There’s only one way left to do this
How many people have to die from gun violence before something substantive is done? It’s a damn good question which is asked repeatedly. After Columbine. After Boulder. After Sandy Hook. After Scottsdale. After Parkland. After Virginia Beach. After El Paso. After Las Vegas. After every single one of the multiple homicides in the USA since 1967.
How many more will have to die on the altar of the 2nd Amendment?
It’s a damn good question which may never be answered – certainly not by the GOP. Certainly not by Rafael Cruz or anyone else in the pay of the NRA or the gun manufacturers.
There is evidently no number high enough to cause real concern or prompt any real action by the GOP other than pearl clutching.
More than half a million are dead from COVID-19 in the US and that is not apparently enough to cause the GOP to do more than grouse about the simplest of preventative measures; wearing a mask, washing your hands and keeping your distance. Recent polls show that 49% of Republican men will refuse to even be vaccinated. A half million dead is assuredly not concerning enough to get a jab or wear a mask.
So, if 548,000 dead are not enough to spur the GOP to take the simplest of precautions against the virus then there can be little hope that the murder of a few hundred by gun violence will tip the scales for the GOP.
What must be done? Universal background checks, banning assault-type weaponry and closing the gun-show loopholes are necessary steps toward sensible gun control legislation. Of course, none of those steps will be taken willingly by the GOP.
Therefore, the Dems must act unilaterally. They must deny the GOP the use of the filibuster. It is the only way.
