The kids from Parkland—and the millions of kids who have risen up with them to say enough is enough—handed the NRA two losses in the omnibus spending bill, which has now passed the House, 256-167.
Those wins are more than symbolic. While the Fix NICS bill to expand background checks on gun sales is far from a solution, the fact that it wasn't paired with the bill that Republicans were insisting it on—a national concealed carry permit reciprocity—is pretty huge. Republican leadership totally blinked on that one, in the face of Freedom Caucus outrage.
Likewise, the bill finally, after two decades, will essentially lift the ban on CDC gun violence research, something that Democrats have been talking about for those two decades.
As part of the bill, there will be guidance to clarify the interpretation of what is known as the Dickey amendment, a small provision that was attached to an omnibus bill in 1996. It prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying the health implications of gun violence and says "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control." […]
The clarity would be similar to a suggestion offered by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar during congressional testimony in February. Azar told lawmakers that he does not believe that the Dickey amendment expressly prohibits CDC research on guns, but rather restricts the agency from advocating for advocate for certain gun policies.
This win came somewhat out of left field, not being one of the major early issues being haggled over publicly. It also comes two days before masses of young people and their allies will descend on Washington, D.C. and march in their own cities and towns in the March for Our Lives.
It's a remarkable breakthrough, coming a little more than a month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre in Parkland, Florida. It's becoming more and more clear that we have finally reached a tipping point in the gun debate. And the remarkable kids deserve all the credit.