“I’m not going to try to put something on the floor that won’t succeed,” Reid said at the hearing. “I want something that will succeed. I think the worst of all worlds would be to bring something to the floor and it dies there.”
Debate Intensifies
Gun control advocates and pro-gun lobbyists have both ramped up their campaigns leading up to the Senate vote.
Under the leadership of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, full-page ads appeared in major media in support of the gun laws. On the National Day To Demand Action last week, March 28, over 100 rallies were held around the country, and thousands of people posted statements on Twitter and Facebook.
The pro-gun lobby has also been increasing the pressure on members of Congress, particularly democratic senators in conservative states who will be up for reelection in 2014.
“I don’t take gun advice from the mayor of New York City. I listen to Arkansans,” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said in a statement about Bloomberg’s ads.
Republicans, who had indicated they would support certain measures, are now hesitating.
“Universal background checks is a bridge too far for most of us,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
On Tuesday, a group funded by the National Rifle Association released a report on school safety. The announcement at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, D.C., makes a number of recommendations, including arming and training at least one staff member per school.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who was speaking on gun control at the NPC the same day, said that individual schools should be able to decide what to do, but he does not think that having more guns in schools is the answer.
Cummings, who lost a nephew to gun crime in 2011, has introduced legislation in the House that designates gun trafficking as a federal crime. The bill received bipartisan support and had over 100 sponsors, according to Cummings.
There is a long way to go, however, before gun control legislation will make it to the president’s desk, but Cummings has said that he will continue to fight for it as long as he lives.
“It will be a tough fight, but it will be a fight worth fighting,” Cummings said.
