New York Magazine reacted to the Tuesday shootings in Atlanta by wondering aloud if the heinous acts would put gun control over the top.
NY Mag’s column began by tracing the route of gun control to this point. They noted the House passed H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 last week. H.R. 8 is universal background check legislation and NY Mag observed: “The last time legislation aimed at the gun-show loophole made it to the Senate floor — in a 2015 compromise proposal supported by [Sens.] Joe Manchin [D-WV] and Pat Toomey [R-PA] with a “family friend” exception for gun sales — it won only four Republican votes, counting Toomey’s, despite overwhelming bipartisan public support.
NY Mag then noted, “So long as the filibuster stays in place, there is no reasonable hope that enough Republicans will support any sort of firearms bill unless it’s somehow blessed by the gun lobby as pro Second Amendment.”
They then threw the Atlanta shooting into the equation and asked, “Will the fresh violence in Atlanta change the calculus in Washington?”
NY Mag concluded by suggesting that gun control has little hope of Senate passage as long as the filibuster remains in place. They noted Manchin backs keeping the filibuster, then wondered aloud if the “new outrage” over Atlanta will make Manchin rethink his position.
On March 17, 2021, NBC News observed the Atlanta shooter acquired his gun “legally,” which means he passed a background check to get it. (Even NY Mag noted the Atlanta shooter “bought his gun at a shop, not a [gun] show.”) This means the Democrats’ universal background check bill would not have done anything to hinder, must less prevent, the Atlanta shootings from taking place.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.