Posted on 04/26/2013 1:02:05 PM PDT by pabianice
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was glum after background checks went down April 17. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A week after gun legislation suffered a stinging defeat in the Senate, an uncomfortable realization has settled over the Capitol that it will likely take another mass shooting or similar tragedy to reignite momentum for gun control.
President Obama called last week’s vote “round one.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that it was “just the beginning.” But gun-control advocates, both inside and outside of Congress, have identified no immediate path forward to alter a political landscape that left them five votes short in the Senate of passing a bill requiring expanded background checks for gun purchases.
Focus in the Capitol has already shifted to immigration, renewed fiscal skirmishes, and the Boston bombings (though some questions remain over how the suspects obtained firearms). Even Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the chief Republican coauthor of the background-check plan, has said it is time to move on.
Proponents of new gun restrictions still hope to use the 2014 elections to upend the current dynamics, in which voting against the gun lobby is deeply feared, especially in GOP-leaning states. They plan to rely upon the impassioned pleas of the families of the Newtown shooting victims, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s money, and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ national stature. Before the next election, though, the truth is that another tragedy may be the only way to shake loose the legislation.
“Unfortunately, tragically, regrettably, there’ll be other incidents of gun violence that will remind us of how much is at stake,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who has pushed hard for new gun laws after the December shooting that left 20 elementary school students dead.
The calls for stricter gun laws were loudest in the immediate aftermath of Newtown. But as the weeks and months passed, the powerful National Rifle Association, which opposed virtually any new firearm limits, including background checks, regained its footing.
On Wednesday, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough told Toomey that he was still shocked that the Senate couldn’t pass expanded background checks with 60 votes when it was an issue supported by “95 percent” of the public, as Scarborough put it.
“I would suggest that we heard from the 5 percent who opposed—several times from each one of them,” Toomey replied. “It was a much more vocal and much more passionate expression from that camp.”
To advance the bill in the future, added Toomey, “I think the most important thing, frankly, is members of Congress need to hear from people—and the people who support these background checks need to be as vocal as those who don’t.”
It is a shortcoming that gun-control advocates acknowledge. “We talk about that as the passion gap, and we have to close that,” said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. He said his group had spent the last week “thanking and spanking” senators for their votes.
“If we really want to succeed, what we really need to do is demonstrate that our movement can reward allies and punish people who vote against us,” Everitt said.
Accusations that the White House did not move fast enough have been a recurrent critique of the administration’s handling of the gun issue after the Newtown massacre.
Expanding background checks reaps as much as 90 percent support in polling. But a new Pew Research Center/Washington Post poll shows far more division on the recent gun bill: 47 percent of Americans were “disappointed” or “angry” at the legislation’s defeat, but 39 percent were “very happy” or “relieved.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the other chief architect of the bipartisan compromise on background checks, suggested last Friday that the legislation would have proven “much more acceptable” if it had been on the floor in January. That’s when emotions still ran high after Newtown and the gun lobby was more divided.
“At that time we could have done something. So you seize the moment,” Manchin said, though he and Toomey didn’t reach a deal on background checks until April. Manchin has said he will continue to pressure his colleagues, one by one, though such an approach seems unlikely to break the deadlock.
Now, at least, Democrats and their allies have a package of gun-control measures—led by the Manchin-Toomey proposal—ready to be enacted practically immediately. Reid can bring the failed background-checks effort back to the floor at almost any time.
“The next Newtown is inevitable if we don’t act.... This is just our reality,” Everitt said. “Those things can help inform debate and galvanize people to act.”
Yeah, and that 95% showed up at that anti NRA rally yesterday. Do these azzhos really think people believe them?
Just wait, democrats will make sure more poor people die to get their point across. Question is, who will the dems plant death upon next to make their case?
Hey dems, you might get more pity if you attack the humane society.
...And they fully intend to arrange it
These worthless, statist Democrats need to STFU. Seriously.
Democrats and gun control is like a Boa Constrictor,
every time you exhale it gets another grip until
you can’t breath any more, then it unhinges it’s
jaw and starts working you down.
“Unfortunately, tragically, regrettably, there’ll be other incidents of gun violence that we will remind you of how much is at stake,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, democrat.
We know that the Democrats are hoping for another Newtown to exploit so that they can wade through the blood trolling for gun control support from the sheeple.
‘As Tasteless As It Gets’: Democratic Sen. Finds Opportunity in Newtown Massacre
Apr. 12, 2013 5:35pm Becket Adams
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Thursday cited the Newtown shooting massacre in a fundraising email to supporters.
From an editorial in the New Haven Register:
“In the wake of the horror of the December 14, 2012, massacre of 20 beautiful children and 6 dedicated educators,” Blumenthal is asking supporters to send money to his 2016 re-election campaign!
Democratic lawmaker: To get gun control, Obama must ‘exploit’ shooting
The Washington Times
Friday, December 14, 2012
A veteran Democratic lawmaker believes the nation will go along with stronger gun control laws if President Obama “exploits” the Newtown, Conn., tragedy and nudges Congress to action.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents portions of New York City, said he was encouraged by Mr. Obama’s statement on Friday afternoon that the mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 20 young children, requires “meaningful action” by Congress, but hopes those words turn into concrete legislation.
“These incidents, these horrible, horrible incidents ... are happening more and more frequently. And they will continue to happen more and more frequently until someone with the bully pulpit, and that means the president, takes leadership and pushes Congress,” Mr. Nadler said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” with Ed Schultz.
Mr. Nadler was asked whether the Newtown tragedy could be the turning point in many Democrats’ longstanding struggle to enact stronger gun laws.
“I think we will be there if the president exploits it, and otherwise we’ll go on to the next” incident, Mr. Nadler said.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/14/dem-lawmaker-get-gun-control-obama-must-exploit-sh/#ixzz2RbWRJTuf
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Another Newtown is nothing compared to what the infanticidal Obama would be planning if we gave up our guns.
What’s 20 murdered children compared to 20 million?
“They want another Newtown?? What for, when they already have Chicago?”
Shssss. Be quiet.
That is the hometown of the Messiah.
Thou shalt not speak of that.
Democrats play to win, republicans don’t even dress for the game. The jihadist attacks in Boston at this point in time gave the right an ample supply of ammunition to destroy amnesty and gun control. They have done nothing. Nothing. Calling them incompetent just does not cover it. They are eunuchs with tiny brains.
Then GOA, NRA and liberty lovers everywhere better do the same thing.
Get ready. The next AR-15 shooting will be horrendous. Say in a maternity ward or a baby nursery. Then Obama will parade the parents around to elicit emotion.
Some things about Sandy Hook were just not right. No one will convince me otherwise.
90% of the time (or more) libs are lying and making up lame statistics.
Maybe Putin and Li told Hussein that they won’t send their “peacekeepers” to protect him until he disarms US Americans. When the dollar falls 350% from it’s pre-Nov2008 value and our dictator declares Martial Law, the big cities will become prisons with the unarmed middle class sitting on “economic death row”. No good can come from Wahusseington. Unseal his Pandora’s box and let American’s see why thousands of his documents must be hidden!
+1
Toomey claims only 5% are vocal? What BS. His office never took my name when I called so how would they know. The more I hear from this guy the more I think he is a POS.
Traitor Joe is deliberately dancing in the blood of dead children. He is a disgusting puke.
If the pubs weren’t firmly in bed with these traitors,
they’d use the “inoculation” technique that the rats always use -
get out in front of it, get on record foretelling their behavior, accuse them of desiring it to advance their agenda, and then when they do try it, point out that you predicted this behavior and that no one should fall for it.
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