Campaign Action
Back in February, the House passed two perfectly good, or "meaningful" and "common sense," as Donald Trump would say, background check bills. They are languishing on Mitch McConnell's desk right now. It would take a matter of 48 hours, at the most, for McConnell to bring the Senate back to D.C., pass the bills, and send them on to Trump for his signature.
Boom. Done. Then the Congress could come back and deal with the rest of the gun laws that need to be enacted. Such as a ban on assault weapons. But that's not going to happen, because that would be real action. McConnell has no interest in real action. That's why he is refusing to bring the Senate back. He says that "background checks, red flag laws and even assault weapons ban will be discussed" and are on the table. Eventually. He says he "wants to pass legislation." Eventually.
If we have to have proof that McConnell intends to do nothing, there's this quote: "I think the urgency of this is not lost on any of us because we've seen entirely too many of these horrendous acts." We have, and after every single one of them, we've seen McConnell roll over for the NRA and do nothing. Or worse. One of the very first things McConnell's Senate did when Trump took office was to overturn a modest Obama-era rule aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people with severe mental illness. That was the rule President Obama had enacted after waiting in vain for Congress to answer the slaughter of little children at Sandy Hook.
So the game continues. Trump says that McConnell is "totally on board" with something maybe background check-ish, and McConnell says he's not endorsing anything specific and only talking theoretically but, boy, is it urgent. Meanwhile, the NRA is completely and with no subtlety making threats about Republicans even thinking of acting.
However, they haven't changed the subject yet, and aren't likely to be able to this time. The pressure on McConnell has moved him from the admonition that the Senate can only "reflect" on mass murder for now to acknowledging that a lot of people want to see something happen. Which means he is subject to pressure.
Pressure that Senate Democrats could increase tenfold if they wanted to do something about this. Just showing up back at the Senate the next time the cameras are on, on Tuesday at 12:30 PM, and demanding that they want to vote on the House bills would help. Why they haven't done this yet is a mystery. Most of them don't have campaigns to worry about and don't have anything better to do. It's a simple, effective action, one that would tell a terrified and grieving nation that at least someone gives a damn and is trying to do something.