North Carolina Bill Aims to Send Signal on Future Shale Development

North Carolina hopes recent legislation introduced into its general assembly will send a "very clear signal" to oil and gas companies that the state wants shale gas exploration in the state, a state representative told Rigzone in an interview Monday.

State Sen. E.S. "Buck" Newton, the sponsor of Senate Bill (SB) 76, the Domestic Energy Jobs Act, told Rigzone that, while the ban on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has been lifted, the state hopes to provide certainty to the energy industry by fixing a specific date in which permits for shale gas drilling can be pulled.

Newton, who represents Johnston, Nash and Wilson counties in eastern North Carolina, introduced the bill last week. SB 76, which would authorize the state's Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue permits for oil and gas exploration and production, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, on or after March 1, 2015.

North Carolina officials hope to send a signal in two ways – one, that the legislature is very serious about pursuing shale exploration, and two, that the state is working "with all deliberate and purposeful speed" to get itself ready to issue permits.

Early indicators show North Carolina to have shale gas reserves that may be on the order of the Fayetteville play in Arkansas, with approximately 1.4 million surface acres with shale deposits of an average thickness of 200 feet. North Carolina has three basins with shale potential. The Deep River Basin, the one that is most talked about, has wet gas reserves.

Last year, the General Assembly passed a bill -- over the veto of then Democratic Gov. Beverly Purdue's veto a bill -- that would authorize and legalize hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. General Assembly ratified the Clean Energy and Economic Security Act, which reorganized the state's Mining Commission as the North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission, and directed the commission and other state regulatory agencies to develop a modern regulatory program for the management of oil and gas activity in the state, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

Historically, horizontal drilling had been effectively illegal in the state because of fears that landowners might use horizontal drilling to drill into a neighboring property and steal another landowners water supply, said Bill Weatherspoon, executive director of the North Carolina Petroleum Council, a division of the American Petroleum Institute, in an interview with Rigzone. The law, which dated to the 1940s, forbade drilling to vary more than 3 degrees off center when a well was drilled.

The bill will rewrite existing North Carolina oil and gas legislation in part to modernize the tax structure.

"We wanted to give companies an incentive to come earlier rather than later," Newton commented.

The legislation includes a severance tax, which will be 1 percent in the first year of production, 2.5 percent in the second year, and then will go to a floating rate that would adjust with natural gas prices, ranging from 2.5 percent to 6 percent. Energy industry officials, in early discussions with state officials, really like the proposed severance tax, which gives them flexibility, Newton said.

SB 76 will also attempt to create a one stop shop for pulling permits so that companies will not have to go to different agencies. One thing North Carolina officials want to make clear is that oil and gas companies will not have to pay local taxes or impact fees, other than regular property taxes, to ensure that local governments can't use impact fees as a means to create barriers.

"Not having any experience in the oil and gas industry, we get to draw on the experiences of other states that have been in the industry for a long time and to cherrypick the best of the best," Newton said, adding that the bill not only covers regulatory changes for onshore drilling, but changes that could govern offshore drilling down the road.

"We're trying our best to introduce standards and practices the industry finds helpful and familiar."

The state has no horror stories of environmental problems related to oil and gas, and has a clean slate which state officials hope to keep clean through the use of technological standards, said Weatherspoon.

"The state is trying to take a very calm, study-type approach," said Weatherspoon of the two-year timeframe to accomplish the revisioning of rules and regulations before 2015.

While the counties Newton represents are not among the 10 to 12 counties that have shale gas resources, Newton's familiarity with what oil and gas exploration and development have done for other U.S. state economies – and the need to create jobs and new sources of revenue within North Carolina – prompted him to introduce the legislation.

The legislation is also part of Newton's effort to help North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory frame his plans to bringing the oil and gas industry for North Carolina. During his election campaign last fall and his inaugural speech, the newly elected governor expressed his desire to get North Carolina into the energy business.

The new Republican-dominated leadership in the state not only is showing interest in developing the state's onshore shale resource, but its offshore interests as well. McCrory already is working with the governors of South Carolina and Virginia to re-open the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf for exploratory drilling.

