It’s finally coming into focus now
It’s amazing what elections can do. Since my last three Palmer Report pieces on gun reform in America, Biden and Democrats passed the first gun legislation in decades. It also turns out there has been a group like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) working to pass common-sense gun legislation, Moms Demand Action since 2013.
Still, to reverse the insane GOP’s deadly weaponization of the 2nd Amendment, Democrats must be more creative than ever. Republicans hijacked the 2nd Amendment through a legal case in 2003 brought by the craven “Gun Dude” who almost single-handedly gave us this wild world of guns. The Supreme Court decision turned gun ownership from “Militia Only” to an “individual’s right.” Then, the GOP packed the SCOTUS with a corrupt conservative majority. Therefore, reversing this precedent the way the SCOTUS reversed Roe v Wade would require years with a Democratic President and majority in Congress.
After the mass murder of innocent children in Uvalde, Texas, it seemed gun reform might be a major campaign issue for Democrats in the midterms. But since then, the SCOTUS also gutted Roe v Wade and the EPA, further galvanizing Democrats. The Democrats are now working to make the unelected SCOTUS irrelevant by legislating or “codifying” these protections.
In addition to recent groundbreaking legislation, Democrats have introduced two new gun reform bills that could greatly improve tracking of assault weapons and impose a 20% tax on manufacturers. (The House already passed a new assault weapons ban, but it is unlikely to pass the Senate).
Even as the GOP pushes for insane measures in a fake attempt to protect school children, gun reform may have fallen off the radar in the midterms, at least until the next mass shooting. Perhaps the GOP saw their poll numbers and sent a message to their mass shooters to cool it until after the midterms? Nothing is beneath them. A rising tide lifts all ships for the economy as for legislation. If Democrats keep the House and gain two seats in the Senate in the midterms, much good can be done.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.