Bold Prediction: "Sensible Gun Safety Laws" Will Go Nowhere For Now

Maestro of Bad Faith and wrecker of American democracy Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell (R-Hell), feeling the enormous heat and anger stemming from the Uvalde massacre, has another bad faith offer to take the heat off Senate Republicans:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Thursday he met earlier in the day with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and encouraged the senior Republican senator to begin discussions with Democrats, including Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to see if they can find a middle ground on legislation to respond to the tragic Texas elementary school shooting.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are facing enormous pressure to take action in the wake of the horrific shooting, but members on both sides acknowledge the uphill battle to find common ground given the highly polarized political climate around gun legislation and widespread GOP opposition to stricter gun control.

 

A "middle ground" on, for example, background checks and red flag laws, the very de minimus the vast majority of Americans are demanding??  What kind of poison pill might Republicans have in mind?  Well, in 2012, after the Sandy Hook massacre, Democrats tried to pass the Safe Communities Act, with a provision for expanding background checks.  It died in the Senate thanks to a Republican filibuster, but not after Republicans Ted Cruz (that loathsome weasel again) and Chuck Grassley proposed an amendment killing the background check expansion.

 

So, what is Sen. Cornyn's first thought out of the box?

Cornyn has also said that he does not want to see the shooting used as a way to infringe on gun rights.

 

"There's a whole list of things that we can consider, but I think particularly mental health, access to mental health treatment is high on that list," he said, adding, "I think we need to be open to whatever, wherever the evidence leads us. I would say that this is not an excuse to infringe the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens doing that will do nothing to fix tragedies like this."

 

Ah, the mental health, "guns don't kill people, deranged 18-year-olds kill people" script ripped from the National Rifle Rampage Association handbook!  The NRA, like white Christofascists, has long been an integral part of the Republican party/cult, and Republican "leaders" heading into an election cycle would sooner adopt "The Internationale" as their official anthem than decouple from those crackpots.  

 

(Of course, the better way to get "sensible gun safety laws" is to throw Republicans out of office -- at the local, State and Federal level.  Well, it's an aspiration to fight for.)

 

It seems at least some Democrats are finally wise to the bad faith rope- a- dope tactics of McConnell and his merry band of sociopaths, though. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) says the clock is ticking:

"I've been through this before," he said. "I know sometimes Republicans are more interested in talking than doing, so if we can't get some progress by the end of next week, then I'll say to Sen. Schumer it's time to take votes. And Sen. Schumer has committed that we're gonna have votes one way or the other on the floor of the Senate on issues like background checks."

 

In the meantime, we won't be cashing any checks written by Moscow Mitch.

 

BONUS:  These checks have already been cashed, though --

 

 

Senators bankrolled by the NRA:

Mitt Romney: $13,648,000

Richard Burr: $6,987,000

Roy Blunt: $4,556,000

Thom Tillis: $4,421,000

Marco Rubio: $3,303,000

Joni Ernst: $3,125,000

Josh Hawley: $1,392,000

Mitch McConnell: $1,267,000

Ted Cruz: $176,000

An absolute disgrace.

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) May 25, 2022

 

(Image:  Moscow Mitch at the 2014 CPAC nutfest)