Newton doesn't anticipate the bill not passing, due to the fact that McCrory and North Carolina's General Assembly – with Republicans now controlling both for the first time in more than a century – favor bringing oil and gas development to the state. Newton said he hadn't briefed McCrory on SB 76, but saw no reason to think he wouldn't fully back the legislation.

Other than some coal mining activity, the state has not had a significant oil and gas exploration and production industry. North Carolina has been well-known for its tobacco, textiles and furniture-making industries, but the state's economy has been in transition for the past 50 years, with banking, pharmaceutical and life sciences and transportation now major industries in the state.

To date, 125 oil and gas wells have been drilled in the state, but all were capped and abandoned, said Weatherspoon. However, a discovery in near the central North Carolina town of Sanford in Lee County indicated the state could have shale gas potential.

Some leasing activity offshore North Carolina for exploratory drilling did take place in the 1970s, when Mobile Corp. bid $103 million for one offshore tract 40 miles offshore Cape Hatteras, N.C., Weatherspoon noted. While geologists believe there might be a natural gas play offshore the state, drilling never took place due to political opposition.

The effort to update North Carolina's oil and gas regulations are all about jobs and revenue, said Weatherspoon, noting that the state ranks among the top U.S. states in terms of unemployment.

"Politically, there's strong motivation for state officials to do everything they can to create jobs."

Gov. McCrory has made revitalizing the state's economy his No. 1 priority. With the fifth-highest employment rate in the country, McCrory said he hoped that Republicans and Democrats from all areas of the state can work to help turn North Carolina's economy around. These efforts include better matching the talents and expertise of the state's workforce with opportunities available through educational programs.

In December of last year, North Carolina's unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent in November. The state started 2012 with a 10.2 percent unemployment rate.

While early indicators show the state to have good potential for gas reserves, environmentalists have worked hard to play upon the fear of the unknown, said Newton, who pointed to the lively debate between environmentalists and legislators when the bill was introduced.

Newton expects debate to continue, but also believes that people in the state are hungry for economic growth and jobs, noting that, "The more people learn about it, the more excited they are."

Karen Boman has more than 10 years of experience covering the upstream oil and gas sector. Email Karen at kboman@rigzone.com.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

View the original article here

Murkowski Report Offers 'Blueprint' for Future Energy Policymaking

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) unveiled a report Monday offering a blueprint for the conversation about where energy and natural resource policies should go over the next few years.

In the report, Energy 20/20, A Vision for America's Energy Future, Murkowski offers recommendations on how to align federal energy policy with what Murkowski sees as a consensus that the United States should make energy abundant, affordable, clean, diverse and secure. These recommendations not only include oil and gas, but renewable resources as well.

Among these recommendations is for the United States to establish a national goal to produce enough additional oil, biofuels and synthetic fuels to become independent by 2020 of imports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"The fulfillment of this commitment would support the creation of millions of well-paying jobs, increased federal revenues, reduction of U.S. budget and trade deficits, and help maintain affordable world energy prices," Murkowski noted.

The federal government can help achieve energy independence from OPEC by 2020 by:

Expediting federal permitting and reviewing decisions for energyNatural resources and related infrastructure projectsAllowing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to move forwardRequiring the U.S. Department of the Interior outline plans for development of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) resources to more accurately estimate available resources and set minimum production targets, taking into account necessary environmental requirements

"Although these targets would be set administratively, they should be achievable and binding," Murkowski commented in the report. "If and when actual production is projected to fall short of such targets, additional leasing, onshore or offshore, should be made available to compensate for the shortfall."

Murkowski also called for an expansion of OCS leasing to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and offshore Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Additionally, legislation should be passed for a consolidated offshore regulator, with a reaffirmed and strengthened statutory authority to develop offshore resources expeditiously through a certain and fair permitting process, while incentivizing safety and best environmental practices.

Additional amendments Murkowski calls for in the report concerning future oil and gas development include directing a share of revenues to participating offshore energy producing states – including offshore wind, tidal and wave generation – and establishing permanent revenue sharing for offshore development from leasing, bonus bids, rents, and royalty receipts at 27.5 percent with provision for direct partial payments to affected coastal communities.

