“The Supreme Court said Tuesday a survivor and relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting can pursue their lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 26 people,” the AP reports.
“The justices rejected an appeal from Remington Arms that argued it should be shielded by a 2005 federal law preventing most lawsuits against firearms manufacturers when their products are used in crimes.”
Beto O’Rourke dismissed criticisms of his sweeping gun control proposal, telling CBS News that he expects gun owners will go along with his plan to institute a “mandatory buyback” of high-powered rifles.
Said O’Rourke: “If we’re able to pass mandatory buybacks and I’m able to sign that into law, then I fully expect our fellow Americans to turn in their AR-15s and their AK-47s.”
A South Carolina auto dealership posted their “latest greatest” promotion on Facebook, saying they will be giving away a Bible, an American Flag and a Smith & Wesson AR-15 with every vehicle purchased, WBTV reports.
“National Rifle Association funds paid for lodging and travel of Russian nationals throughout 2015 and 2016, as part of a relationship that allowed foreign actors looking to influence the U.S. election, including now-convicted Maria Butina, to infiltrate the gun-rights group, a new report asserts,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The report, released Friday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, also says NRA leaders traveled to Moscow in December 2015 partly on the NRA’s dime, even though some went there to pursue their own personal business opportunities. This raises questions, the report says, about whether they violated laws on how nonprofit funds can be used.”
“The trip to Moscow gave Russians an opening to the organization as the election was ramping up, as well as access to other events involving Republican party leaders.”
Wall Street Journal: “The confirmation of President Trump’s pick to head the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is in jeopardy as some Republican senators expressed concern that he would restrict the rights of gun owners.”
“Chuck Canterbury, the head of the national Fraternal Order of Police, doesn’t have enough Republican support to advance beyond the Senate Judiciary Committee, the people said, and a Thursday vote on his nomination was indefinitely postponed.”
“Competing factions inside the White House have stymied efforts to unite behind gun legislation, further delaying President Trump from getting behind any plan,” Politico reports.
“On one side is Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, and Attorney General William Barr. Both are urging the president to back new firearms restrictions — including expanded background checks for gun sales — insisting he can be the leader who succeeds on an intractable issue that has bedeviled his predecessors and that he can win back moderate suburban voters in the process, according to people involved in the discussions.”
“On the other side, a group that includes Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son and an avid hunter, and a top aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, is telling Trump he risks losing support from his conservative base if he pushes too aggressively on new gun control legislation, they say.”
Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase (R) ran a Facebook ad warning gun control advocacy groups she is “not afraid to shoot” them down, the HuffPost reports.
Now she’s blaming the language on a digital media company she said was hired to work on it.
Beto O’Rourke escalated his feud with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, asserting that his fellow Democrat has accomplished “absolutely nothing” on gun control, the Washington Post reports.
Said O’Rourke: “Ask Chuck Schumer what he’s been able to get done. We still don’t have universal background checks. Didn’t have them when he was in the majority, either. So, you know, the game that he’s played, the politics that he’s pursued have given us absolutely nothing and have produced a situation where we lose nearly 40,000 of our fellow Americans every year.”
“Colt Firearms will be ending its production and sales of its AR-15 rifles due to lack of public demand amid excess market capacity,” American Military News reports.
“Colt released a statement on Thursday to clarify the decision, which was made because the company simply isn’t selling enough of the rifles in the civilian marketplace to continue devoting the resources into it — a pattern that may be attributed to Colt rifles’ $1,000+ price tag and a market supplied with lower priced competitors.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) told the Albany Times Union that he doesn’t “know of any other Democrat who agrees” with Beto O’Rourke’s proposal to confiscate automatic weapons.
Said Schumer: “I don’t know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O’Rourke, but it’s no excuse not to go forward.”
Meanwhile, O’Rourke told CNN that many Democrats “are complicit in what we see right now” with regards to gun violence.
“Beto’s one human being. He gave his own opinion, OK? I think it was very harmful to make it look like all the Democrats. I can tell you one thing: Beto O’Rourke’s not taking my guns away from me. You tell Beto that, OK?”
— Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
“Senior Republicans in Congress are expecting turmoil inside the National Rifle Association to sharply curtail the group’s participation in the 2020 campaign, conceding that they have lost confidence in the premiere gun rights organization,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer warned President Donald Trump on Sunday that any firearm legislation that falls short of universal background checks for gun sales ‘will not get the job done,’ complicating delicate negotiations between the president and a group of senators,” Politico reports.
“Trump has been discussing potential legislation with senators in both parties that would expand background checks but would not go as far as House-passed legislation that would apply them to all gun sales with limited exceptions. Trump issued a veto threat on the House’s background-checks bill earlier this year, and few Republicans in Congress support it.”
“But in a conversation with Trump on Sunday morning, the House speaker and Senate minority leader indicated to Trump that they were taking a much harder line than rank-and-file senators involved in the talks.”
“Beto O’Rourke early Friday morning characterized an incendiary tweet from a Texas state representative as ‘a death threat’ against him, and charged that the Republican lawmaker should be stripped of his assault weapon,” Politico reports.
After O’Rourke’s campaign tweeted, “Hell yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15,” after last night’s debate, Briscoe Cain (R) — who represents the state’s House District 128, east of Houston — wrote online: “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis.”
New York Times: “As Democrats make an aggressive push for new gun control legislation, they have made a calculated decision to stop short of pursuing their most ambitious goal: an assault weapons ban.”
“The overwhelming majority of House Democrats — 211, seven shy of the 218 needed for passage — are co-sponsoring legislation to ban military-style semiautomatic weapons, similar to the ban in effect from 1994 to 2004. But some centrist Democrats remain skittish about any proposal that keeps firearms from law-abiding citizens — a frequent charge against Democrats by Republicans and gun rights groups — making any such ban politically risky for moderates in Trump-friendly districts. In the Senate, it draws less support.”
“The split reveals just how complicated gun politics remain inside the Democratic Party, even as mass shootings are terrorizing the nation and the Twitter hashtag #DoSomething has captured the mounting public demands for Congress to act.”
Washington Post: “White House aides briefed Republican senators on potential legislative options at their private weekly luncheon Tuesday — including expanding the federal background-check system for gun buyers and encouraging states to create systems to temporarily seize guns from individuals judged to be dangerous — but they gave no indication of what Trump himself is willing to sign into law, exasperating some of those present.”
“Speaking to reporters afterward, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed Trump has yet to weigh in on the subject. Guns were among the topics discussed at a White House meeting between Trump and Republican congressional leaders Tuesday afternoon, but attendees said there were no decisions on how to move forward on the issue.”
“Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks for gun buyers and allowing law enforcement to temporarily seize weapons from troubled individuals, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, as President Trump and Republicans face fresh pressure to act.”
“Although the poll finds a continued partisan divide on more far-reaching gun-control proposals, public opinion is firmly behind Democrats’ push for action as Congress returns to Washington on Monday. More Americans say they trust congressional Democrats over Trump to handle the nation’s gun laws, 51 percent to 36 percent, with independents siding with Democrats by a 17-point margin — a divide that could have political ramifications for the 2020 presidential and congressional elections.”
Although President Trump assured Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that he was still considering legislation that could include background checks for gun buyers, White House aides tell the New York Times that they had polling data showing that gun control was politically problematic for the president.
The polling data indicated that the issue does not help the president with his core base of supporters.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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