America is turning against guns
America is turning against guns
By Anna Greenberg, David Walker at the Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/09/how-americans-are-supporting-gun-control-wake-mass-shootings-like-el-paso/?utm_source=reddit.com
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Like a director yelling “action,” the horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, last weekend cued all the same political actors to repeat all the same political lines. Conservatives offered their prayers and talked about mental health and video games; progressives decried inaction in Washington. Voters could be forgiven for assuming they have seen this play before and nothing will ever change. But this is wrong.
America’s relationship with guns is changing, and people, more than ever, want someone to “do something.” These new attitudes will transcend the red/blue divide and provide a litmus test of our political leaders’ values. Republicans increasingly understand that they are on the wrong side of history and risk political ruin in the suburbs if they do not find a way to distance themselves from perceived complacency.
It hasn’t always been this way. After losing the 2000 presidential election, Democrats took stock. They looked at states like West Virginia, Ohio and Missouri and grew concerned about a growing cultural disconnect between the party and the people in the interior of the country. Democrats made a tactical decision to walk away from “gun control.” In 2004, the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire without protest from congressional Democrats. The party recruited pro-gun candidates to run in rural districts in the 2006 midterms. Barack Obama did not make gun control a major theme in either of his national campaigns. After Sandy Hook, Obama introduced executive orders addressing guns and championed Manchin-Toomey, a bipartisan bill that would have expanded background checks, but it was defeated by Senate Republicans and a handful of Senate Democrats representing red states.
Today, the Democratic presidential candidates have made reducing gun violence a major campaign issue. They all embrace some kind of ban on assault weapons, and some proposals are bold, such as Cory Booker’s plan for federal licensing and Joe Biden’s national buy-back program. Rep. Eric Swalwell made guns his central and defining issue before he dropped out last month. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), a former National Rifle Association member, felt compelled, after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, to donate $20,000 he had received in NRA political contributions to gun violence prevention groups. The new Democratic House passed a bill in February requiring a background check on every firearm sale that would represent the most significant gun legislation since 1994, if passed by the Senate. In the face of inaction in Washington and a hostile Supreme Court, a revitalized gun-control movement (including groups like Giffords, Moms Demand Action and Everytown) and political leaders have pushed for legislation at the state level and have passed ballot initiatives with gun restrictions in states across the nation.
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I can't argue with the gun nutters anymore and I can't support the 2nd amendment anymore after 3 mass shootings in a week. I'm done, I'm out. And with Chump and the NRA both doing their usual brand of "move along, nothing to see here" damage control, we're not going to learn and it will get even worse. 
