Five people are dead and 8 injured, 1 in critical condition in Louisville Kentucky in Monday’s seemingly daily occurrence of mass shootings in this country.
More thoughts and prayers and inaction on the part of congress will be rolled out; you know the drill. This macabre, horrendous act is indigenous to no other country but ours. Yet any form of gun legislation is impossible to pass in this congress.
But…is it? All it would take is a gesture on Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s part, the senior senator of Kentucky, to announce he is for the ban of assault weapons, more extensive background checks, outlawing of ghost guns, more vigorous prosecutions of stolen guns, more measures of gun safety through gun locks or storage cabinets and strengthening of red flag laws.
There is a path already paved. McConnell’s fellow Republican in neighboring Tennessee, Governor Lee, in response to a mass shooting just last week in his state, announced he is open to reforms, including red flag laws. And lest we forget in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on his life and himself a victim of gun violence, Ronald Reagan supported background checks and an assault weapons ban.
One wave of the Minority leader’s hand would unleash enough senate votes to break the 60-vote filibuster logjam. And if the Senate acted the pressure on the House would be so intense that enough moderate congressman who have always hidden behind the senate’s filibuster cloak would seriously consider siding with 71% of their constituencies and bring the NRA back to its origins of gun safety and gun competition, not gun slaughter.
Will this prevent all mass shootings and gun violence in the country? Obviously not. But the creation and nurturing of a gun environment would finally be broken; and Mitch who fancies himself a sane voice in the face of the far-right extremists of his party, would accomplish what every public servant should want to accomplish in their tenure, the prevention of loss of life, and enhancement of the safety of their constituents. That wouldn’t make Mitch McConnell sane, that would make him a savior.