Listening to Steve Scalise, mass shootings sound like a feature, not a bug, of GOP gun policy

Steve Scalise

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is ready to put his status as a shooting survivor to work—by opposing stronger gun laws, naturally. In the wake of the Las Vegas massacre, there are calls to ban bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at close to the rate of an automatic firearm, but Scalise wants to put the brakes on even that tiny of a change to gun laws, saying on Meet the Press that “It's a little bit early for people to say they know what to do to fix this problem.” 

Hilarious words coming from someone who enthusiastically participated as his party threw up one hastily written, poorly thought out Obamacare repeal bill after another. But wouldn’t it be nice if the problem was only as small as bump stocks? 

Scalise’s opposition to any limits, ever, on the tools of mass murder got even better, though:

Scalise instead argued for enforcement of "limits that are already in place" and "laws that are on the books" and contended that Congress has acted to "address different components" of mass shootings, such as mental health.

Yeah, Congress addressed mental health and guns … by rolling back former President Obama’s rule preventing people considered too mentally ill to have control of their own finances from getting guns.

Scalise and other Republicans are flat-out defending the right to have equipment suitable for a massacre, and just about nothing else. Mass shootings are starting to look like a feature, not a bug, of Republican gun policy.