As The Reporter was going to press Wednesday night, it appeared that a bill in the Legislature to require background checks for all gun sales had been shot down in the House. Yes, we used that word intentionally.

We mourn the bill’s death.

The bill would have required those buying guns at gun shows to undergo a background check. That’s nothing different than what people who buy guns at gun shops have to do now.

The goal, obviously, is to make sure that people who shouldn’t have guns, don’t get them.

People such as convicted felons.

People such as those with a serious mental illness.

What’s so wrong with that?

Some gun rights activists feared such a bill would make it easier for the government to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens. Anything is “possible,” but really…?

We do agree with gun rights proponents that the bill wouldn’t, of itself, end gun violence in our country. After all, Adam Lanza, the man who killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., last December, got the guns he used from his mother, who had them legally. He killed her, too, of course.

But background checks are there for a reason. Making it harder for felons or unstable people to get their hands on guns should be something we all favor.

Apparently, we don’t.

– Craig Groshart, Bellevue Reporter