Pelosi And Schumer Continue Beating 'Universal Background Check' Drum

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have never supported the Second Amendment. They’ve never even really given lip service to the idea of supporting the Second Amendment either. They’re anti-gunners to their core, and we all know it.

Advertisement

Considering who they represent, they’re not going to suddenly support gun ownership. It’s just never going to happen.

Now that they’ve built up some momentum, they’re going to continue pushing harder for gun control than ever before. That’s also not very surprising, especially since President Donald Trump has signaled his willingness to compromise on gun control, at least to some extent.

However, it seems that the two leading Democrats are going to continue beating the drum for universal background checks, saying it has to be part of any plan going forward.

Congressional Democratic leaders warned President Trump on Sunday that any proposal on gun control must include a House-passed bill to expand background checks for gun purchases — or else risk no legislation at all.

In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said they spoke Sunday morning by phone with Trump, who planned to announce as soon as this week what measures he supported.

Pelosi, D-Calif., and Schumer, D-N.Y., said they made clear that any proposal lacking the House legislation “will not get the job done” by leaving dangerous loopholes.

“We know that to save as many lives as possible, the Senate must pass this bill and the president must sign it,” they said.

A White House spokesman, Judd Deere, confirmed that Trump spoke with the Democratic leaders at their request and indicated to them a desire to find a “bipartisan legislative solution” but made no commitments.

“The conversation was cordial,” Deere said. “The president reiterated his commitment for his administration to continue work on these issues.”

Advertisement

However, the more I think about it, the more I think these two are off their rockers by trying to make demands on this.

First, the House has sent so many gun control bills to the Senate that they can just pick and choose whatever they want to pass and ignore the rest. Almost none of it was part of a comprehensive bill, so they can pick and choose whatever they want to send to the president. That’s only going to be what the president will sign, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously stated.

So there’s really very little Pelosi can do unless Trump wants a particular piece of legislation that hasn’t been proposed just yet. That seems somewhat unlikely, but even if so, what’s the House going to do? Not pass gun control bills simply because “Orange Man Bad?”

Of course not.

The truth is, the power rests in the hands of those who it matters least to. Most Republicans aren’t going to lose their seats because they failed to support gun control. I’d argue that to be true even in swing states. Historically, gun control supporters don’t back or oppose politicians based on that issue alone, but pro-gun folks sure do.

Advertisement

So the truth of the matter is that if Pelosi and Schumer are interested in any gun control being passed, it might behoove them to stop trying to bully the president. It’s not going to work and it may end up blowing up in their faces spectacularly.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member