The political fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a Trump-White House-era ban on the sale of ‘bump stocks’ – a spring-loaded stock that uses recoil to essentially turn a semi-automatic firearm into a machine gun – to be undone, continued to resound. Monday when Jacky Rosen took exception to comments on the issue from his Republican colleague J.D. Vance.
Vance, the Ohio senator and potential vice presidential pick as Trump seeks a second presidency in November, had dismissed efforts by senior Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass legislation banning the devices as “a huge distraction”.
Vance continued. “What is the real gun violence problem in this country, and are we legislating in a way that solves bogus problems? Or solve real problems?” Vance said before adding, “My very strong suspicion is that the Schumer legislation is focused on a PR problem, and not something that will meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country.”
Rosen, the Democratic senator, hit back and was up for re-election this year in politically purple Nevada, the site of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people and prompted Trump to ban the rapid-fire device.
“This is not a fake issue,” she told reporters. “Let him come to Las Vegas. Show him the monument to the people who died. Let him talk to those families. It’s not a fake problem. Those families are dead.”
Rosen said Las Vegas, the gambling mecca and main source of Nevada’s revenue, was “forever changed because of what the shooter did, and the bump stocks helped him.” She invited Vance to visit memorials to the victims and talk to first responders. “Shame on him,” Rosen added, visibly furious. “Shame on him for disrespecting the dead.”
In its ruling last week, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that the executive branch of government did not have the power to use existing firearms laws to ban bump stocks. But the justices allowed lawmakers to pass new laws banning the accessory.
Schumer and other senior Democrats have since said they would take swift action on the matter.
Outrage among Democrats mounted after Vance reasoned that a bill to ban bump stocks would “ultimately only hinder the rights of law-abiding Americans” and mused about how many more people would have been killed had heavily armed video poker player Stephen Paddock not done so . equipped his arsenal with the disputed devices.
“How many people would have been shot otherwise? And you have to ask yourself: won’t someone actually opt for a bump stock because Chuck Schumer passed a piece of legislation? Vans said.
After Vance made his comments, Schumer responded: “Talk to the people in Las Vegas who have lost loved ones.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling gives both sides of the gun issue red meat for the election campaign, although this is complicated by the Trump White House’s initial ban. Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, told NBC News that he will block the Democrats’ measure. And Vance questioned Democrats’ legislative priorities.
Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut who advocated for stricter gun laws after the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, said Republicans in his chamber should have no problem voting for the measure banning bump stocks.
“Is it good politics to make it easier for would-be mass murderers to get their hands on machine guns? Probably not,” Murphy said. “The idea is to make this attractive to Republicans. And we would be much better off if psychopaths couldn’t get their hands on machine guns.”
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 17 mass shootings were reported in the U.S. between Friday — when the Supreme Court ruling on bump stocks brought gun control back to the top of the national discourse — and Monday.
One of those was a shooting on Saturday in Rochester Hills, Michigan, that injured nine people — including two children — at a city-run splash pad where families often cool off in the summer. Police said the attack was carried out randomly by a gunman who later died by suicide.
Another shooting Saturday in Round Rock, Texas, left fourteen people injured and two dead. There, the shooting broke out after an altercation between two groups of people – the victims were uninvolved bystanders, police said.
The nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as a shooting that injures or kills four or more victims.
At least 230 such shootings have been reported in the U.S. so far this year, a high number that has fueled public calls for more substantive gun control but has largely gone unheeded by Congress.
