CNN
,
President Joe Biden stood on the ladder of his armored limousine and pointed his finger at the demonstrators Grief-stricken Uvalde, Texaswho were asking him to “do something” in the wake of the horrors elementary school massacre,
“We will,” replied Biden, adding a thumbs-up, on a harrowing day in which He and First Lady Jill Biden paid tribute Last week, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a barbaric attack that revived the country’s futile debate on guns.
But Biden seems less likely to do “something” given the limited scope of executive power to revamp firearm laws and his administration’s struggles to fulfill its desire in Washington. And despite the mood of national mourning, there is no sign of a fundamental change in the oppressed politics that gives A Republican Senate Minority Bloc Meaningful action on gun laws. As always, in the aftermath of a gruesome mass murder, there are optimistic noises in Congress that some incremental firearms reform is possible. But the biggest lesson of recent history is that the momentum fades with each passing day after the massacre.
The president travels to the sites of tragedies to express solidarity and sympathy of a traumatized country, to try to offer some comfort to the relatives of those lost and to turn collective grief into a moment of national unity and action.
Biden, whose life has been marred by family tragedy and the loss of his two children, was uniquely equipped for the first two requirements of his mission. But given the stagnant reality of national politics and the GOP’s fervent opposition to any changes to gun laws, the idea that Uvalde is the moment when a significant amount of public anger overcomes political inertia seems far-fetched. Is.
Still, in the most concrete indication of the federal government’s response to the Uvalde massacre last Tuesday, the Justice Department said it would Review Law Enforcement Response Robb during the murders at Elementary School. CNN reported that 19 law enforcement officers were standing outside the classroom where children died waiting 50 minutes for room keys and tactical equipment. The revelations have raised the painful prospect that these departures from active shooter protocol may have cost lives.
On the legislative front, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said CNN’s “State of the Union” He felt a “different feeling” among GOP allies given the horrors of the atrocities against young children in Texas. But he cautioned that any final settlement would be limited.
And on the same show, Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw outlined limited openings for agreement In GOP position. He rejected proposals such as universal background checks for gun purchases, red flag laws to keep guns away from people, and a ban on people under the age of 21 from buying powerful semi-automatic rifles. Like many Republicans, he called for school safety to be implemented. The level of weapons, training and protection needed would often cost many millions of dollars in an underfunded public education system and require children to effectively spend their formative years under heavy protection. Crenshaw’s arguments were symptomatic of the position that any gun control measure would be effectively un-American – a view that veers heavily against any effective action in Congress.
The cost of this autocratic philosophical stance, which leads to the widespread availability of lethal weapons and routine mass killings, was painfully heartbreaking. Interview conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash with Adrian Alonzowho spent all day on Tuesday trying to find his niece Ellie Garcia, only to find that she was among those who died.
“Best day of my life by far. And I’ll never forget that day. I can repeat those hours so clearly in my mind and it’s settled in my mind,” Alonzo said.
Ellie will have turned 10 next Saturday.
While the president’s power may be limited, he did more of his emotional duty Sunday afternoon, spending three hours with bereaved families. At one point, accompanied by the first lady, he hugged Mandy Gutierrez, principal of Rob Elementary School, next to a growing pile of flowers in an impromptu memorial.
Former President Donald Trump made no such visit, choosing instead to cement his position with GOP base voters at a time when his full control over his own movement was being questioned ahead of a potential 2024 White House campaign. .
trump appeared Friday at the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action’s annual leadership forum in Houston, less than 300 miles from Uvalde, and read out the names of each of the children and teachers killed.
“There is an incomprehensible loss to every precious young soul,” Trump said, but quickly turned to politics, following the massacre in Texas and a gun safety overhaul in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month. rebuked Biden and other Democrats for raising the issue. York, both were operated by 18-year-olds with legally procured semi-automatic weapons.
He argued that it was not appropriate for law-abiding gun owners to be denied such weapons because of the actions of the “sick and monstrous” assailants. He proposed more guns in schools to keep children safe and to convert school buildings into fortresses.
And Trump argued that even small reforms are a ploy to confiscate Americans’ guns, a point often used by the NRA and other conservatives.
“Once they get the first step, they’ll take the second step, the third, the fourth, and then you take a completely different look at the Second Amendment,” Trump said.
The notion that the horrific massacre unfolded last week in Texas should never diminish the magnitude of the liberties of Americans, who have high-powered weapons of war echoed in red, in more rural states typically represented by Republicans. where Trump is extremely popular. It also helps explain why even GOP senators willing to take minor steps to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of killers find it such a tough vote and meeting the 60-vote threshold needed to pass major legislation. Why that’s difficult – a function of Senate rules that even some moderate Democrats are unwilling to entertain change.
One Republican who is changing his position is Rep. Adam Kizinger. The Illinois Congressman said he is now ready to ban AR-15 rifles after a mass shooting.
“Look, I’ve opposed a ban, you know, recently. I think I’m ready for a ban now. It’ll depend on what it looks like because there’s a lot of nuance to it, you know. There are some things,” Kizinger told CNN’s Bash on “State of the Union” on whether he still opposed such a ban on “assault weapons that were used in the shooting.”
Kizinger, however, is hardly a representative sample of the GOP as he has freed himself from party conservatism by breaking with Trump—including his election fraud lies. He has decided not to run for re-election in the fall and therefore is no longer seen by GOP workers who would consider his remarks heretical.
But the argument that any gun ban would unacceptably violate the rights of law-abiding gun owners is inherently a political one. While the Constitution states that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed, it does not state that Americans have the right to possess any weapon of their choice, especially those that fire at the lethal rate the founders could have imagined. Would not have done. And the campaign against tightening gun laws prioritizes the rights of gun owners over innocent victims, such as those in Texas who had the right to be destroyed in an instant last week.
These conditions are so deep that the feeling of helplessness in the face of repeated massacres is unlikely to dissipate quickly. It’s easy to imagine that Biden and the first lady will soon appear in yet another vigil for the victims of the massacre. For the president, doing “something” may be impossible.