Ed Rendell: After Nashville shooting, we need to rethink our strategy for changing gun safety laws

After the Nashville, Tenn., school shooting last month, there were the obligatory messages from Republican senators and congressmen on how “tragic” it was, and how the families of the people killed were in their “thoughts and prayers.”

Upon hearing this, I wanted to pass a law that no one could ever use those words again about a mass shooting. It is the height of hypocrisy for any politician to give their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims’ families when they know they will support no changes at all to stop the violence and carnage that is caused by guns.

As I watched news coverage of the shooting that morning, a picture of one of the six people killed — 9-year-old Hallie Scruggs — splashed on the screen. She looked so sweet, with twinkling eyes and curls galore. It was so heartbreaking to look at her that I had to avert my eyes. She reminded me of my own granddaughter, Rosalind, who recently celebrated her 9th birthday.

We must make what happened in Nashville an inflection point for our country. In 2020, guns were the leading cause of death for children 19 years old and younger. Firearm deaths accounted for 20% of child and teen deaths in the United States, compared with about 2% in 11 other large, wealthy nations.

This has to end. This has to change. This has to be over. Don’t tell me it can’t be changed when New Zealand had a mass shooting in 2019 and that nation’s legislature passed very strict gun control laws in less than six months. It has not had another mass shooting since.

We can do this. We must do this. It will take courage on behalf of our congressmen and senators, but, truth be told, it won’t take a whole lot of courage because poll after poll shows Americans are strongly in favor of commonsense gun safety laws. If it were up to me, we would pass gun safety laws as comprehensively as New Zealand did, and weapons of war like AR-15s and high-capacity magazines would be barred forever in America.

In 1994, when Congress passed a law banning so-called “assault” weapons, 38 Republicans voted yes and 77 Democrats voted no. But that ban expired in 2004 when the Republican-controlled Congress refused to renew it. So to those members of Congress today who are nervous about potentially losing their seats by voting on such a bill again, I suggest this: Take a look at Hallie Scruggs’ photo. Look at her face for 10 minutes, without moving, and you will find the courage to vote for what you know is right.

Instead of trying to enact one sweeping gun safety bill, I would break down the change we need into smaller increments and pass them one after another.

But I’m going to make it easy for Congress. Instead of trying to enact one sweeping gun safety bill, I would break down the change we need into smaller increments and pass them one after another.

Let’s start with what should be the easiest, and pledge that by Memorial Day we will pass legislation making high-capacity magazines (many of which contain 30, 50, and 100 bullets) illegal in this country. We did it back in 1994 when we made it illegal to possess a magazine with more than 10 bullets. Unfortunately, it expired in 2004 along with the assault weapons ban, and was not reenacted.

I would start by having an up-or-down vote in Congress on this one change. The advantage to that is that no Congress member could vote no and hide behind the fact that there were other things in the legislation they did not like. They would have to explain to people why they thought preserving the right to have a magazine that holds 30 bullets or more should be lawful.

No one needs a magazine with more than 10 bullets in a clip except someone who wants to kill as many people in as short a period of time as possible. I believe that it would be impossible for many Republicans to vote against limiting the capacity of magazines.

A month later, I would put universal background checks before Congress as a stand-alone bill. Nearly 90% of Americans, including the vast majority of NRA members, favor universal background checks. Again, it would be almost impossible for Congress to vote it down.

Finally, in another two months, I would put the banning of most assault weapons before Congress for a stand-alone vote. This might be difficult to pass because a lot of lawful people like possessing semiautomatic rifles, although they seem to me to only be used to kill as rapidly as possible. Then again, we must consider the possibility that more and more deer may be wearing Kevlar vests these days.

You might ask, how could we get these individual bills before Congress for a stand-alone vote? Pulling this plan off will take a lot of work — and likely anger Republicans for putting them on the spot — but Hallie Scruggs and so many others might well be alive if Congress had done this in 2022. And who knows how many lives might still be lost if we don’t act now?

Ed Rendell served as the 96th mayor of Philadelphia (1992-2000) and the 45th governor of Pennsylvania (2003-2011).