Hate Crime Prevention Act. Blog 4

On June 13th 2016, Think Progress published an article on the new Hate Crime Prevention Act introduced to Congress. The author, Kira Lerner, does a good job of covering all sides of this issue; she outlines the causes of the bill, the benefits of it, and some of its potential flaws. She seems to support the passage of the bill, however in my opinion she does not cover alternatives to the bill well enough. 

Lerner clearly explains that the bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Bob Casey in reaction to the mass shooting in Orlando. She explains that the bill would prevent anyone who had past hate crime related misdemeanors would not be able to purchase a gun. 

Lerner uses statistics from credible research institutions such as the American Center for Progress to show some of the benefits of the bill. She cites that "More than 6400 hate crimes were committed in the United States in 2014." This seems to be pretty clear evidence that hate crimes are a serious problem in America and need to contained by extra precautions such as the one the bill suggests. 

However, at the end of the article, Lerner asks the same question I did and points out a serious limitation of the bill. She suggests though theoretically the bill seems like it would prevent another Orlando shooting, most mass shooters do not have hate crime criminal records; for example the Orlando shooter himself did not even have a criminal record. 

This implies that there has to be a better solution to prevent mass shootings from becoming an epidemic in America. In my opinion stronger gun control laws should be put in place. The fact that it is so easy to obtain a gun in this country, needs to be addressed carefully and efficiently. I think Lerner should have included alternative, stronger bills that would have solved for the limitations she mentions.