AP Photo/Eric Gay

Congress has a pair of gun control bills up for discussion, and while it’s unlikely either would survive in the United States Senate, that’s not going to stop Democrats from passing them. One is a universal background check bill. Another would require dealers to wait for ten days after requesting a background check on an individual, rather than the current three-day hold.

However, just because it’s unlikely the Senate will vote on either bill doesn’t make it impossible that it won’t. If there’s a vote, there’s always a theoretical possibility that the bill could pass. That would mean new gun control laws for all of us, right?

Not so fast. There’s still the president to get by, and the White House has signaled that he has no intentions of signing either bill.

The White House this week suggested President Trump could veto two pieces of companion gun control legislation if approved by Congress – with a vote in the House expected to take place this week.

In a statement, the White House said the pair of bills violated Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, or H.R. 8 – a bill that would require a background check for every firearm purchase (even private transfers) – is “incompatible” with the “guarantee of an individual right to keep arms,” the White House said.

…

“If H.R. 8, or H.R. 1112, are presented to the President, his advisors would recommend he veto the bill,” the White House concluded.

This is very important because while gun manufacturers could probably use a bit of panic-buying right about now, I’m personally much happier knowing that my Second Amendment rights are as secure as they possibly could be.

Now, the question some are asking is why the Democrats are going to proceed with this if they know it won’t get past the Senate or the president, and the answer is pretty simple.

They’re grandstanding.

You see, in their minds, Americans gave them a majority in the House precisely so they could enact gun control, so they have to at least look like they’re doing it. In fairness, it’s working. Gun control advocates are thrilled by the fact that this vote is happening and it looks like a win for their side. They’re not even paying attention to the realities that it has to get through two pro-gun layers of government before it gets passed.

It’s kabuki theater pretending to be politics.

In a way, it’s much like the GOP’s repeated votes on repealing Obamacare when they held the House, knowing damn good and well it wasn’t going to happen. They just needed to tell their base what it wanted to hear. Once they could do a full repeal, what happened? A few parts got rolled back and went away, but for the most part, Obamacare is still the law.

The difference this time is that I do believe that unless something changes, Democrats will pass gun control the first opportunity they have.

But for now, we can rest a little easier knowing that gun control is a campaign promise that has less chance of happening than Nancy Pelosi being on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.