Something is better than nothing. This reasoning should guide Democratic leaders when they negotiate with Republicans on gun legislation.
We all know what Republicans want: Unlimited access to guns of all types. But even they can’t ignore the public backlash from the latest school shooting (the 27th this year). So McConnell, leader of Senate Republicans, appears willing to deal albeit in a very limited way (read story here). The Democrats should take whatever he offers.
Here’s McConnell’s offer as it presently stands:
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday gave the greenlight to bipartisan talks on legislation to curb gun violence, revealing that he has asked Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of his advisers, to negotiate with Democrats. …
“McConnell … cautioned the negotiations should not veer off onto proposals not directly related to the recent violence in Texas that left 21 people dead, including 19 school children. ‘I met with Sen. Cornyn this morning,” he told a reporter for CNN …. ‘I’ve encouraged him to talk to Sen. Sinema, Sen. Murphy and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that’s directly related to the problem,’ he said, referring to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). …
“McConnell emphasized he’s interested in coming up with legislation that directly addresses the circumstances of the school shooting in Texas and does not advance the Democratic agenda. …
“A group of five Democrats and three Republicans met in the basement of the Capitol Thursday afternoon to begin laying out a path for negotiations with a focus on expanded background checks and red flag legislation.”
(Read more about that group here.)
It remains to be seen whether Republicans will try to attach unacceptable conditions, or otherwise sabotage any proposal; they’ve resisted every effort to control guns, no matter how limited or modest. But if they’ll now vote for a clean bill free of partisan games the Democrats, for their part, should take anything they can extract from a party that until now has flooded America with military-grade rifles even disturbed teenagers can get easily.