Five Republicans who’ve changed their minds on guns – Politico

With help from Shia Kapos and Sarah Owermohle

'IT JUST GETS NOWHERE' A recent spate of high-profile shootings in America has, once again, sparked calls for Congress and the White House to act on legislation. But if the past is prologue, nothing will get done. It never does.

Fewer national debates are as intractable as those around gun policy. Its remarkable or, depending on your vantage point, dispiriting. Over the past decade, mass casualty events have become a macabre fixture of our culture. And yet, one can count on his or her hand the number of Republican lawmakers who, while in office, changed their position on gun control legislation during that period of time.

I asked a series of gun control advocacy groups to help me compile a list. Collectively, they identified five current House Republican members.

Two of the five Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Fred Upton of Michigan havent really changed positions at all; theyve just backed away from lesser-known NRA-backed bills. Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Vern Buchanan of Florida both of whom recently began supporting background-check legislation did not return a request for comment. Neither did Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who announced that hed support legislation that prevents the sale of military-style weapons to civilians after years of opposing it.

The stream is moving in both directions, however. Two Republican supporters of a 2019 background-check bill Reps. Brian Mast and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida opposed a version of it in March, arguing that liberals altered its core purpose.

The relative stasis of the gun policy debate is a source of immense frustration and confusion for a lot of voters who wonder how nearly 40,000 people can die from gun violence (the majority by suicide) in a given year, only to have lawmakers do nothing about it. But for those who have worked in the trenches, its become one of the defining examples of political gridlock. Peter King, the former Republican New York congressman who supported gun control legislation, recalled trying to talk some of his GOP colleagues into backing those bills.

It just gets nowhere, he told Nightly. You can discuss tax issues. You can discuss appropriations bills. But on this, its a sacred right. When you grow up thinking guns are almost an absolute right, you really have to see a strong case on the other side to infringe on that right.

That gridlock is fed by a number of factors, advocates say. There is muscle memory: Politicians recall formative cycles, like 1994, when backlash to President Bill Clintons assault weapons ban fed a GOP takeover of the House and cemented the idea that gun control pushes lead to electoral waves. There are structural hurdles: A gerrymandered House means Republicans worry about primary elections above all else. And then there are cultural dynamics.

There is a paradox that has always bedeviled the gun debate, Jim Kessler, a longtime gun control advocate, said. As violent crime rises some voters seek stricter gun laws, and others go out and buy guns.

Kessler went on to argue that culture will end up working against the GOP, and that savvy Republicans will move to support gun control measures as their states become more suburban. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), perhaps the most notable Republican to change his tune on gun policy, won re-election in 2016 because of his support for background checks, Kessler said, not in spite of it.

There is something to the idea that cultural changes can facilitate political outcomes. Peter Ambler, the executive director of the gun control group Giffords, noted that more voters and politicians became comfortable with gay marriage as they began to know people who were gay and out. Sadly, you are seeing more of that with gun violence, where it is becoming more of a kitchen table issue, Ambler added.

In the end, that may be the way this all progresses, with politicians being affected on a personal level and then embracing reform. But heres something to ponder: What if even that exceedingly ghastly outcome proves an insufficient foe to the status quo? What if more gun violence doesnt mean movement on gun legislation?

After all, the research is already quite persuasive: Developed countries with more guns have more gun deaths. And if folks need more information on it, it could come soon: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was only recently allowed to study gun violence as a public health matter.

But, as Frank Luntz, the famed GOP messaging guru, noted, the issue is not headlines or data or finding the convincing message or the right messenger. Its ideology.

It's really not a messaging issue for Republicans, said Luntz. They simply think banning guns will not make people safer. They blame the criminal, not the gun, for gun-related crimes.

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ACHIEVABLE ACHIEVEMENTS Sen. Angus King is still undecided on whether to support D.C. statehood, an important goal for many of the Democrats he aligns with. And the independent Mainer is in no rush.

Im still kind of pondering it, King said today. There are just other issues Im engaged in at this point.

King is one of five Democratic caucus members who have yet to support the statehood bill, souring what should be a milestone week for the movement to empower the capital city. On Thursday the House will approve statehood for the second time, and now Democrats have a supportive president in Joe Biden.

