Reply to Time to Unite on Gun Control

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone explain to me in simple terms why the party that controls the House, Senate, and White House is not taking any legislative action?[/quote]

Amen.  This is a bipartisan issue, in our elected officials need to do something NOW.[/quote]

Because Republicans hold enough seats in the Senate to stop it. I think you know that. [/quote]

I know plenty of conservatives that would agree to reasonable gun reforms.  Now is not the time to alienate them, not if you really want change.[/quote]

Bipartisan support for very limited gun control premised solely on addressing mental health concerns may be possible.  On the other hand, the Rs have already indicated there is no support for banning guns, and if Rs think any proposed legislation could be construed in even the most minor way as a “gun ban” it will totally lose R support.  That’s just political reality.  So the PP seems to be suggesting that if Ds want to achieve anything, it’ll be a delicate process, probably to be led by whatever 10 Rs can agreed on.

To put the difficulty of any reform in context, the US political system grants outsized power to rural voters.  Republicans haven taken advantage of this by making gun rights one of their wedge issues (along with their anti-abortion position).  These positions appeal to rural voters and mean the Rs only need like 40% of the vote to win 50% of the Senate.  In our system, the ability to “veto” legislation is quite powerful—the Rs just stymie The D agenda and bide their time to enact their own.  To maintain their position they won’t readily give up on gun rights.  Ds could negate the R strategy by welcoming pro-gun rights and pro-lifers into the party, but that hasn’t happened, and the Ds have essentially agreed to be on the other side of the wedge (that is, pro-gun control and pro-choice).  Another thing to note is that the wedge has been very effective and R voters and D voters essentially don’t trust each other, and the R voters don’t trust the government.  Take that together for the upshot—Rs won’t agree to gun bans and can be expected to have extreme political difficulty even agreeing to modest gun reforms.

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