Geoff: 17,556 people have been
killed by guns in America so far
this year, and there have been
216 mass shootings -- including
Buffalo and uvalde.
That's according to the
nonprofit gun violence archive.
Following these tragedies come
calls for new gun safety laws.
But Washington has a long
history of failed attempts at
such legislation.
Nearly 25 years ago, in what was
at the time the deadliest school
shooting in U.S. History, 15
people died and two dozen were
injured at columbine high
school.
Pres. Clinton: The heart and
soul of America is on the line.
Geoff: Lawmakers introduced "The
youth gun crime enforcement act
of 1999" only three weeks after
the shooting.
The goal was to put in place a
mandatory waiting period,
background checks, and more gun
restrictions for people under
the age of 18.
That bill failed, along with
federal legislation to close the
so-called gun show loophole,
which allows unlicensed dealers
to sell guns without background
checks.
Less than five years later, the
federal ban on semi-automatic
weapons like ar-15's expired.
Both chambers of congress and
the white house at the time were
controlled by Republicans, and
lawmakers never bought the ban
up for renewal.
In 2012, the country was shaken
by the massacre in Newtown.
A gunman at sandy hook
elementary killed 26 people.
20 of them were just 6 and
7-year-olds.
Congressional Democrats drafted
bills to expand background
checks.
And talks stretched on for
months, but no deal.
Three years later, in
Charleston, South Carolina, a
white gunman shot and killed
nine black people attending a
church bible study.
Democrats proposed closing the
so-called "Charleston loophole,"
which allows dealers to complete
gun sales if a criminal
background check takes longer
than three business days.
But Republicans controlled both
chambers of congress at the
time, and the legislation went
nowhere.
In 2016, a gunman killed 49
people at the pulse nightclub in
Orlando.
The senate was deadlocked just
eight days after the shooting on
measures to block people on the
federal terrorism watchlist from
buying guns and to close
loopholes in background check
laws.
And the following year, in
October 2017, 60 people were
killed by a lone gunman shooting
from the 32nd floor of a high
rise in Las Vegas, becoming the
deadliest mass shooting in
America.
The shooter used what's called a
bump stock, which allows a
semi-automatic rifle to fire
hundreds of rounds per minute.
After a bipartisan effort to ban
the devices stalled in congress,
then-president trump eventually
banned them through executive
action.
Then on Valentine's day in 2018,
a former student went into
Marjory Stoneman Douglas high
school in Florida and killed 17
people, 14 of them students.
Senator Marco Rubio introduced a
red flag bill that would let law
enforcement restrict gun access
for people considered unstable
who could be a threat to others
or themselves.
Rubio's bill was reintroduced
twice in the senate, but never
got a vote on the floor.
And now as the country witnesses
the second deadliest school
shooting in American history,
and with polls showing the
overwhelming majority of
Americans supporting some
restrictions on firearms, the
question is, is it going to be
different this time?
To help answer that question, we
have with us national political
reporter Heidi Priscila, who has
for years covered the gun reform
debate on capitol hill and
across the country.
It's great to have you with us.
Heidi: Thank you, geoff.
Geoff: And one of the things
that's different about this
current moment is that the
senate Republican leader, Mitch
Mcconnell, this past week said
that he encouraged Texas senator
John Cornyn to work with
Democrats on hashing out some
compromise bill.
What are we to make of that?
Heidi: And that is the reason
why you see senator Joe Manchin,
who is a battle hardened veteran
of these debates, say that he is
optimistic.
Mcconnell is definitely feeling
the pressure, as he always does
in the aftermath of these gun
massacres.
And the true test of this is
what happens over the next few
days, whether that continues,
whether the pressure continues
and he feels it politically or
whether it dissipates.
Because in the end, this is
going to be a political
calculation by Mitch Mcconnell
about whether it hurts or helps
his flock in order to pass this
legislation.
At the same time, it's important
to set expectations here because
what we are talking about here
is whether there will be very,
very modest reforms in answer to
what is really the deadliest
school massacre in ten years.
Geoff: To your point, and this
is sort of based on my own
reporting too, Democrats and
Republicans, it's still early,
but they're not talking about an
assault weapons ban.
They're talking about
potentially red flag laws and
increasing background checks.
Heidi: So those are the two
modest reforms that could come
of this.
We saw the gun background check
legislation implode in
spectacular fashion after
Newtown and it really hasn't
gone anywhere since then.
Look at that.
Those are small things that are
closing the so-called gun show
loophole, which is that you can
get guns without background
checks at some gun shows as well
as over the internet.
That's number one.
Number two are these red flag
laws that already exist in about
19 states.
That is simply allowing states,
giving states some grant money
to help them to bring in and
apprehend individuals who might
pose a threat to themselves or
to other people.
It would allow family members or
law enforcement to get court
orders to get the guns away from
those individuals.
Geoff: As you know, momentum
accounts for a lot in politics.
You talked about the passage of
time.
The senate is on a pre-scheduled
ten day break.
They're not back in town until
June 6.
I mean, that could really undo a
potential deal like this.
Heidi: And that's why it is very
instructive to see what the
ecosystem around this does.
Because, and you and I discussed
this previously, geoff, that
what we've seen in the ten years
since Newtown is that there's
this whole new advocacy network
like moms demand action, sandy
hook promise, the parkland kids,
they claim to have even more
financial backing and be more
powerful than the NRA, which,
let's face it, is facing some
very serious problems right now
financially in terms of
corruption.
And so does that pressure
remain?
There will be marches on June
11.
Or does the media ecosphere that
all of these members, these ten
Republicans who they're going to
need so devoid of that and so
separate from that, that the
pressure dissipates on them
because, again, that's what
we're talking about.
Ten Republicans.
Geoff: You mentioned the NRA.
That organization is nowhere
near the powerhouse that it once
was.
It's not even the powerhouse
that some Democrats claim that
it is.
And yet you have so many
Republicans who still echo NRA
talking points.
What accounts for that?
What accounts for their pull on
the Republican party?
Heidi: Well, some of it is
overstated when you look at the
financial impact because the NRA
spreads its money so thinly
across so many members that you
really can't make the argument
this is about finances, rather
more about culture, culture in
this country.
If you look at where some of the
biggest divides are, it's not
red and blue.
It's not different
socioeconomics.
It is actually gun owning
households and non-gun owning
households.
And so a lot of it is just the
cultural, but it's also this
misplaced notion that it is
political suicide to do anything
on guns, which is really a myth
that's been propagated since the
Clinton era when the assault
weapons ban expired.
And they were just too afraid to
to do anything about it because
they had lost the midterm
elections.