The senator also called for the administration and its departments and agencies to reform the methods and processes through which energy policy is implemented and administered. This includes identifying impediments to federal oil and gas leasing and production. Specifically, the U.S. Department of the Interior must establish a review program and an accelerated auction schedule for previously and consistently nominated lease parcels that have yet to be put up for sale.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska also must be immediately placed into full availability for oil and gas leasing, consistent with statutory designation.

"The reserve must be thoughtfully developed with roads, bridges and pipeline facilities that promote broad onshore development of the diffuse resource base, while simultaneously accommodating the transportation of oil and gas from offshore fields in the Chukchi Sea to the TransAlaska Pipeline System," Murkowski noted.

Murkowski also said that the benefits of the U.S. shale boom, and the jobs, higher wages and increased federal, state and local government tax revenues, should not be put at risk under a new federal regime for hydraulic fracturing that only makes it harder or impossible to produce U.S. shale resources.

"Particularly given the federal deficit, agencies should focus on directing limited resources where they are most needed and warranted, not where states are already effectively regulating and policing their activities," Murkowski commented.

New technology and studies continue to indicate that North America has a vast hydrocarbon base, with potential to substantially affect supply in world markets. Last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the United States to have 220.2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, or more than a century's worth of projected imports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This figure does not include vast unconventional oil resources that will become commercially viable in the future.

"Abundant energy is possible, and there are already many signs of it becoming a reality as technological breakthroughs have lowered the cost of producing previously uneconomic supplies," Murkowski noted, adding that affordable energy is vital to U.S.
economic well-being, and a prudent balancing of energy production with proper standards for environmental regulation is more pressing than ever.

While the trend for oil production on state and private lands are quite positive – with approximately 96 percent of domestic oil production growth due to growth on state and private land – oil production on federal lands remained largely flat from 2003 through 2011, and sales of natural gas from federal lands fell by 31 percent. Of equal concern, the number of permits issued for onshore and offshore production on federal lands – a key indicator of future production – has also dropped significantly since the preceding administration.

"Our nation is too often hamstrung by burdensome regulations, delayed permits, and overzealous litigation," Murkowski commented. "This can render projects uneconomic by attrition and prevent timely, efficient and urgently needed investments in energy supply and conservation."

Murkowski noted that President Obama and the new Congress should work together to renew energy and natural resource policies through "discrete bills" and targeted oversight that proceed from a shared understanding of the facts.

"The ongoing boom in American oil and gas production must be fundamental to our national energy policy," Murkowski commented. "We no longer should view energy policy from a perspective of scarcity, but rather, from a perspective of increasing abundance. With the right policies, abundant and affordable energy is achievable."

Karen Boman has more than 10 years of experience covering the upstream oil and gas sector. Email Karen at kboman@rigzone.com.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

View the original article here

Murkowski Report Offers 'Blueprint' for Future Energy Policymaking

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) unveiled a report Monday offering a blueprint for the conversation about where energy and natural resource policies should go over the next few years.

In the report, Energy 20/20, A Vision for America's Energy Future, Murkowski offers recommendations on how to align federal energy policy with what Murkowski sees as a consensus that the United States should make energy abundant, affordable, clean, diverse and secure. These recommendations not only include oil and gas, but renewable resources as well.

Among these recommendations is for the United States to establish a national goal to produce enough additional oil, biofuels and synthetic fuels to become independent by 2020 of imports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"The fulfillment of this commitment would support the creation of millions of well-paying jobs, increased federal revenues, reduction of U.S. budget and trade deficits, and help maintain affordable world energy prices," Murkowski noted.

The federal government can help achieve energy independence from OPEC by 2020 by:

Expediting federal permitting and reviewing decisions for energyNatural resources and related infrastructure projectsAllowing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to move forwardRequiring the U.S. Department of the Interior outline plans for development of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) resources to more accurately estimate available resources and set minimum production targets, taking into account necessary environmental requirements

"Although these targets would be set administratively, they should be achievable and binding," Murkowski commented in the report. "If and when actual production is projected to fall short of such targets, additional leasing, onshore or offshore, should be made available to compensate for the shortfall."

Murkowski also called for an expansion of OCS leasing to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and offshore Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Additionally, legislation should be passed for a consolidated offshore regulator, with a reaffirmed and strengthened statutory authority to develop offshore resources expeditiously through a certain and fair permitting process, while incentivizing safety and best environmental practices.

