Stricter State Gun Laws Tied To Fewer U.S. Teens With Firearms

[branford]

165. First, the fear of the UN taking our guns is humorous.

Besides the fact that the Senate has not, and likely will not, even ratify the treaty, and American domestic law already meets or exceeds the treaty requirements to prevent gun trafficking and abuse, the treaty was carefully and intentionally written to avoid any potential disputes with the USA and our Second Amendment. The major signatories had the quite reasonable fear that any international attempts to affect American gun ownership could result in a massive American backlash, including refusal to cooperate in firearm anti-trafficking matters where we now are a world leader, to say nothing of the risk of the loss of funding.

As for playing Devil's Advocate, I doubt the USA will ever entertain anything close to the national gun bans you desire both due to obvious legal impediments and strong, regionally concentrated and entrenched political opinions, at least anytime soon.

However, many gun control policies, including universal background checks, mandatory training, storage requirements, etc., and even some "assault weapon" bans, magazine limits, registration requirements, and more likely pass constitutional muster. Some states have passed these requirements, and the battle for gun control will remain with the states. Public opinion is unpredictable, and it's entirely possible that states with anti-gun popular opinions will pass more and stricter gun laws and that other states will join them.

I'm uncertain what the Supreme Court will do with the many firearm cases on the dockets in lower courts. Since unequivocally establishing an individual right to own a firearm, the court has assiduously avoided further major entanglements with the issue. I expect that thy might tinker a little bit (e.g., resolve the "may issue" versus "shall issue" gun permit dispute), but otherwise generally leave matters to more local sensibilities.

If gun rights advocates begin to lower their rhetoric and expectations, there might also been some room for national compromise. Gun rights proponents have already suggested they would be amenable to improving NICS data collection, coordination and dissemination, and universal background checks might even be a possibility if due care is made to craft legislation that clearly avoids even the hint of a national gun registry or makes simple gestures like lending a gun to a friend at shooting range or leaving a favored rifle to a child in a will all but impossible.