Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Nothing laid bare the disjointed state of gun politics in America as starkly as the call and response in Texas this week. On Tuesday, it was a school shooting. Days later, Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans will appear at a gathering of the NRA.<\/p>\n
The Memorial Day weekend event is being billed by the National Rifle Association as a showcase of more than 14 acres of \u201cthe latest guns and gear,\u201d with a \u201cpowerhouse lineup of political speakers.\u201d On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump confirmed on Wednesday he will appear.<\/p>\n
That should never have been in doubt. Despite being weakened by financial difficulties and infighting<\/a>, the National Rifle Association\u2019s membership is a critical constituency to conservative politicians, and the event in Houston \u2014 less than 300 miles from the site of the mass shooting in Uvalde \u2014 a measure of its longstanding ties to the GOP.<\/p>\n The timing was inconsequential.<\/p>\n \u201cFuck them,\u201d said Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in 2018. \u201cFuck all of them. Our kids are dying in record numbers, and it is because of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Just more than a year ago, after back-to-back shootings in Georgia and in Boulder, Colo., temporarily reignited the gun control debate, proponents of stricter gun laws sensed an uncommon opening. The NRA was in turmoil, Democrats had gained control of the White House and both houses of Congress, and public polling \u2014 including widespread support for background checks \u2014 was on their side.<\/p>\n But if the first 16 months of Joe Biden\u2019s presidency demonstrated anything, it was the limitations of Democrats\u2019 razor-thin majority. Gun legislation has stalled, and Republicans heading into the midterms have every incentive to court the NRA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gun issue is a perennial issue that\u2019s not going away, whether there\u2019s a mass shooting or not,\u201d said John Thomas, a Republican strategist working on House campaigns across the country. \u201cAnd the folks that feel strongly on the right about the Second Amendment, while their heart clearly aches, they also are deeply concerned about their safety, their family\u2019s safety, and the rhetoric of the left immediately jumping to their worst fear, which is seizing guns and gun control.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an issue,” he added, “that the base needs to be reassured and spoken to [about] \u2014 that they\u2019re not going to get their guns taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n After the shooting in Uvalde, gun control activists were preparing to once again stage demonstrations in Washington. At the Capitol, Democrats and some Republicans were once again engaging in gun safety negotiations<\/a>. And though the idea of congressional action still appeared to be a long shot, the issue was already erupting in the midterm campaigns.<\/p>\n In Texas, former Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke, the Democrat seeking to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott, confronted Abbott at a press conference<\/a> where Abbott cast mental health \u2014 not gun proliferation \u2014 as the cause of the tragedy.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Abbott, I have to say something,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said, before being escorted out by security. \u201cThe time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s unclear whether Abbott, who had been scheduled to attend the NRA conference, still will. An adviser said Wednesday that \u201ceveryone is focused on Uvalde today.\u201d<\/p>\n But Trump is going. A spokesperson for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem first confirmed to POLITICO that she still intends to speak at the NRA event. And two Republicans who have pulled out of the event did not point to the school shooting as their reason.<\/p>\n Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) will not attend the conference because he is still on a trip to Ukraine. Justin Discigil, a spokesperson for the Texas Republican, told POLITICO that Crenshaw alerted NRA organizers before the shooting tragedy that his flight back from Ukraine wouldn\u2019t get him stateside until after the event.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another slated NRA convention speaker, said the lawmaker had already notified the gun group he would not be attending.<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to the tragedy today in Uvalde we had already informed the NRA he would not be able to speak due to [an] unexpected change in his schedule,\u201d Cornyn spokesperson Drew Brandewie said. \u201cHe now has to be in D.C. for personal reasons on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his plans. But Cruz has hardly shrunk from the tragedy,\u00a0accusing Democrats<\/a> and the media of politicizing it.<\/p>\n \u201cInevitably, when there\u2019s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,\u201d Cruz told reporters. \u201cThat doesn’t work, that doesn’t prevent crime.\u201d<\/p>\n The NRA said in a statement<\/a> that \u201cas we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members, and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, Republicans have viewed the politics around gun control as favorable to them for two reasons: Gun safety rarely rose to the top of voters\u2019 minds as an issue and, when it did, they had single-issue Second Amendment voters on their side. But that may be changing. In 2018, gun control advocates spent heavily in the midterm elections, claiming several victories in congressional swing districts. Public polling reflects widespread support for background checks and other gun measures.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public has been moving away from the NRA position and towards sensible gun safety legislation for 20 years now,\u201d said Frank Luntz, the veteran Republican consultant and pollster. \u201cThis tragedy will push people further and faster.\u201d<\/p>\n For Democrats, the shift in public attention to gun violence came as a rare opening in an otherwise bleak midterm election landscape. In battleground states, they are already hammering on Republicans\u2019 record on guns.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are senators who the gun lobby has a stranglehold on, and we have to release that finger by finger,\u201d said Shannon Watts, founder of the advocacy group Moms Demand Action.<\/p>\n Calling the effort to enact stricter gun laws \u201ca marathon, not a sprint,\u201d she said she is still hopeful for congressional action, but that, \u201cIf that doesn\u2019t happen, we go harder, and we remind every single voter where these lawmakers stand in November.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the frequency of mass shootings in America<\/a> \u2014 the Texas school shooting followed the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., by just more than a week \u2014 the Supreme Court this summer may force the gun debate further into the mix of midterm campaigns. This summer, the court is expected to rule on a closely watched case on gun restrictions in New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGun issues are not going away, and given what may happen in the Supreme Court the next few weeks, the situation is not going to get better,\u201d said Mathew Littman, a Democratic strategist and executive director of the gun reform group 97 Percent. \u201cI do believe gun issues are going to be paramount for a lot of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Littman, a former Biden speechwriter, cast the lack of movement on gun restrictions as \u201cincredibly frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe culture of death in this country,\u201d he said. \u201cA million people die from Covid \u2026 Kids getting shot in schools. …<\/p>\n \u201cWhat can we be doing differently,” he said, “so that we do not accept all of this death. It\u2019s a very unique thing, and it doesn\u2019t have to be.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Kelly Hooper contributed to this report<\/p>\n