A troubled teen — dubbed “mentally disturbed” by President Trump — opened fire at a Florida school nearly one year after a law undid a regulation making it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun.
Most Republicans — and the National Rifle Association — cheered the repeal of the Obama-era measure meant to prevent future massacres as experts question what can be done to prevent such tragedies.
“The reality is I’ve been here through all of these and there’s never been any change whatsoever,” longtime Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told the Daily News on Thursday. “We’re not asking for much, but part of it is a love affair with guns, almost a religious fervor.”
King was one of only two Republicans from New York who voted against the rollback of the seemingly common-sense measure.
“To me the presumption is if a person is being treated for mental illness you shouldn’t have access to a gun,” King said.
But his colleagues, many of whom welcome donations from the NRA, disagree — and he doesn’t see them changing their minds anytime soon.
King last year introduced a bipartisan bill that would expand the existing background check system to cover all commercial firearm sales, including those at gun shows.
Similar bills have stalled or been swallowed up in the legislative process in Washington.
“It’s not even something that’s debated. It’s just assumed that if you’re a good Republican, you’re going to be against virtually any type of gun regulation or background checks,” King said.
For the most part, the GOP has sought to take advantage of having an ally in the White House, attempting to loosen gun laws at a breakneck pace over the past 12 months.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday — just a day after 17 people were killed by a 19-year-old gunman at the Parkland high school — that “this is not the time to jump to some conclusion” regarding gun laws.
He added that there are already laws on the books that just need to be enforced.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, meanwhile, vowed to “do something,” without saying what would be done.
The Department of Justice last year stunned gun control activists by removing tens of thousands of people with outstanding warrants from the FBI criminal background check database.
At the same time, a bill meant to loosen regulations on gun silencers was set for a hearing in June, but was delayed when a gunman opened fire on members of Congress at a baseball practice. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) suffered serious wounds.
Bipartisan efforts to ban “bump stocks,” a device allowing guns to fire like automatic weapons used to slaughter 58 people at a Las Vegas concert, have failed.
A straight-forward bill aimed at improving the reporting of criminal records and domestic violence data to the FBI was defanged by being tacked on to the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, allowing those with concealed carry licenses to take their firearms into states with strict gun laws.
The combined bill passed the House, but is unlikely to make it through the Senate.
Echoing King, experts said that the atrocity in Florida is unlikely to sway gun-rights advocates and NRA supporters on Capitol Hill.
“It’s very easy to criticize politicians for taking money from the NRA and for only giving thoughts and prayers,” Adam Winkler, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” told The News. “But if you understand the causal patterns that gun rights proponents believe, all they can really offer is thoughts and prayers because they don’t believe that new restrictions are going to make any difference.”
Gun control advocates disagree, calling for legislation that would prevent potential mass murderers from getting their hands on firearms built to kill.
Brady Campaign co-presidents Avery Gardiner and Kris Brown called what happened in Florida “a uniquely American problem.”
“Like so many others that came before it, this tragedy was avoidable,” Gardiner said.
Winkler pointed to countries like Australia, which hasn’t seen a mass shooting since automatic, semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns were banned in 1996, as a counterpoint to the U.S.
“I don’t think there can be any doubt that in a society where civilians’ access to guns is limited there’s much less gun violence,” he said. “We’ve made a different choice in America.”