A whole week that legislators could have been doing something, introducing bills or even a bill aimed at ending the horrifying blood baths that have become so common that parents are afraid to send their kids to school, a teacher's job description now includes taking a bullet if necessary to protect his or her students, and the rest of us feel like we have to keep a wary eye peeled in public.
Well, at least I do.
Meanwhile, while our lawmakers spin their wheels and give off little squeaks about, I don't know, spanking the FBI, tightening up background checks, and putting everybody who's ever been in therapy or taken an anti-depressant on some list (it will have to be a pretty long list),
1. In December of 2016, during the final days of his administration, President Obama passed a ruling requiring the Social Security Administration to send the names of people who were on disability due to mental illness to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System to keep those people from purchasing guns.
Donald Trump undid that ruling in February of 2017. |
Pretty bold initiative, huh?
Still, Donald Trump wouldn't back the bill, even though the National Rifle Association - which spent tens of millions of dollars supporting Trump's presidential campaign - gave it a green light, which shows how effective the NRA figured this bill would be.
However yesterday Donald Trump said he might - just might - maybe cautiously consider tentatively supporting Senator Cornyn's bill. Like, as long as the NRA was okay with it.
The NRA, of course, is the root of the problem for Donald Trump and his Republican Congress, so many of them being financially beholden to the gun lobby and therefore not wanting to appear to support any legislation that could theoretically cause the gun industry to lose a single dollar of revenue.
So this has Congress in a real pickle because, as we all know, a person cannot serve two masters; for they will either love the one and hate the other, or else they will hold to the one and ignore the other.
Now which of the two do you think Congress will hold to and which will they ignore?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/us/teachers-school-shootings.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/politics/trump-gun-legislation-mental-health/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/us/politics/trump-guns-background-checks.html
https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/