening years, the partisan lines between Republicans and Democrats have only hardened, not only on gun rights but on the much broader question of how to balance individual liberty against collective responsibility, The New York Times reported on May 25.

Gun laws vary in severity from state to state. Texas has some of the loosest gun regulations in the US. Last year, the state's Republican governor signed a set of bills into law to make it easier for people to buy, carry and own guns in the state, including one that gives people the right to carry a gun without a license.

While partisan gridlock hinders progress on gun control legislation at the federal level, recent shootings have prompted some states to try to strengthen their restrictions. New York's Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul said she would seek to raise the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21.

"If every state had those five (gun control) laws, our model predicts that would be about a 35 percent reduction in firearm homicide," Michael Siegel, a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine who has studied the impact of gun laws on firearm violence, told Bloomberg on May 26.