Additional amendments Murkowski calls for in the report concerning future oil and gas development include directing a share of revenues to participating offshore energy producing states – including offshore wind, tidal and wave generation – and establishing permanent revenue sharing for offshore development from leasing, bonus bids, rents, and royalty receipts at 27.5 percent with provision for direct partial payments to affected coastal communities.

The senator also called for the administration and its departments and agencies to reform the methods and processes through which energy policy is implemented and administered. This includes identifying impediments to federal oil and gas leasing and production. Specifically, the U.S. Department of the Interior must establish a review program and an accelerated auction schedule for previously and consistently nominated lease parcels that have yet to be put up for sale.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska also must be immediately placed into full availability for oil and gas leasing, consistent with statutory designation.

"The reserve must be thoughtfully developed with roads, bridges and pipeline facilities that promote broad onshore development of the diffuse resource base, while simultaneously accommodating the transportation of oil and gas from offshore fields in the Chukchi Sea to the TransAlaska Pipeline System," Murkowski noted.

Murkowski also said that the benefits of the U.S. shale boom, and the jobs, higher wages and increased federal, state and local government tax revenues, should not be put at risk under a new federal regime for hydraulic fracturing that only makes it harder or impossible to produce U.S. shale resources.

"Particularly given the federal deficit, agencies should focus on directing limited resources where they are most needed and warranted, not where states are already effectively regulating and policing their activities," Murkowski commented.

New technology and studies continue to indicate that North America has a vast hydrocarbon base, with potential to substantially affect supply in world markets. Last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the United States to have 220.2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, or more than a century's worth of projected imports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This figure does not include vast unconventional oil resources that will become commercially viable in the future.

"Abundant energy is possible, and there are already many signs of it becoming a reality as technological breakthroughs have lowered the cost of producing previously uneconomic supplies," Murkowski noted, adding that affordable energy is vital to U.S.
economic well-being, and a prudent balancing of energy production with proper standards for environmental regulation is more pressing than ever.

While the trend for oil production on state and private lands are quite positive – with approximately 96 percent of domestic oil production growth due to growth on state and private land – oil production on federal lands remained largely flat from 2003 through 2011, and sales of natural gas from federal lands fell by 31 percent. Of equal concern, the number of permits issued for onshore and offshore production on federal lands – a key indicator of future production – has also dropped significantly since the preceding administration.

"Our nation is too often hamstrung by burdensome regulations, delayed permits, and overzealous litigation," Murkowski commented. "This can render projects uneconomic by attrition and prevent timely, efficient and urgently needed investments in energy supply and conservation."

Murkowski noted that President Obama and the new Congress should work together to renew energy and natural resource policies through "discrete bills" and targeted oversight that proceed from a shared understanding of the facts.

"The ongoing boom in American oil and gas production must be fundamental to our national energy policy," Murkowski commented. "We no longer should view energy policy from a perspective of scarcity, but rather, from a perspective of increasing abundance. With the right policies, abundant and affordable energy is achievable."

Karen Boman has more than 10 years of experience covering the upstream oil and gas sector. Email Karen at kboman@rigzone.com.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

View the original article here

Murkowski Report Offers 'Blueprint' for Future Energy Policymaking

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) unveiled a report Monday offering a blueprint for the conversation about where energy and natural resource policies should go over the next few years.

In the report, Energy 20/20, A Vision for America's Energy Future, Murkowski offers recommendations on how to align federal energy policy with what Murkowski sees as a consensus that the United States should make energy abundant, affordable, clean, diverse and secure. These recommendations not only include oil and gas, but renewable resources as well.

Among these recommendations is for the United States to establish a national goal to produce enough additional oil, biofuels and synthetic fuels to become independent by 2020 of imports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"The fulfillment of this commitment would support the creation of millions of well-paying jobs, increased federal revenues, reduction of U.S. budget and trade deficits, and help maintain affordable world energy prices," Murkowski noted.

