Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Just Totally Screwed America on Gun Control

Hey, America: This Is How Republicans Play With Our Lives

What do you do after the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, a 15-hour filibuster to force a vote on gun control, and a 26-hour sit-in to force a vote on gun control, finally make it clear Americans are so united in wanting gun control legislation – and you’re the Republican in charge of the Senate but you and your fellow Republicans are bought-and-paid-for by the NRA and afraid the NRA will support another candidate challenging you?

Make it look like you’re giving the people what they want – but in reality, give cover to your caucus because it’s an election year.

Welcome to “As Mitch McConnell’s World Turns.”

Literally a hour after House Democrats announced the end to their 26-hour sit-in/protest demanding House Speaker Paul Ryan allow a vote on gun control, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell on Friday let it be known the Senate would vote on two gun control bills – totally making it look like he was the Statesman in the face of Speaker Ryan labeling the House Democrats’ actions a “publicity stunt.”

Spoiler alert: both bills failed. Super spoiler alert: By design.

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) would get a vote on her bipartisan version of the “no fly, no buy” terrorism watch lists bill, which the NRA opposes, and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) would get a vote on his bill, which the NRA did not officially oppose.

Collins’ bill would also mandate FBI notification should anyone who has been on the terror watchlist within the past five years attempt to purchase a firearm. The NRA labeled Collins’ bill unconstitutional.

“Under Collins’ amendment,” USA Today reports, “federal authorities would have had to have been notified of the purchases” made by the Orlando terrorist who killed 49 people and injured 53 more, “giving them an opportunity to surveil him and possibly prevent his tragic scheme.”

Johnson’s version mandated that the Dept. of Justice had a mere three days to find a reason to deny a gun purchase to someone who is or had been on the no fly or terror watch lists. After that, purchase approved.

Here’s where the Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell worked his evil.

“Senate GOP leadership explicitly designed the vote to go nowhere by using a procedural tactic,” Talking Points Memo reported.

After the Collins bill survived an initial “test” vote, which it was not expected to do, McConnell put the two bills up together, giving Senate Republicans cover to vote for a form of gun control, splitting the number of votes that the Collins bill could have gotten.

And then, just to make it worse, the vote on the Collins bill was not to pass it, but to fail it.

“In doing so, McConnell, a master of the Senate’s arcane rules, provided cover for vulnerable Republicans who wanted to be seen as supporting the effort, but did not want to cross the National Rifle Association,” The Hill explains.

“The scenario that Sen. McConnell set up was textbook McConnell,” former Senate Republican aide Brian Darling told The Hill. 

The Collins bill got 52 votes, but not the 60 needed to pass, so the Senate can now say it tried, but the votes just aren’t there.

“It didn’t have sixty votes. That’s what a motion to table does. It demonstrates where the votes are,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said.

Calling it a “last-minute measure,” The Hill reports it “had no chance of passing the Senate, but gave political cover for Johnson and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are all in challenging reelection races this fall.”

“All six voted against the Collins bill but in favor of the Johnson measure.”

Collins says she will “never know” why McConnell set up the votes the way he did. 

But America does, and we suspect the Republican Senator from Maine does as well.

Here’s Senator Mitch McConnell, two days after the Orlando anti-LGBT hate crime mass shooting terror attack, that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others, explaining how Republicans are keeping America safe:

“Between the Senate filibuster, the House sit-in, and this vote, we have helped create a massive uprising of support in favor of laws to make our nation safer from gun violence,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who stood on the Senate floor for nearly 15 hours, holding a filibuster for gun control, said. “And while I know we are far from the finish line, this has been a momentous last eight days for this crusade.”

Murphy called today’s Senate vote a huge loss for the NRA.

It’s a start.

 

EARLIER:

Breaking: Senate to Vote on Two Gun Control Bills Today

Breaking: House Democrats End Sit-In for Gun Control

Watch Live Now: House Democrats Approach 24 Hour Mark of #NoBillNoBreak Sit-In For Gun Control

House GOP Starts 4th of July Recess Early as Democrats Continue Round the Clock Gun Control Sit In

There’s About to Be a Major Power Struggle on the House Floor – Republicans Will Try to Take It Back

The Speaker of the House Just Called Democrats’ Efforts to Pass Gun Control ‘A Publicity Stunt’

Breaking: After Democrats Take Over the House for Gun Control, GOP to Hold Emergency Meeting

#NoBillNoBreak: Democrats Have Literally Taken Over Congress to Demand a Gun Control Vote

Republicans Trying to Regain Control of House Floor as Democrats Stage Sit-In for Gun Control

Breaking: Dozens of Democratic Congressmen Stage Sit-In on House Floor to Demand Vote on Gun Control

 

 

Image by Sen McConnell Press/Twitter