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Editorial: Universal gun background checks shouldn’t be controversial

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To a depressing degree, the debate over gun control and gun rights has long since boiled down to exchanges of insults and declarations that those with different views are bad people who are bad for America. Here’s a thought: With Thursday marking the anniversary of a teen gunman’s horrific killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, can we just try to find common ground on some very basic legislation?

Two such common-sense measures passed the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. One would broaden present federal rules on when those seeking to buy firearms are subject to background checks, ending exemptions for purchases at gun shows and through the Internet or other private transactions. The second would end an inexplicable loophole that lets gun dealers complete the sale of a firearm to anyone if the national background check system hasn’t responded to an inquiry within three days. This provision allowed a 24-year-old white supremacist to purchase a gun he shouldn’t have been able to buy legally before he killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

Some Republicans, including New York Rep. Peter King, have voiced support for these changes. But others have bitterly denounced them as threats to the Second Amendment, especially the proposal that background checks be required even when individuals sell guns to family members or friends.

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After all the gun carnage of recent decades, it shouldn’t be controversial to believe that every single time someone seeks to obtain a firearm, he or she should be appraised for potential for violence.

Such a mandate would make America safer — and wouldn’t impede constitutional gun rights.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion

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