Last week's elementary school shooting has not only placed gun control back on the public agenda (which no one had expected - which shows you how unpredictable the political environment can be) but allows us multiple opportunities to tie class material into an ongoing event.
While support for gun control has waned in recent years, some are arguing that this time its different since kids were involved. Public policy scholar claim that policies are more likely to be passed if a window of opportunity opens up to allow it. Perhaps we've just seen one open up. The Obama Administration is planning to introduce legislation to Congress soon and is now formulating its proposal.
Potential opponents - specially the NRA - seem to be lying low for a bit, probably waiting for the dust to settle before making moves. And they will certainly have to be careful about what they do and how. Many gun rights groups have attempted to head off gun control proposals by defining the problem as being about access to mental health, not guns. Perhaps elements of that will be in Obama's proposal - but that has yet to be seen.
I'll add more in subsequent posts, but here are links to info related to gun policy. This might provide us some focus for the 2305 mini that began yesterday.
- GunPolicy.org.
- Center for Gun Policy and Research.
- Wikipedia: Gun Politics.
- Wikipedia: Gun Politics in the US.
- Gun Control Policy.