Senate Dems’ gun safety imperative
President Biden is right when he says now is the time for an assault weapons ban and a limit on ammunition magazines. Senate Democrats are missing a crucial moment for meaningful change.
I have worked on the gun issue since my time as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration, when we were inches from a historic agreement with gun makers that would have revolutionized the design, manufacture and distribution of guns. It was derailed in a moment when George W. Bush won the 2000 election against Al Gore.
As governor of New York, I successfully advanced the strongest gun safety law in the nation following the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut. I announced the bill in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and got it passed three weeks later with Democratic and Republican legislators who would never have agreed just weeks earlier. They were frankly bowed by the public outcry. In that moment, the extremists, special interests and legislative inertia could be overcome. Those moments are rare and must be seized and never squandered.
After Buffalo and Uvalde, we are in a moment of potential change. Americans are engaged and outraged.
Assault weapons massacred children while police stood outside, and Black people were executed in a horrific racist attack. Americans rightly demand real change: a federal assault weapon ban, magazine limit, red flag law and universal background checks.
We need systemwide reform to make a difference. Loopholes kill. We’ve learned that incremental change is destined to fail and politicians’ promises of implementing reform “one step at a time” are only accepted by fools.
We are not asking for the impossible. An assault weapons ban and 10-bullet magazine limit were already passed and became law in 1994 under President Clinton and Senate leader George Mitchell. Then in 2013, when President Obama tried to renew the law, he failed. What was the difference between the 1994 success and 2013 failure? It’s that Democrats in the Senate stood in unified support in 1994 and failed to unify in 2013, when 15 Democrats voted “no.” Face facts: We will never pass an assault weapons ban and magazine limit without a unified Senate delegation.
Senate Democrats blame the Republicans for not having enough votes to pass real gun reform, but it’s a smokescreen. The truth is they don’t have all the Democratic votes.
The Senate’s current plan of producing a bipartisan bill accepts defeat without waging a challenge. It means we will get a watered-down measure that is acceptable to Republicans. This won’t achieve real gun reform, but Democrats will have talking points to say they wanted to do more than the Republicans but will never have actually voted for any additional measures.
The “safe” proposal will be just universal background checks and a red flag law. That would be classic “too little too late,” as neither by themselves are sufficient to make a real difference. In fact, these provisions may not even have stopped the shooters in Buffalo and Texas.
It would be a historic blunder to miss this moment for change. Democrats must force Republicans to vote against the assault rifle ban and magazine limit now supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should put a full gun reform bill on the floor for a vote to show this nation where their senators stand. If, as Schumer says, it fails because of Republican opposition, so be it. Voters have a right to know and the November elections loom large.
However, the reason he probably won’t ask for a vote on a full reform bill is that it’s not just the Republicans. The dirty secret is that Schumer doesn’t have the Democratic votes and doesn’t want to expose more Democratic disunity and reveal individual positions on this difficult issue. Senate Democrats who oppose real reform will incur the wrath of fellow Democrats, and those in the GOP who support it will lose Republican support.
While we understand the Machiavellian politics at play here, the voters have a right to know where their senators stand. Let democracy work. Most importantly, If Democrats are against an assault weapons ban and 10-bullet limit and we do not have a unified Senate Democratic conference, then it is 2013 all over again.
This is a moment for change and Americans are crying out for an end to the madness. If it doesn’t happen now, another moment may not arise for years. How many more lives will be lost in the meantime, and what makes us think Democrats will have any more backbone in the future?
Democrats are already under fire for delivering too few results for the people. If our party is the reason that we are not successful in achieving real gun reform, then shame on us.