This article was originally posted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch in August 2019 following the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. It is re-shared here as part of a special series by the Harris Institute’s Gun Violence and Human Rights Initiative and the Institute for Public Health’s Gun Violence Initiative in recognition of National Gun Violence Awareness Month, launched on June 5th for Gun Violence Awareness Day. Throughout this series we will highlight the work being done on this critical issue across campus, the St. Louis region, and the country.
By: Leila Sadat (James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law, Director, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute) and Madaline George (Fellow, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute; Senior Researcher, Gun Violence and Human Rights Initiative)
Another public mass shootings. More thoughts and prayers. We are staring down the barrel of 25 years of legislative failure. The last major federal gun control measure was the Brady Act, enacted in 1993. Although the House passed two significant gun control measures in 2019, the bills didn’t get a hearing in the Senate. Had they passed, President Donald Trump promised to veto them.
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(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)