“We will,” Biden said, adding a thumbs-up on a torturous day in which he and First Lady Jill Biden paid tribute to 19 children and two teachers killed last week in a barbaric attack that revived the nation’s forever useless arms debate. . But Biden’s chances of doing “something” seem slim, given the executive’s limited scope to change firearms laws and his administration’s struggle to exercise its will in Washington. And despite the mood of national mourning, there are no signs of a fundamental change in the tortured policy that allows the Republican minority in the Senate to block meaningful action on arms legislation. As usual, after a horrific massacre, there are optimistic rumors in Congress that some gradual reform of firearms is possible. But the definite lesson from recent history is that momentum fades with each passing day after the carnage.
The presidents travel to the sites of tragedies to express the solidarity and empathy of a shocked country, to try to offer some consolation to the relatives of the lost and to stimulate collective grief in a moment of national unity and action.
Biden, whose life was marked by a family tragedy and the loss of two of his children, was uniquely equipped for the first two requirements of his mission. But given the stalemate of national politics and the Republican Party’s ardent opposition to any change in gun laws, the idea that Uwalde is the moment when a critical mass of public anger overcomes political inertia seems exaggerated.
As a sign of how depressing these shootings have occurred, Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez told CNN’s KSAT affiliate that Biden told him “we will seek to demolish this school, build a new one” because there is a federal subsidy process. to demolish schools that were places of mass shootings.
“What kind of world do we live in that legislation is designed to destroy these schools?” Gutierrez asked during the interview.
The Ministry of Justice will investigate the reaction of law enforcement agencies
However, in the most specific sign of the federal government’s response to the Uwalde massacre last Tuesday, the Justice Department said it would review law enforcement responses to the killings at Rob’s primary school. CNN reported that 19 law enforcement officers stood in front of the classroom, where children died for 50 minutes, waiting for room keys and tactical equipment. The revelations raised the agonizing possibility that these deviations from active shooter protocols could cost lives. On the Legislative Front, Senate Judge Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told CNN The State of the Union that he felt a “different feeling” among Republican colleagues over the horror of atrocities against young children in Texas. But he warned that any agreement would be limited. In the same show, Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas stressed the limited opportunity to compromise on the Republican position. He rejected proposals such as universal inspections for the purchase of weapons, red flag laws to keep weapons away from people considered a threat, and banning people under the age of 21 from buying powerful semi-automatic rifles. Like many Republicans, he called for school security. The level of armaments, training and security required would cost many millions of dollars in an often underfunded public education system and require children to spend years of formation effectively under heightened security. Crenshaw’s arguments were symptomatic of the position that any gun control measures would be virtually non-American, a prospect that weighs against any effective action in Congress. The cost of this absolutist philosophical stance, which leads to the proliferation of deadly weapons and regular mass killings, was painfully revealed in a heartbreaking interview with CNN’s Dana Bash with Adrian Alonzo, who spent all day Tuesday trying to find his niece Eli Garcia, only to find out she was among the dead.
“Now is the worst day of my life. And I will never forget that day. I can play those hours so vividly in my mind and it just sticks in my mind,” Alonzo said.
Ellie would be 10 next Saturday.
Trump is moving from mourning to politics
Although the president’s power may be limited, he did his emotional duty more on Sunday, spending three hours with the families of the bereaved on Sunday afternoon. At one point, with the first lady by his side, he embraced Mandy Gutierrez, the principal of Rob Elementary School, next to a growing pile of flowers at an impromptu memorial.
Former President Donald Trump did not make such a trip, instead choosing to solidify his position among Republican voters at a time when his full control of his own movement was called into question before a possible White House campaign in 2024.
Trump appeared at the annual leadership forum of the National Weapons Association-Institute for Legislative Action in Houston on Friday, less than 300 miles from Uwalde, and read the names of each of the slain children and teachers.
“Every precious young soul that has been taken is an incomprehensible loss,” Trump said, but quickly turned to politics, pitting against Biden and other Democrats to raise the issue of reviewing gun safety after the Texas massacre and beyond. earlier this month in Buffalo, New York, both led by 18-year-olds with legally purchased semi-automatic weapons.
He argues that it is not fair for law-abiding gun owners to be deprived of such weapons because of the actions of “sick and demonic” attackers. He proposed more weapons in schools to protect children and to turn school buildings into fortresses.
And Trump has argued that even small reforms are a ploy to confiscate American weapons, points often used by the NRA and other conservatives.
“Once they take the first step, they will take the second step, the third, the fourth, and then you will have a completely different view of the second amendment,” Trump said.
The idea that even a horrific massacre like the one in Texas last week should never diminish Americans’ freedom to own powerful military weapons resonates in the red, more rural states, usually represented by Republicans, where Trump remains very popular. It also helps explain why even those GOP senators who may be willing to take modest steps to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of assassins find voting so difficult and why it is difficult to reach the threshold of 60 votes needed to pass major legislation – a function of Senate rules that even some moderate Democrats are reluctant to entertain with change.
One Republican who is shifting his position is Representative Adam Kinsinger. The Illinois congressman said he was now ready to ban AR-15 rifles after a wave of mass shootings.
“Look, I opposed the ban, you know, relatively recently. I think I am now open to banning. It will depend on what it looks like, because there are a lot of nuances about what it is, you know, certain things, “Kinzinger told CNN’s Bash for The State of the Union when asked if he still opposes a ban on weapons. attack used in the shooting. “
However, Kinzinger is hardly a representative sample of the Republican Party, as he got rid of party orthodoxy by breaking with Trump – including because of his lies about electoral fraud. He decided not to run for re-election in the fall and is therefore no longer indebted to GOP activists who would consider his comment a heresy.
But the argument that any restrictions on weapons would unacceptably violate the rights of law-abiding gun owners is political in nature. Although the Constitution states that the right to bear arms must not be violated, it does not state that Americans have the right to bear arms of their choice, especially those who fire at deadly speeds that the founders could never have imagined. . And the campaign against the tightening of gun laws gives priority to gun owners’ rights over those of innocent victims, such as those in Texas who had the right to life destroyed for a moment last week.
These positions are so well-established that feelings of helplessness in the face of repeated massacres seem unlikely to dissipate quickly. It is easy to imagine that Biden and the first lady will soon appear at another vigil for the victims of a massacre. It may be impossible for the president to do “something.”
CNN’s Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.
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