Thumbs up: Some progress on gun safety

Kudos to the U.S. Supreme Court for declining to hear challenges to laws banning assault weapons in New York and Connecticut. By its action Monday, the court lets stand lower court rulings that make clear the bans don’t violate the Second Amendment.

The court’s decision comes less than a week after California funded the nation’s first public research center on gun violence. Acting days after a mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., that took 49 lives, state legislators appropriated $5 million in seed money for the research center, which will be operated by the University of California. The goal is to fill a void created in 1996 when Congress restricted federal funding for gun violence research, a measure since repudiated by its sponsor but still in effect. State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, proposed a state effort to provide objective and statistical information for policymakers. “It is a big step for us, frankly, and for the country to step in where Congress has failed,” she said when the measure came up for a vote. Thumbs up.