August 18, 2012 11:16 PM UTC

Despite fatal gaps in gun policy silence reigns for some leaders

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• by: PolitiComm

(It’s always “too soon”–until it’s “too late” – promoted by Colorado Pols)

This week Mayors Against Illegal Guns released a new interactive map at its petition site DemandAPlan.org. Based on the 2011 report “Fatal Gaps,” the state map illustrates how much more can be done to prevent senseless tragedies and renders inexcusable the claim that nothing can prevent future mass shootings.

In spite of the shaming, name calling progenitors of silence, it’s more than reasonable to ask: Is our state doing everything it can to keep guns out of the hands of people with severe mental illness?

According to new data from the FBI, the answer for many states is clearly: “No.” While Colorado has submitted more than 30,000 mental health records, it has failed to submit more than 11,000 records to the NICS data base for background checks on gun purchases.

Every missing record is a tragedy waiting to happen.  

As Mayor Hancock recently pointed out in an interview with Sam Levin at Westword, if we’re serious about gun violence prevention we have to be comprehensive in our approach to arresting gun crime. Leaders like Mayor Hancock, Rep. DeGette and Rep. Perlmutter all have different approaches to limiting gun violence and each one of them is correct.

While Mayor Hancock is careful to avoid the perception that he’s leveraging the tragedy in Aurora, he’s focused on community outreach in order to better understand the causes and soften motives behind the use of illegal guns.  Rep. DeGette is championing security measures that would outlaw certain after-market, high capacity magazines and limit the ability of dangerous people to purchase ammunition online. Rep. Perlmutter supports legislation limiting the means for maximum destruction through renewal of common sense gun laws Republicans let sunset in 2004.  

Good leaders counsel common sense solutions and know how to listen. They also know how to organize others to take action. It’s time that other leaders learned by example and proposed their own plan to prevent gun violence.

Fixing gun checks through improved NICS reporting might be a great step in the right direction.

One thing should be clear to good leaders: Silence isn’t a strategy.