When things go wrong in America, Congress often investigates. Think Watergate, Iran-Contra and Hurricane Katrina.
A proposal from Rep. Nancy Pelosi to investigate the causes of gun violence, especially mass shootings, follows this vein. But Pelosi’s proposed investigation has virtually no chance of happening.
For one, Congress appears so beholden to the gun lobby that it is afraid to ask basic questions, such as why so many Americans are shot to death each year. Second, recent investigations, especially by the House, have more to do with political retribution than fact-finding. A serious examination of gun deaths provides Congress a chance to move beyond political infighting to gather information and provide needed insight, and possible solutions, to a problem that appears unique to the United States.
The statistics are well known: Mass shootings, defined as events in which four or more people are killed, are exponentially more common in the U.S. than in other developed countries. Suicides are more common in homes where guns are present and in states with high gun ownership rates. Women who are victims of domestic violence are eight times more likely to be killed by their partner if there is a gun in the home. In 2013, guns accounted for nearly as many U.S. deaths (more than 60 percent of them suicides) as motor vehicle traffic: 33,636 vs. 33,804, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And, perhaps most disturbing of all, a toddler shoots someone on a weekly basis in the U.S.
The basic question is why? Are some of these deaths preventable? If so, how? Do we need better enforcement of existing laws? Do we need new laws? Do we need more information?
To not even ask these questions is an abdication of responsibility.
“Failing to come to the table is equal to sitting by and allowing mass gun violence to become America’s new normal,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, who has joined Pelosi’s call for an investigation, told The Hill recently. “Congress has a responsibility to do better than that. We need to step up, pull together and address this problem.”
Thompson is right, of course, but recent congressional investigations don’t offer much hope. The Select Committee on Benghazi was created last year to investigate the events surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Four people, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed.
The committee has focused much of its attention on Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attack. She will testify before the committee for a second time on Thursday.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who was in line to become Speaker of the House, last month bragged to Fox News that the Benghazi investigation dragged down Clinton’s poll numbers as she seeks the Democratic nomination for president.
His comments that the committee, which has been at work longer than the panel tasked with investigating Watergate, had a partisan agenda have been echoed by others, including a former Benghazi committee staff member.
Congressional investigations of Planned Parenthood in the wake of heavily-edited videos purporting to show officials talking about selling fetal tissue have inspired even less confidence. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led one such investigation, which included a five-hour session with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, during which she was constantly interrupted and lectured about women’s health as she tried to answer questions.
Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, which is doing its own investigation, Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said: “Did we find any wrongdoing? The answer was no.” Still, the investigations will continue, he said.
With time to undertake politically charged investigations of the Benghazi attack and a provider of abortions and women’s health services, Congress certainly has the capacity to take a hard look at gun violence, which claims tens of thousands of American lives each year. It should muster the will.