But the statehood proposal, like other central elements of the Democratic agenda, may not make it to the Senate floor this year given its lack of unified support from Bidens party. With infrastructure and voting rights bills proving difficult enough to get to the presidents desk, Democrats are putting long-held progressive priorities like a 51st state, Supreme Court expansion and a $15 minimum wage on the proverbial back burner while they focus on whats actually achievable, Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris write.

After a Trump era that emboldened its left flank to push ambitious plans, the partys legislative agenda is gliding down from loftiness to pragmatism.

Passing infrastructure is more important than anything that were not sure that we can actually get the votes to pass, said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who supports both D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood. Right now we need to focus our limited floor time on the most important stuff for the Biden administration to be successful and our country to be successful if we can do the other stuff, great.

Apostolic Faith Church on Chicago's South Side serves as a vaccination site operated by CORE, an organization that is going into communities to get residents vaccinated. | Photo by POLITICO's Shia Kapos

THE CORE OF CHICAGOS SHOTS PLAN Illinois Playbook author Shia Kapos emails us this dispatch about vaccination efforts in Chicago:

Amid what she called an alarming rise of Covid-19 cases among Black residents on the citys South Side, Mayor Lori Lightfoot toured a new vaccination site at Chicago State University part of a recently launched effort to close the vaccine disparities throughout the city.

While 50 percent of adult Chicagoans in the rest of the city have been vaccinated, a mere 12 to 19 percent of Black South Siders have received the vaccine, Lightfoot said. We can turn these numbers around the cases, the deaths, the hospitalizations but we can only turn them around if Black South Siders get the vaccine.

The key to making that happen may rest in a new partnership with an organization once known less for its work in health care than for its famous (and sometimes controversial) founder.

In the decade-plus since actor Sean Penn founded the Community Organized Relief Effort, or CORE, after the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti, the group has earned a reputation for its disaster-relief efforts across the Caribbean, notably in Haiti and Puerto Rico. For the last year, CORE has been in the trenches in the United States, combatting the coronavirus. Initially, it helped organize Covid-19 testing sites. Now, with the pandemic in a new stage, the group has pivoted to setting up vaccination sites in partnership with the city of Los Angeles, state of Georgia, and Chicago.

The partnership with CORE is part of Chicagos effort to advance a vaccine strategy that is focused on equity and inclusion and that pushes vaccines into communities that need them most, said Lightfoot. And COREs background working in international relief efforts bolsters not only its logistical abilities, but gives the group insight into how to build trust with the community it aims to serve.

People arent comfortable going across Chicago to get medical treatment, let alone a Covid vaccination, said John Holton, the area program manager for Chicago CORE. Its not enough to see politicians or notable names getting the vaccine, or Black or brown doctors promoting it, he said: Its about seeing people from the community who are reflective of their own experiences. So they can relate.

That attitude permeates how CORE approaches its work.

It partners with tech companies to ease the appointment-making process. It staffs its sites with volunteers from the community to make the people it serves more comfortable. And it works with hyper-local community health care organizations to administer the vaccines (on the South Side, that means teaming with the Howard Brown Health center). And it uses familiar community sites places known to South Siders, places theyre comfortable with to attract hesitant residents.

At the new vaccination site at CSU, the CORE-organized health teams will administer 750 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine each day. COREs vaccination site at the Apostolic Faith Church will accommodate another 250.

The church site is quiet, peaceful and familiar to visitors. On a recent sunny day, I ran into a drummer who teaches at a nearby music school, a businessman escorting his elderly parents, and a mom who jogged in while her tweens waited in the car outside.

I like that its in the neighborhood. I didnt want to have to go out of my way to get it, Arthur Adams, a licensed general contractor, told me as he walked out, patting his arm. He acknowledged being nervous about the vaccine, but decided to get it after his mom received it without a problem. I knew if I wanted to be around her, I needed to get the shot.

DOJ opens broad probe of Minneapolis police: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department will conduct a broad investigation into alleged abuses at the Minneapolis Police Department, examining whether its officers have a pattern or practice of violating the civil rights of residents. The move, made public one day after a Minneapolis jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the murder of George Floyd, appears to signal a return by the DOJ to more aggressive and frequent use of such probes, aimed at rooting out systemic civil rights abuses in police departments.

