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There's an old game that Congress and the NRA have been playing for decades to slow down and ultimately defeat gun safety legislation, and it sure looks like they're at it again, with Moscow Mitch McConnell helping them along. We watched it as long ago as the Clinton administration in the aftermath of the Columbine school massacre, and it sure looks like it's going to happen again.
In 1999, before everything was filibustered to death, the Senate passed a Democratic proposal to require background checks at gun shows (sound familiar?) 51-50, with Vice President Al Gore casting the tie-breaking vote. They packaged the provision in a larger "juvenile justice" bill. Then it went to the House, where Republican leadership, with an assist from NRA board member and Democrat John Dingell, killed it with a poison amendment that weakened existing law. The amendment passed, making the whole package so untenable that Democrats couldn't support it.
At the moment, there are two good bills from the House to expand background checks sitting on Mitch McConnell's desk. He says he's intent on doing something this time, so here's his chance. All he needs to do is bring the Senate back from recess and pass them. But that's out of the question for him. So instead, he's having his Republicans come up with a whole mess of bills.
One is a weaker background checks bill than either of those from the House. It's sponsored by Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Manchin. It previously hasn't garnered enough Republican support to pass, and McConnell won't let anything on the floor that won't pass without majority support among Republicans. Another option are a couple of "red flag" bills to allow a family member or police "to petition a court to restrict access to firearms for individuals who might be an imminent threat either to others or themselves." Trump supports these. Democrats, including Richard Blumenthal and Dianne Feinstein, support these, but argue that they're not nearly a strong enough response to the threat of gun violence. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has one of these bills, as does Florida Republican Marco Rubio.
Democrats Feinstein, Blumenthal, and Chris Murphy also have companion legislation to a House bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, that would ban the "sale, transfer, manufacturing or possession of assault weapons like a semiautomatic assault weapon or a large capacity ammunition feeding device, including a magazine." Sen. Robert Menendez has teamed up with Rep. Ted Deutch to introduce companion bills that would ban the sale, manufacture, and importation of high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Graham isn't even going to let these bills get a hearing in his committee, let alone come to the floor. There are also bills from House and Senate Democrats to order crackdowns by Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the FBI on domestic terrorism and white supremacy groups that will languish under McConnell as well.
What's going to happen is that McConnell will talk about bringing one of the Republican measures to the floor, possibly the Toomey-Manchin background checks, because that's where so much of the focus is now because of the House bills. Meanwhile, he's sending out his surrogates, like Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso, to throw cold water on moving forward on everything. He and the NRA could also be priming some other ally to come up with a bill that totally undermines whatever he decides to bring to the floor, and kill the momentum by sabotaging existing law. It's one of the major plays they rely on.
These mass murders aren't going to have different results than any other mass murders; the players in Congress have just changed since 1999. This time it's going to be McConnell doing most of the NRA's dirty work. The important thing is that Democrats recognize that and refuse to play the game. They can't allow themselves to be used (Manchin and Blumenthal, looking at you) as pawns, and they have to call McConnell out. They can't let him get away with the pretense of acting on this.
There's no time like the present to set that narrative. If they came back to the Senate unilaterally, got the cameras on, and started talking about it from the Senate floor, Democrats could prevent his charade. It's ridiculous that they haven't done it yet. Is it a political stunt? Yes, but one that would demonstrate to a grieving and desperate nation that someone with the power to act cares and wants to fix this. It would focus pressure even more sharply on McConnell.