Obviously, for election purposes, Repubs want the gun bill to fail and the immigration bill to pass

[kentuck]

They know they need immigration reform very badly. They cannot win elections without the Hispanic vote. Their support of immigration reform is the only way to make any progress on that problem.

But guns? They don't want to gamble with pissing off the NRA. They don't want to vote for any limitations on gun violence.

Democrats should not give them the immigration issue if they cannot get something done with the gun violence issue.

[BlueStreak]

1. Not obvious at all.

The NRA has already resigned itself to the fact they are on the losing end of public opinion. The only thing that will quiet things down is for some law to pass. That is what is obvious.

So they set out to pass a law that is actually a big win for them. First they get Obama and Reid to agree that the most conservative Dem Senator will work on the bill. The bill has some bullshit provision to nominally increase background checks, but preserves the ultimate universal loophole -- exempting personal sales. Well, ANYTHING can be a personal sale, and anybody who doesn't want to have a background check will have no problem finding a personal seller.

And more than that, they are adding language that prohibits any national registry of gun ownership.

This is a huge win for the NRA. We'd be far better off passing nothing. By passing this bullshit law, now the next time a Sandy Hook or Aurora happens, the NRA will say, "See, we told you that more laws won't help anything."