Biden: 200 million Americans have been vaccinated: This is an American achievement a powerful demonstration of unity and resolve, what unity will do for us and a reminder of what we can accomplish when we pull together as one people to a common goal, Biden said at a White House event.

FDA inspection report casts doubt on J&J vaccine contractors ability to restart production: A Johnson & Johnson contractors plant for producing coronavirus vaccines is not large or sanitary enough, and the company has not resolved issues that led to the contamination of millions of doses, the FDA said in a report released today.

Lofgren: Capitol officer being investigated for directions to pursue only anti-Trump protesters on Jan. 6: On the morning of Jan. 6, a Capitol Police officer radioed units outside the building and told them to scout out only anti-Trump troublemakers not pro-Trump protesters, according to the findings of an internal investigation revealed at a public hearing by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).

Nightly asks you: A New York Times headline-turned-viral meme posits that you can be a different person after the pandemic. How has the pandemic changed you? Use the form to send your answers, and well include select responses in Fridays edition.

SUPER FRUSTRATED Conceding that soccers controversial new Super League was officially dead in the water, Italian team Juventus chief, Andrea Agnelli, searched for a scapegoat and landed on Brexit.

The Super League, which launched to political consternation and supporter unrest on Sunday night, had crumbled by this morning after a slew of clubs backed out amid a wave of protest from European leaders, fans and soccer stars.

The Juventus chairman, reportedly one of the leading architects of the rebel league, told Reuters that hed heard speculation that if six teams would have broken away and would have threatened the [English Premier League], politics would have seen that as an attack to Brexit and their political scheme.

While admitting that the concept was no longer feasible, Agnelli claimed people had lied to him about their interest in the project.

Im not going to say how many clubs contacted me in just 24 hours asking if they could join, he said, without naming them. Maybe they lied, but I was contacted by a number of teams asking what they could do to join.

BASED ON A TRUE PANDEMIC Health care reporter Sarah Owermohle, remote in hand, emails a Law & Order review to Nightly:

Law & Order isnt just lightly mentioning Covid, as some shows have done here and there over the past year. Its the center of multiple storylines. The plots abound in the long-running Law & Order: SVU and the brand-new Organized Crime spinoff: A crime family selling fraudulent masks and hijacking Covid-19 vaccines for the rich and privileged; a serial rapist going unnoticed while the citys public resources were stretched thin at the height of the pandemic; a woman lying about her trysts, citing public shaming of people who dont socially distance.

And then there are the little moments: people unsure if they should shake hands, wearing masks as they talk, or declaring that a witness is unavailable they died from Covid-19.

For more than 30 years, Law & Order and its spinoffs have branded themselves as using storylines ripped from the headlines. And over the past year, those headlines have provided plenty of fodder sometimes providing an uncomfortable fit for a show lionizing the criminal justice system.

Alongside the pandemic narratives are equally raw discussions of race, Black Lives Matter and widespread distrust of police. George Floyds name is uttered in several episodes, while multiple plots are lifted straight from the events of this past year. Audience favorite Detective Olivia Benson is confronted plainly with her implicit racial bias. The threads of systemic injustice run throughout, with white characters like Benson struggling with their positions in the system, and Black characters voicing the impact of racism in ways rarely made explicit in primetime network cop dramas.

Law & Order is not a perfect franchise. (No television show but The Sopranos truly is.) But it is commendable, if not a bit disorienting, to watch a TV staple wrangle in real-time with the uncomfortable and sometimes devastating realities happening around us. (Some plotlines, however, like that of vaccination parties run by the mafia, are pure fiction though if you see these, send me tips.) That said, its hard to imagine a popular TV show let alone one dealing with justice or set in a pandemic hotspot totally ignoring events that have left such an indelible mark on the national consciousness. Its perhaps safe to assume that shows filming right now will continue to churn out Covid-related storylines, and the wealth of pandemic-related plotlines will not dry up any time soon. I, for one, am glad to watch them in the name of work.

A point of critique though: Law & Order characters keep pulling down their masks to talk. That, Detectives Benson and Stabler, is not what infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci advises.

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Five Republicans who've changed their minds on guns - Politico