President Obama started the New Year off by refocusing Washington and the nation on gun control. Matt Laslo reports from Washington that he may have inadvertently broadened the gulf between him and Republicans who control Capitol Hill.
After a string of mass shootings last year, President Obama repeatedly asked Congress to act, but Republican leaders in both chambers of Congress refused to even bring gun control measures up for votes. That’s why the White House says the president acted alone to enhance the background check system. Right after the president’s announcement, Virginia Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith accused the president of doing a head fake.
“I think the timing of this is done intentionally to distract from the fact that Congress is about to put on his desk a repeal of Obamacare that he doesn’t want to have deal with but he will veto. I think he’s trying to suck up all the press air so the American people don’t realize there’s one person who stands in the way of reforming healthcare and that’s the President of the United States Barack Obama.”
The president vetoed the repeal effort with little fanfare at the end of last week. President Obama is also seeking to add 200 new ATF agents to enforce the gun laws already on the books while also calling for an extra five hundred million dollars to boost the nation’s mental health system. Republicans are already threatening to challenge the executive actions in court. Virginia Republican Congressman Randy Forbes says the president is overreaching.
“I think Americans have a right to two things: Safety and also making sure that they’re defending their rights. And those two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
Virginia Democrats see things quite differently. Northern Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly says GOP is making a mistake by rejecting calls for modest gun control measures.
“Long-term they’re in an utterly untenable position. They’ve boxed themselves so much that they’re defending the ability of people on the terrorism watch list to purchase guns without a background check.”
The NRA is headquartered in Connolly’s district mere miles from the Capitol, which makes them his constituents - of sorts. That hasn’t stopped him from joining a protest outside their office. He characterizes the relationship this way.
“Cool, but correct.”
Connolly says the NRA has a stranglehold on the GOP, and he says their positions make no sense.
“I think their intransigence on reasonable measures – assault weapons bans being reinstated, they were in the law, universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole – they ought to be embraced by an NRA that wants to make America safer. It’s tragic that those measures are in fact opposed by the NRA.”
But Republicans say the real tragedy is President Obama going around Congress. Virginia Republican Congressman Dave Brat says the president’s actions are intended to confuse the American people.
“It’s just cynical politics. The number 1, 2, 3 issues in the presidential polls, number 1 is domestic terrorism, number 2 is foreign policy, number 3 is probably jobs and economy. How’s the president doing on those 3? Disaster. So if you’re the president and you’re failing on the number 1, 2, and 3 issues the country faces, what would you do? I’d put forward some hot political potatoes like guns.”
Gun control is now expected to play a central role in many congressional races across the nation in the 2016 election. Gun control groups are promising to spend more than the NRA in this cycle, which could be a game changer. But if you’re expecting gun control measures to be taken up in this Congress, don’t hold your breath.