As the White House gears up to take its gun control plans on a public relations tour, at least one senator is out selling a different message: Don’t worry. The Second Amendment will stay intact.
“He has six Democrats up for election in two years in states where the president received fewer than 42 percent of the votes,” said Sen. John Barasso, Wyoming Republican, in a Politico report, running down the realities of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s political capital. “He doesn’t want his Democrats to have to choose between their own constituents and the president’s positions.”
In other words, Mr. Barasso said: No way would Mr. Reid bring a gun control bill to the floor for vote. That message does have some historical support.
In July 2012, shortly after the shootings in Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting deaths of 12, Democrat Sen. Frank Launtenberg vowed passage of a bill for more gun safety. The bill never moved; Senate spokesmen at the time cited the Senate’s busy schedule as the reason it failed.
“Not this period,” the Senate aide reportedly said, according to the Huffington Post. “[Not] given the schedule.”
Mr. Barasso’s comments also come amid a state-drive push-back against more gun control. Just Monday, Fox News 32 out of Vermont reported one state senator withdrawing a bill that would have cracked down on assault weapons due to lack of constituent support.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.