Inquirer editorial: After Orlando, no time to be timid on gun control

Show of hands: Who really believes the murders of 49 adults celebrating Latino night at the self-described "hottest gay bar in Orlando" will give a Republican-controlled Congress any more incentive to pass significant gun control legislation than the murders of 26 children and staff at a Connecticut elementary school did four years ago?

That's not to say Congress won't pass anything in light of the human toll Sunday at Pulse nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. But it's hard to expect much when the result of a 15-hour filibuster was an agreement to consider legislation that only touches the fringe of America's excess of guns and easy access to them.

Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D., Conn.) began the talkathon Wednesday morning, aided by fellow Democrats who followed Senate rules allowing him to yield the floor for comments or questions. For their trouble, they got Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to agree to allow votes on two amendments: one to prevent anyone on the terrorism watch list from purchasing guns and another to expand background checks.

Similar amendments were proposed and defeated in December. And there's every likelihood that they're headed for a similar fate despite the support of Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), the only Republican allowed to speak during the filibuster. Toomey cosponsored an unsuccessful background-check bill after the Newtown, Conn., massacre, but his latest pursuit of gun restrictions has his election foe, Democrat Katie McGinty, calling him an opportunist.

Toomey makes a valid point that the watch list is rife with errors. But a Republican proposal to give the government three days to prove someone on the list might be a terrorist could put guns in the hands of people whose ties to terrorism can't be authenticated that quickly. A Democratic proposal would put the burden of proof on the gun buyer. In either case, the list must be made more trustworthy by purging names that don't belong after careful study.

Gun control critics say background checks and watch lists couldn't stop Omar Mateen's assault on the Orlando nightclub. Mateen was placed on the watch list three years ago after claiming ties to Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, but he was removed when the FBI could not validate his boasts. Lacking a criminal record, Mateen had passed background checks and was employed as an armed security guard.

One lesson learned should be that background checks and watch lists aren't enough. It would not violate the Second Amendment to limit a weapon's capacity to kill large numbers of men, women, and children quickly, or to require the loss or theft of a firearm to be reported to police. Yet even after Orlando, Newtown, Aurora, and Columbine, Congress appears unlikely to take those steps.