Republicans Play the Fool After Compromising on ‘Gun Control’ – Opinion

With the recent mass shooting in Highland Park that took the lives of seven people, a renewed call for “gun control” from Democrats has begun. It comes only weeks after Republicans gathered to support a gun-control bill that was now in law, with the hope of finding common ground.

As predicted, though, that didn’t even buy the GOP enough goodwill to make it through the next mass shooting, much less did it put the issue to bed for any length of time. Here’s what I wrote when Sen. John Cornyn was first announced to be negotiating with Democrats on gun control.

Here’s the thing, though. When whatever red flag laws that get passed fail to stop the next mass shooter, the call to “do something” will only grow louder. And the next “something” will be an even further encroachment. I understand the desire to act in good faith and attempt to take some of the heat off, but Republicans have to understand that the Democrat push for gun confiscation and an “assault weapons” ban will not stop with whatever compromise legislation arises here.

Republicans now have to ask themselves: Are you smart enough to concede when the ultimate goal of Democrats is being broadcast to you? My answer is yes.

In the case of the Highland Park shooter, he had every red flag imaginable and Illinois’ red flag law still failed to stop him from obtaining guns. This was the main problem with any GOP compromise. When you concede ground, all you are doing is providing gun control proponents fodder to say “See, your solutions didn’t work so we need to do it my way now.”

I had similar ideas on social media, after seeing the leaked text of the bill.

It’s a good idea to bookmark it. To be honest, I didn’t expect to be proven right so soon, but here we are, with Democrats once again going full bore on “assault weapon” and “high-capacity magazine” bans, both of which have already been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It doesn’t matter, though, and you can expect the cries to “do something” to increase from here. They were wrong to think that Republicans’ rush for compromise would cool the tension.

NBC News offers a couple of examples.

Mass shootings won’t stop “until more members of Congress expand their definition of freedom to include freedom from massacre by semi-automatic weapon,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., told NBC News on Tuesday…

…“As families come together to celebrate America, they are gunned down in the scourge of gun violence plaguing it. This is a tragedy,” Markey said in a tweet. “The Bipartisan Gun Law was a first step, but Congress must do more to stop this deadly epidemic and save lives.”…

…“Last month, Congress proved that bipartisan compromises on gun safety are possible. Today proved that we can’t stop there,” Duckworth said in a statement on Monday. “We have to do more to keep our communities safe. We have to pass additional commonsense reforms that wide majorities of Americans are crying out for — that 6 Illinoisans can no longer cry out for. I won’t let their memories be forgotten.”

Comments like “Congress must do more” and “We can’t stop there” are so laughably predictable. The Democrats were never going to accept the GOP’s olive branch. They took only the inch, and they will continue to fight for every mile. That’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats do not stop. Their goal is never achieved. They are always moving forward towards a more restrictive state. Compromise doesn’t defuse such an ideology, it only emboldens it.

Republican voters are entitled to better leadership than this. Washington leadership should care more about their welfare than the news cycle. Mass shootings can only be prevented if the country addresses the mental crisis that grips depressed, isolated young men. Republicans have only been further backed by their foolish attempt to make it seem like passing a federal law will stop them. Are there any lessons to be learned? Don’t count on it.

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