Strange Bedfellows Offer 'Grand Bargain' on Gun Control

Bloomberg Businessweek  The one-year anniversary of the horrific Newton elementary school massacre prompted much reflection on the role of guns in American society. One of the most fascinating ruminations came from an unlikely pair: Richard Feldman, a well-known Second Amendment advocate and former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, and Arkadi Gerney, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. Gerney formerly served as a senior gun policy adviser to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, noted gun-control proponent and founder of Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg Businessweek. In a bold op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Feldman and Gerney propose a “grand bargain” they hope has the potential to draw support from both sides of the normally radioactive Second Amendment debate. In brief, they suggest three changes:

2. Redefining the categories of people prohibited from owning a gun.Under existing federal law, convicted felons, domestic abusers, people adjudicated to be mentally ill, and several other categories are barred from purchasing or possessing guns. In a nod to rehabilitation, Feldman and Gerney would amend the rules to allow those convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, such as marijuana possession and financial fraud, to become eligible after a period of years to have their gun rights reinstated. While giving a second chance to peaceful stoners and physically nonthreatening white-collar miscreants, Feldman and Gerney would expand the prohibited categories to bar people convicted of violent misdemeanors—stalking, assault, and the like. This seems like a reasonable trade-off. We should concentrate our attention on people prone to violence and make sure they don’t obtain firearms.

Points numbers 1 and 3 are pretty interesting too.