The federal government can help achieve energy independence from OPEC by 2020 by:

Expediting federal permitting and reviewing decisions for energyNatural resources and related infrastructure projectsAllowing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to move forwardRequiring the U.S. Department of the Interior outline plans for development of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) resources to more accurately estimate available resources and set minimum production targets, taking into account necessary environmental requirements

"Although these targets would be set administratively, they should be achievable and binding," Murkowski commented in the report. "If and when actual production is projected to fall short of such targets, additional leasing, onshore or offshore, should be made available to compensate for the shortfall."

Murkowski also called for an expansion of OCS leasing to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and offshore Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Additionally, legislation should be passed for a consolidated offshore regulator, with a reaffirmed and strengthened statutory authority to develop offshore resources expeditiously through a certain and fair permitting process, while incentivizing safety and best environmental practices.

Additional amendments Murkowski calls for in the report concerning future oil and gas development include directing a share of revenues to participating offshore energy producing states – including offshore wind, tidal and wave generation – and establishing permanent revenue sharing for offshore development from leasing, bonus bids, rents, and royalty receipts at 27.5 percent with provision for direct partial payments to affected coastal communities.

The senator also called for the administration and its departments and agencies to reform the methods and processes through which energy policy is implemented and administered. This includes identifying impediments to federal oil and gas leasing and production. Specifically, the U.S. Department of the Interior must establish a review program and an accelerated auction schedule for previously and consistently nominated lease parcels that have yet to be put up for sale.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska also must be immediately placed into full availability for oil and gas leasing, consistent with statutory designation.

"The reserve must be thoughtfully developed with roads, bridges and pipeline facilities that promote broad onshore development of the diffuse resource base, while simultaneously accommodating the transportation of oil and gas from offshore fields in the Chukchi Sea to the TransAlaska Pipeline System," Murkowski noted.

Murkowski also said that the benefits of the U.S. shale boom, and the jobs, higher wages and increased federal, state and local government tax revenues, should not be put at risk under a new federal regime for hydraulic fracturing that only makes it harder or impossible to produce U.S. shale resources.

"Particularly given the federal deficit, agencies should focus on directing limited resources where they are most needed and warranted, not where states are already effectively regulating and policing their activities," Murkowski commented.

New technology and studies continue to indicate that North America has a vast hydrocarbon base, with potential to substantially affect supply in world markets. Last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the United States to have 220.2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, or more than a century's worth of projected imports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. This figure does not include vast unconventional oil resources that will become commercially viable in the future.

"Abundant energy is possible, and there are already many signs of it becoming a reality as technological breakthroughs have lowered the cost of producing previously uneconomic supplies," Murkowski noted, adding that affordable energy is vital to U.S.
economic well-being, and a prudent balancing of energy production with proper standards for environmental regulation is more pressing than ever.

While the trend for oil production on state and private lands are quite positive – with approximately 96 percent of domestic oil production growth due to growth on state and private land – oil production on federal lands remained largely flat from 2003 through 2011, and sales of natural gas from federal lands fell by 31 percent. Of equal concern, the number of permits issued for onshore and offshore production on federal lands – a key indicator of future production – has also dropped significantly since the preceding administration.

"Our nation is too often hamstrung by burdensome regulations, delayed permits, and overzealous litigation," Murkowski commented. "This can render projects uneconomic by attrition and prevent timely, efficient and urgently needed investments in energy supply and conservation."

Murkowski noted that President Obama and the new Congress should work together to renew energy and natural resource policies through "discrete bills" and targeted oversight that proceed from a shared understanding of the facts.

"The ongoing boom in American oil and gas production must be fundamental to our national energy policy," Murkowski commented. "We no longer should view energy policy from a perspective of scarcity, but rather, from a perspective of increasing abundance. With the right policies, abundant and affordable energy is achievable."

Karen Boman has more than 10 years of experience covering the upstream oil and gas sector. Email Karen at kboman@rigzone.com.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

View the original article here

The Future of Gun Control in the Aftermath of Sandy Hook

Mike Huckabee Blames Connecticut Shooting on Separation of Church and State

Why Is Washington Obsessing About the Deficit and Not Jobs and Wages?

