Bloomberg View: An Acceptable Gun-Control Compromise

For supporters of gun regulations in the U.S., a reckoning is here. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, has released a package of gun legislation and plans hearings on an assault weapons ban. A substantial majority of Americans supports universal criminal background checks for gun sales; smaller majorities support bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

A group of senators, including Democrats Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (W. Va.) and Republicans Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), appears close to a deal on legislation to expand criminal background checks to most private sales of guns. Perhaps as much as 40 percent of gun sales take place in the unregulated private market, enabling criminals to obtain lethal firepower without inconvenience or oversight.