Vaughn Bryant, a former NFL soccer participant, says he was prepared — fairly prepared, in actual fact. Bryant advised CBS Information he is watched Sunday morning political speak exhibits religiously for many years. He is aware of how politicians argue and converse. He knew tips on how to make a case to Congress.
Bryant rigorously reviewed his written remarks and testimony the evening earlier than, and he entered the massive listening to room on the second flooring of the Hart Senate Workplace Constructing with confidence, sporting the right necktie for the event. It was symmetrically patterned with equal elements blue and purple.
He has devoted his post-athletic profession to combating gun violence in high-crime areas of Chicago. Bryant, government director of town’s Metropolitan Peace Initiative, was invited to be a witness final week at a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to on gun violence convened by certainly one of his home-state Democratic senators.
He advised lawmakers, ”As you think about methods the federal authorities can deal with problems with gun violence, sustainable federal funding that brings violence prevention to scale have to be a part of the answer.” Bryant felt the dialog and questions had been sturdy.
However the room wasn’t stuffed to capability when he testified, and the media protection was scant. Bryant says he wonders how many individuals heard the message.
Nursing a slender majority right into a difficult election yr, Democrats within the Senate have made a number of makes an attempt over the previous month to inject some urgency into the gun management combat.
They held the Judiciary Committee listening to that featured Bryant and different witnesses. Different Democrats have proposed a spread of recent laws, on combating ghost weapons, tightening rules on semiautomatics and offering extra federal help to gun violence victims.
Final week, Senate Democratic leaders tried to attract consideration to gun management with a collection of doomed parliamentary strikes.
They acknowledge they’re combating an uphill battle. Worldwide crises, wars, a standoff over Ukraine help, a looming authorities shutdown deadline, a historic U.S. Home expulsion and — maybe most perniciously — pessimism concerning the prospects of laws are suffocating a few of their efforts. There’s little political oxygen and cable TV protection, at the same time as mass shootings proceed unimpeded.
What’s extra, a number of the key Republicans who helped safe passage of a gun management invoice in 2022 aren’t inclined to revisit the difficulty proper now.
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, introduced a fruitless effort to cross an assault weapons ban via the Senate by unanimous consent on Wednesday. As anticipated, the proposal was instantly spiked by Republicans. Sen. John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, blasted the proposal as an overreach that victimizes ”law-abiding” gun homeowners.
Afterward Wednesday, Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, whose state was devastated by the Sandy Hook college shootings 11 years in the past this month, sought to cross a background examine invoice by unanimous consent. This, too, was additionally instantly blocked by Republicans. Murphy additionally scheduled a press occasion with Connecticut members of Congress on Thursday, to speak about gun violence close to the 11-year mark for the reason that Sandy Hook tragedy.
”There are issues which might be unattainable, till the second they don’t seem to be,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, advised CBS Information. Heinrich launched laws to control some semiautomatic weapons and large-capacity magazines. He held a press convention to gin up consideration about his laws Tuesday.
Flanked by orange indicators with ”GOSAFE ACT” in giant letters, Heinrich introduced his proposal in a 30-minute occasion in a first-floor assembly room within the Capitol. He advised the group of spectators and TV cameras {that a} suspect in a lethal Might 2023 taking pictures in Farmington, New Mexico, was carrying an AR-15 that may have been regulated by his laws.
”The variety of Individuals killed in mass shootings is horrific,” Heinrich mentioned. ”And we will not carry these Individuals again.”
As he stood close to an elevator financial institution off the Senate flooring, Heinrich advised CBS Information he stays optimistic that some gun management measures may very well be critically thought-about earlier than the 2024 election. He says he is talked with and ”shared a draft” of his laws with Senate Republicans. However Heinrich was fast to acknowledge that ”we have not landed anybody but.”
The pessimism that pervades gun management laws discussions is unsurprising. The Congress is underneath divided management. The Republican-led Home hasn’t used its agenda-setting energy to lift the difficulty, stage hearings on gun management proposals and is unlikely — to place it mildly — to carry votes on the gun management priorities of Democrats.
Gun security organizations have championed Heinrich’s proposal. In a press release, the pinnacle of Mothers Demand Motion mentioned, ”America’s gun violence epidemic is a public well being disaster that claims the lives of 120 Individuals and wounds over 200 extra day by day. Entry to assault weapons solely makes this disaster extra deadly.”
However preliminary prospects for the invoice seem dim.
One of many Republicans who helped negotiate a bipartisan gun invoice final yr is waving off the prospects of any new gun management initiatives. Sen. John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, advised CBS Information, ”That is simply a difficulty [Democrats] cannot let go of, as a result of they have a sure a part of their base who do not consider within the 2nd Modification.”
The makes an attempt by Democrats on Wednesday to cross sweeping new legal guidelines by unanimous consent within the Senate, which had been destined to fail, danger additional inflaming the difficulty with partisan rancor. In a flooring speech, Sen. John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, mentioned of the proposed assault weapons ban, ”It is about attempting to label accountable gun homeowners as criminals.”
”None of this solves the psychological well being disaster in our nation,” he added. ”The main focus needs to be on psychological well being.”
Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, advised CBS Information, ”It is a very complicated and divided scenario. Proper now, with every little thing else that we’re into, it simply hasn’t been the precedence.”
”When now we have issues like Ukraine, now we have Israel, and the specter of shutting the federal government down,” Fetterman mentioned, ”we do not have the flexibility to handle this difficulty, which is a really important difficulty.”
Bryant, who went dwelling to Chicago after testifying ultimately week’s Senate committee listening to, didn’t depart Washington disenchanted by what he heard from senators.
”Psychological well being and intervening with residents in disaster is an space of settlement,” he mentioned. ”We agree that poverty is a root reason behind neighborhood violence, and we agree that now we have time to allow returning residents to efficiently transition again into society in a productive and significant manner. There is a basis of settlement.”