Watch: ‘SNL’ Honors Connecticut School Shooting Victims

How Republicans Would Benefit From John Kerry Secretary of State Nomination

GOP Lawmaker’s Solution to Preventing Mass Shootings: More Guns

Why Is Washington Obsessing About the Deficit and Not Jobs and Wages?
By Robert Reich
By Bill Blum Dear God! When Will It Stop?
By Marian Wright Edelman Questions I Ask Myself About the Connecticut School Shooting
By Juan Cole
How Republicans Would Benefit From John Kerry Secretary of State Nomination Red States Surrender Health Care Oversight to Federal Government Insurance Industry Is Taking Climate Change Seriously Weaker Social Networks a Cause of Black Unemployment, Study Finds Dream of a Global Climate Deal Is Over, Experts Say U.N. Conference Produces No Internet Treaty
Watch: ‘SNL’ Honors Connecticut School Shooting Victims GOP Lawmaker’s Solution to Preventing Mass Shootings: More Guns ‘Left, Right & Center:’ School Shooting, Susan Rice Withdraws, and More Mike Huckabee Blames Connecticut Shooting on Separation of Church and State
Hollywood’s Raid on Convention
By Richard Schickel Understanding Economics in Plain English
By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law Regulate Dissent in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan Says
Fighting Manifest Destiny
By Jonathan Yardley
The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking
Dig led by Mike Rose

Gore Vidal: His Life and Legacy
Dig led by Truthdig Staff

advertisement

-->
In the Belly of the Green BirdBy Nir Rosen
$17.16

advertisement

-->
Risk, Ambiguity and DecisionBy Daniel Ellsberg
$101.79

advertisement

-->
Jr. Hoodie$35

  Email    Print    Share

Tweet Posted on Dec 16, 2012 Flickr/Sean

Guns for sale at a sporting goods store.

By Bill Blum

In “Leviathan,” his classic work of social-contract theory, British philosopher Thomas Hobbes coined the phrase “war of all against all” to describe the brutal “state of nature” that would unfold in a world without central authority, where people would be licensed to do whatever they pleased. Although Hobbes meant the expression to apply to the perceived dangers of the English Civil War (1642-1651), the phrase easily could be imported to describe the status of gun control in contemporary America.

As a result of a grotesque confluence of cultural iconography celebrating the virtues of an armed citizenry, political cowardice in the face of pro-gun lobbies like the National Rifle Association, and a judiciary that has redefined the meaning of the Second Amendment, we have become a nation bereft of effective gun control, reduced to waiting for the next firearm fueled massacre. Depending on one’s definition of mass shooting, Friday’s bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.—which took the lives of 20 children and eight adults—was the seventh such atrocity committed this year, dating back to April’s killing spree at an Oakland, Calif., Christian college in which seven people were shot to death.

The question thus arises with renewed urgency: When and how will the madness stop? Since the Sandy Hook killings, more than 100,000 people have signed petitions demanding that the Obama administration produce legislation limiting access to guns. Yet even if the president makes good on the promise he issued the day of the killings to “take meaningful action,” solutions both short-term and long will prove elusive for at least three reasons:

The Numbers

According to a 2011 Gallup survey, 47 percent of Americans own some kind of firearm, and the total number of nonmilitary guns in circulation exceeds 300 million. There are nearly 130,000 federally registered gun dealers across the country, three and a half times the number of grocery stores. Although the sales transacted by registered dealers are subject to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which screens out buyers with disqualifying felony convictions or histories of confinement in mental institutions, 40 percent of gun sales are unregulated transactions made by private, unlicensed vendors, many at gun shows and conventions.

Advertisement

The Law

With the expiration in 2004 of the federal assault weapons ban, which had prohibited the manufacture for civilian use of semiautomatic firearms and large capacity ammunition clips, an already inadequate national system of gun control was rendered even more lax. At the same time, legal challenges to gun laws and ordinances were making headway in our increasingly conservative judicial system, culminating in the Supreme Court’s landmark 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment provided for an individual right to bear firearms. Before Heller, it had been widely assumed that the Second Amendment applied only to the right of states to maintain militias.

Two years after Heller in another landmark case, McDonald v. Chicago, the high court held that the individual right to bear arms applies not only to federal jurisdictions but also to the states. Since then, lower courts have increasingly fallen in line. Notably, in a 2-1 decision released just days before the Sandy Hook slaughter, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Illinois’ ban on concealed weapons, the last such prohibition left standing in the country.

