President Donald Trump was ready to roll on guns. We were expecting him to announce a deal any day and to watch the mechanism of government shift into gear. Here at Bearing Arms, we were standing by to write stories about various aspects of the deal, argue about whether they would work or not, and to cover the political debate.

I think everyone was pretty well convinced that Trump was going to push for some degree of gun control and both sides were readying for battle.

Then House Democrats got distracted by a shiny object called “impeachment.” They started in on trying to remove the president from office, thus negating any interest he had in working with them on much of anything, at least for now.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, however, thinks Trump should give Democrats precisely what they want despite the impeachment talk.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday challenged President Trump to “prove he still can govern” by working with Congress on enacting universal background checks even while undergoing an impeachment inquiry.

“The best way President Trump can prove that he still can govern is universal background checks,” Schumer said. “That’s where governing begins.”

The senator’s press conference came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced an impeachment inquiry over Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to get dirt on leading Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump on Friday met with the National Rifle Association’s CEO Wayne LaPierre, who reportedly told him to “stop the games” over gun control legislation.

Apparently, the only way Trump can govern is by supporting the exact measures Democrats support, rather than any of the many other policy positions he’s taken on various things since he took office.

Does anyone else buy that line of bull?

I mean, anyone other than Schumer? And, for the record, I’m not convinced even Schumer buys this nonsense.

Politics was once called the art of compromising. Everyone gave a little of what they wanted and while neither side was generally thrilled with what came out of it, neither was particularly upset about it either. Both sides gave a little to get a little.

On a controversial issue like guns, that usually meant one side caving and giving up gun rights while the other side could claim they compromised because they didn’t take quite as much as they wanted, but even that required a great deal of negotiation.

Now, though, Schumer wants Trump to give up something that will likely outrage his base while winning him nothing in return. He’s still looking at a House that’s likely to vote to impeach–something they’ve been talking about since the moment the election results were announced. Don’t let this whistleblower stuff fool you. This isn’t a principled stand, but an excuse and little more–and what are they willing to give him in order to get his support for one of the biggest planks in their platform? Nothing. Nothing at all.

There’s no reason for Trump to alienate a large portion of his base and give his opponents exactly what they want while they’re trying to also remove him from office. None.

Schumer needs to be told to go pound sand.