Historians have often wondered whether any U.S. President but a Republican like Richard Nixon could have ever been able to open official relations with China without facing a huge backlash at home. Similarly, they have wondered whether any U.S. President but a Democrat like Bill Clinton could have ever signed a bill seriously reforming federal welfare laws without facing an avalanche of criticism. We could be at the beginning of another one of those unique moments.
The U.S. military is challenging the National Rifle Association (NRA) to pull back its support for a law it managed to get past Congress that prohibits professionals from discussing whether or not an individual owns or have has access to a gun at home. The Pentagon, by its own words, is facing an “epidemic” of soldier suicides – 206 troops so far this year – and it would like to be more aggressive in removing the suicide’s weapon of choice – a gun – from the surroundings of individual soldiers who an officer thinks could be at risk. The new law prevents officers from asking a soldier if he or she has a gun at home that does not belong to the military.
U.S. military commanders are expressing frustration over their dealings with the NRA, and that has actually caused some backpedaling at the NRA. Given the recent series of mass shootings among citizens, this first direct challenge to the NRA’s seeming invincibility should be interesting to follow. Pentagon commanders could pull off another of those unique historic events: forcing change where others could not.
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