Eric Boehlert: The only gun reform story that matters -- GOP obstruction

[babylonsister]

https://pressrun.media/p/gop-obstruction-the-only-gun-reform

The only gun reform story that matters — GOP obstruction
It's not about "Congress"
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


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Republicans and their blind allegiance to the NRA exacerbate this crisis by blocking gun reform laws while simultaneously loosening ownership restrictions and helping to flood the country with firearms. Yet how many "Republicans Still Oppose All Gun Reform In Wake of Mass Murders" headlines have you read in the last month? I haven't seen any. But I have seen lots of coverage about how "Congress" can't pass gun laws, how there's "gridlock," and even how the lack of meaningful new gun laws might be the fault of Democrats.

snip//

Blaming Democrats for the GOP's concrete obstruction isn't new. The Beltway press did the same thing to President Barack Obama, when his administration made a major push to pass a background check bill after 20 first graders were massacred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct. in late 2012. Even after Democrats whittled the bill down to a fraction of its original intent in order to win enough Republican votes to break the filibuster, the GOP refused to pass the bill.

Incredibly, the pundit class then blamed Obama: If only he had acted sooner, or proposed other legislation, or talked more often to Republicans, or not held public events in support of new gun laws. If Obama had just done everything differently, pundits suggested, he would've been able to win substantial Republican support and been able to easily secure passage of new gun safety legislation. Democrats were criticized for getting "cocky" during the legislative process, missing "their window" following the school massacre in Newtown, CT., and for "grasping at straws."

Following the Sandy Hook mass murder, Republicans for months blocked every conceivable Democratic proposal, and the pundits blamed…Democrats. Nearly ten years later we know there's nothing Democrats can do in terms of cajoling, because Republicans mindlessly oppose addressing gun safety no matter how many Americans die.

By the way, how radical of a shift is today's GOP behavior on guns? Note that in 1999, 31 Senate Republicans voted in favor of mandating background checks at gun shows. And in 1994, 42 House Republicans voted for the Crime Bill, which included a ban on assault weapons. But all of that context gets left out of gun reform coverage today, as the press pretends Republicans have always been uniformly opposed to new laws to protect citizens.

There’s a mass murder crisis in this country, and the press needs to tell the truth about the GOP and its role.

[SYFROYH]

1. I think it is instructive that Boehlert goes to the 1990s as the last time we had GOP cooperation

The Assault Weapon Ban helped radicalize the NRA and some gun owners to reject all gun control if AWBs are on the table.

The AWB also caused a perceived forbidden fruit demand for so-called assault weapons - especially AR varieties.

At this point everyone is entrenched and I don't see it breaking free soon.

Just a point of information. The last time the GOP/NRA cooperated on federal-level reform to help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people was after the VATech massacre when a ban wasn't on the table.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nra-democrats-team-up-to-pass-gun-bill/

NRA, Democrats Team Up To Pass Gun Bill

After 52 years in Congress, John Dingell knows it sometimes takes a "rather curious alliance," such as between the National Rifle Association and the House's most fervent gun control advocate, to move legislation.


That's what took place Wednesday when the House, by voice vote, passed a gun control bill that Rep. Dingell, D-Mich., helped broker between the NRA and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y.

With the NRA on board, the bill, which fixes flaws in the national gun background check system that allowed the Virginia Tech shooter to buy guns despite his mental health problems, has a good chance of becoming the first major gun control law in more than a decade.