Obama can use the gun issue to appeal to moderate Republicans across the US and a campaign advertisement featuring Mayor Michael Bloomberg may not be such a bad idea. It is time for President Obama to take a stand

In the multi-cultural suburb of Aurora in Denver, Colorado, during the first show of the new Batman film, in a theatre situated in a mall, a young man called James Holmes went berserk. He had red hair like the Joker, the villain of the last Batman film and threw two canisters of teargas and then opened fire in the theatre killing fourteen and injuring fifty.

He had a shot gun, a semi automatic gun and a .22 bore hand gun as he calmly went on his shooting spree. The carnage would have been much worse had one of the guns not jammed. The young man Mr Holmes, 24 years old, was apprehended outside the theatre with three guns and it was reported that he had bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition on line recently.

There is an old adage in America which goes something like this “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and this is regarded as sacred by many Americans who believe that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution which protects the right to bear arms is the most fundamental right than American citizens have. America is probably the only country in the world which protects the right to own guns in the Constitution. The Supreme Court is quiet zealous of protecting this right and restrictions on the right are frowned upon.

America was a frontier country when the Constitution was created. So it may be understandable that the right to bear guns figures in the Constitution but the continuing romance with guns and America is quite puzzling. What is also quite puzzling is the fact that while guns have become more and more powerful simultaneously the restrictions on them have been curtailed. There are now more than 300 million guns in America, more than one for each person. An important reason for the widespread prevalence of guns in America is also the power and influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) which is one of the most powerful and well-funded lobbies in America and outspends those in favour of gun control by 10:1.

They also target in elections of senators and congressman who oppose guns. This is one of the reasons that gun control has not made much headway in America though there is support among the electorate for laws which provide for mandatory background checks for people buying guns and other restrictions. It is indeed surprising that the last President to do something serious about gun control was President Bill Clinton in 1994 who introduced the Brady Handgun after the Violence Preventive Act which was named after James Brady Jr, who was grievously injured in a shooting during an attempted assassination of President Reagan on 30 March 1981. He was the press secretary to the President.

The Brady Act requires that background checks be conducted on individuals before a fire arm may be purchased from a federally licensed dealer manufacturer or importer unless an exemption applies. The short point is that there is not much appetite for restrictions on guns in either party. This is particularly frowned upon in the red states (Republican states) and while Democrats are far more reasonable and moderate than the Republicans on these issues, they have no appetite for confrontation in this issue. President Clinton also got an assault weapon ban through congress in 1994. But this expired in 2004 and was not renewed.

However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York immediately seized on the opportunity of goading President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney to do something about gun control immediately following the Aurora attack. As usual, he was the most sensible and moderate voice in America. But as the days passed after the Aurora shooting there was a groundswell of support from citizens and the political class for at least a relook of the issue. The country was in mourning so that no concrete suggestions had been made yet but the Aurora shooting had clearly put guns in the middle of the campaign.

I do hope that President Obama picks up the gauntlet thrown by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and makes some sensible plans for gun control. I do think that in the present atmosphere it may have tremendous resonance with independent voters in swing states and may be to the president’s advantage. It may also get Governor Romney to talk about something other than the faltering economy. Governor Romney in 2004 was the governor of Massachusetts when the assault weapon ban expired and immediately made the assault weapon ban permanently for the state. He will find it difficult to duck the issue now though he may well say that it is for states to legislate on the issue and not the federal government which is a usual Republican dodge. President Obama can really use the gun issue to appeal to moderate Republicans across the country and a campaign advertisement featuring Mayor Michael Bloomberg may not be such a bad idea. It is time for President Obama to take a stand.

(Harsh Desai has done his BA in Political Science from St Xavier's College & Elphinstone College, Bombay and has done his Master's in Law from Columbia University in the city of New York. He is a practicing advocate at the Bombay High Court.)