With viral moments and hard facts, Democrats seek to seize the moment on gun control by alexnazaryan
WASHINGTON — The recording was brief but powerful: the hollow pop of gunfire, a fuzzy human voice. “That’s the sound of mass murder,” explained Dan Oates, who was the police chief in Aurora, Colo., when a gunman killed 12 people inside a movie theater seven years ago. The audio was from that shooting, the deadliest up to that time. The number of dead has been eclipsed many times since.
“What are my colleagues afraid of?” Hayes wondered, speaking specifically about the need for the federal government to gather data on mass shootings. Republicans have resisted such measures, but will increasingly find it difficult to do so, as the public desire for a solution to the nation’s gun violence plague appears only to be increasing.
Yet the best chance the Democrats have on background checks — and any future gun control measure, including a renewed assault weapons ban, also supported by most Americans — is to circumvent McConnell and take their case directly to the people. They know that while McConnell couldn’t care less about popular perceptions, Trump cares deeply. The president was once a supporter of gun control, and Democrats think they can still appeal to the New Yorker in him.
Until fairly recently, gun research simply did not exist. Today that research is being conducted at some of the top universities in the nation. Berkeley sociologist Jennifer L. Skeem presented on the tenuous link between mental health and mass shootings. “Mental illness plays a limited role in violence,” she said, pointing to statistics that found only 4 percent of violent acts in the United States were committed as a result of mental illness.
The most immediate reason H.R. 8 remains in legislative limbo is because of Sen. McConnell, who has been resistant to gun control legislation. Speaking on Tuesday, McConnell acknowledged that after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton last month—separated by hours and killing dozens—”we owe it to the American people to act.” For him, however, inaction is a politically necessary strategy, regardless of what he actually thinks of background checks.
That’s why some think that the only way to truly curb gun violence is to first curb the influence of corporate and “dark” money in American politics. That was the purpose of a Tuesday gathering held by End Citizens United at the National Press Club, a few blocks from the White House.
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