The Lack of Political Will

Beset by an overwhelming proliferation of firearms and a legal framework more dedicated to perpetuating a Hobbesian state of nature than preventing one, the single greatest obstacle to sensible gun control has been a lack of political will. In the runup to the November elections, neither Romney nor Obama had the courage to make gun control a campaign issue. To do so would have meant taking on the NRA, considered by many the single most powerful lobby in Washington and long noted for the mantra that “it’s people, not guns, who kill people.”

To the NRA—and others on the right who attribute gun violence to the decline of prayer in public school or as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee opined in the aftermath of Sandy Hook to the separation of church and state—the problem isn’t lax gun control or too many guns at large in society, but too few. If only more law-abiding citizens packed cold steel in public places, the criminally minded would think twice before opening fire. Never mind that many of the perpetrators of mass violence are mentally ill, and don’t think rationally before acting. Astonishingly, even some liberal commentators, like The Atlantic’s national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg, despairing at the long list of mass shootings and the excessive dissemination of guns, have accepted the NRA’s premise, concluding it’s too late to curtail violence by way of gun control and that the solution to mass violence lies in the expansion of concealed weapons permits.

Like it or not, such arguments can’t be easily dismissed. But whether it is in fact too late to avoid a Hobbesian future on guns remains undecided, and in any event we owe it to ourselves and our children to try to shape that future in the best possible way. In the short run, we can start by demanding that Obama and the rest of our elected representatives take steps to restore and expand the assault weapons ban; bolster the background-check system and apply background checks to gun shows and private sales; outlaw straw purchases (in which a nominal buyer poses for an ineligible end user); limit the number of guns that any single person can buy in a given time period; and ensure the availability of mental health counseling for all Americans.

Longer term, any solution will require nothing less than a cultural and political reconfiguration similar to but even larger than the campaign against smoking, aimed at demythologizing the glamour and social standing of gun ownership and, more broadly, restoring a sense of community across society. This will mean making the issues of gun control and criminal violence part and parcel of the basic movement for social justice. As always, there is no guarantee of success. But if we were able to send the Marlboro Man into retirement, there is at least some small prospect that we can send Thomas Hobbes back to the archives of the 17th century where he rightly and respectfully belongs. 

TAGS: children connecticut connecticut school shooting gun control gun violence guns judiciary national rifle assocation newtown newtown gun massacre newtown shooting nra sandy hook elementary school school shooting second amendment



Related Entries GOP Lawmaker’s Solution to Preventing Mass Shootings: More Guns Questions I Ask Myself About the Connecticut School Shooting Dear God! When Will It Stop? Mike Huckabee Blames Connecticut Shooting on Separation of Church and State

Email to a friend

Get truth delivered to
your inbox every week.

Previous item: Questions I Ask Myself About the Connecticut School Shooting

Next item: Why Is Washington Obsessing About the Deficit and Not Jobs and Wages?

New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Get Truthdig in your inbox

Newsletter

Become a Fan

Follow Us

Subscribe

     
       #donation_div {display:none;}.popup {background:#FFF; border:1px solid #333; padding:1px;}.popup-header {height:65px; padding: 30px 40px 10px 50px;}.popup-header h2 {margin:0; padding:0; font-size:18px; float:left;}.popup-header .close-link {float:right; font-size:11px;}.popup-body {padding: 20px 70px 20px 50px;}a {color: #990000;}Close

Give the gift of independent journalism.

Support Truthdig by making a donation of at least $25 in someone's name, and we'll send him or her a signed letter of appreciation from our publisher.

With your support, we've been able to pay writers such as Chris Hedges, Col. Ann Wright, Mr. Fish and Nomi Prins.

We've sent reporters around the world, from Afghanistan to Cairo to Cuba.

Thanks to you, our mission to find and publish a range of insightful opinion and analysis from a progressive point of view continues.

Support Truthdig

HOME|Digs|Reports|Arts & Culture|Uncovered|Ear to the Ground|A/V Booth|Cartoons
Tags|Bazaar|Podcast|About Us|Contact Us|User Agreement|Privacy Policy|FAQ: Comments and Moderation | Google+ Google+
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2012 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved. Web site development by Hop Studios 

View the Original article