WASHINGTON (The Independent) – Democrats have spent years pledging to address the gun violence that plagues communities across the U.S. But a surge of mass shootings over the weekend that left dozens wounded and two dead served as a reminder of how little they have accomplished since taking control of Washington 15 months ago.
The struggle for the Joe Biden administration and Democrats in Congress to enact any meaningful legislation to enhance gun safety reflects how the party’s ambitious agenda has been frustratingly stunted by internal squabbling, the persistence of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The almost complete Republican opposition to Democratic priorities, including gun rules, has hobbled a party with razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate.
But that’s little solace to gun safety advocates and tens of thousands of shooting victims who were told Democrats would reduce gun violence if given the chance to govern. In an already difficult election year, the inaction threatens to further undermine the coalition of young people, women, voters of color and independents who helped deliver Biden the presidency in 2020 and will be needed again if Democrats are to hold control of Congress.
“I’m just angry,” said David Hogg, a gun safety activist who survived the 2018 shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“We took the House and then we took the Senate and now we have the White House, too, and still, nothing is changing,” he added.
“Change doesn’t come as quickly as we ever want it to happen. Because understand, this is a culture that we’re having to change,” McBath said in an interview, adding, “I know that we’re making real progress on this issue. The fact that I am actually in Washington, and I was elected in Georgia with a gun violence policy agenda ... tells you there is progress.”
Yet McBath’s return to Congress next year is far from assured. She’s locked in a competitive primary against Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in a redrawn district in Atlanta’s Northeast suburbs.
Just last week, the Democratic president signed an executive order to crack down on untraceable “ghost guns”. He also devoted part of his first State of the Union speech to gun violence and called for major increases in police funding in his 2023 budget proposal.
But some of those same progressives who cheered the president’s efforts insist he and his party are not doing enough.
In 2020, the most recent year for which federal data is available, 19,384 people were killed in gun homicides — a 35% increase from the previous year and the largest one-year increase in gun homicides on record.
Guns remain an incredibly divisive issue in American politics, though polling suggests the issue has been overshadowed over the last year by other events.