White House Admits Battle Over Gun Control is Failing

Anti-gun legislators were convinced earlier this year that they’d pass strict gun control legislation before the beginning of April. The odds seemed insurmountable for those that valued their right to bear arms. But now it appears those very same legislators are looking to table the issue for another time.

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Vice President Joe Biden maintained earlier this week that he and President Barack Obama “haven’t given up” on gun control. Speaking for the first time since the Senate failed to pass an April 17th background check vote, Biden could only mention a list of mostly completed executive actions—along with a new set of guides for churches and schools. Not as much progress as gun control proponents would have liked.

Strategy meetings for future gun control legislation ended weeks ago and the pressure that Biden promised to place on senators never came to fruition. Biden attempted to claim a partial victory by insisting that more voters are willing to punish members of Congress that are against gun control measures. Though polling data suggests otherwise.

The White House’s public silence over these past two months reinforces a growing narrative; Americans want to keep their guns. A White House representative agreed that they had run out of options, stating:

“I don’t know how much there is for [the White House] to do, the president doesn’t twist arms and have lunch, there’s no money to put a post office or a research facility in somebody’s district. What do you do other than travel places — and now they don’t even travel.”

Other prominent anti-gun congressmen have decided to avoid pushing the legislation, including Harry Reid, who doesn’t plan on bringing any bills to vote. Even Pat Toomey, one part of the Toomey-Manchin bill, has decided to pull his support from his own proposal.

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Democrats have acknowledged they have no chance of winning red-state Dems like Mark Pryor of Arkansas—who has already began to run ads promoting his vote against gun control.

While the fight against gun control seems to be cooling off significantly, that doesn’t mean anti-gun groups will continue to go quietly.

To mark the six months since the Newtown massacre, lobbying group Sandy Hook Promise once again brought Newtown family members to the Capitol to persuade House members and demand action. And New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, desperate to keep gun control in the spotlight, had decided to launch a bus tour through his group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

The midterm elections will still have a significant impact on the future of gun control legislation, but early signs look promising. Americans have stood up and spoken that they want their right to bear arms, and by continuing to urge legislators against taking anti-gun proposals, the 2nd Amendment will still stand.

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