Democrats frustrate Republicans on guns

Democratic leaders have pushed gun control legislation as the solution since an Islamic State sympathizer gunned down 49 people in a gay nightclub in central Florida, and said that Republican opposition is akin to aiding the terrorists.

Republicans, including Donald Trump, their presumptive presidential nominee, have countered that it’s the failed policies of Obama and Clinton that are making Americans vulnerable to Islamic terrorism at home.

But Trump and other Republicans have actively undermined their own case by joining Democrats in focusing on the gun issue, GOP lawmakers and insiders lament.

Trump in the days following the Orlando attack tweeted about his opposition to allowing individuals on a federal terror watch list to purchase firearms.

Simultaneously, Senate Republicans have spent the 11 days since the attacks on debating and voting on various gun control measures.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been compelled to allow the votes because there are vulnerable Republicans running for re-election in blue states that need the political insurance.

But all of that has allowed Democrats to control the national security discussion post-Orlando, frustrating Republicans on Capitol Hill and helping Clinton keep pace with Trump in the White House race.

“Our focus needs to be on confronting radical extremism; terrorism is the issue. Let me say it again: terrorism in the issue and defeating terrorism is our focus here in the House,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday during his weekly news conference.

The Wisconsin Republican was responding to House Democrats, who commandeered the House floor over the previous 24 hours in an attempt to force a vote on gun control legislation. They failed to cow the GOP, but garnered favorable media coverage.

In the early morning of June 12, an American jihadist murdered 49 people inside a gay nightclub in Orlando using legally purchased firearms. Democrats responded with calls for more Second Amendment restrictions, including a proposal to bar individuals on a federal terror watch list form buying guns.

McConnell’s plan was to quickly dispense of Democratic and Republican bills addressing the issue; the GOP bill satisfied conservatives demands that individuals not lose their constitutional right to due process. Then, Republicans would shift the discussion to national security.

But votes on the competing measures weren’t enough to satisfy some Republicans who hail from Democratic leaning states, including senators who are up for re-election this year and under fire from the left at home over the gun issue.

So on Thursday, near the conclusion of the second week since the Orlando terror attack, the Senate was still voting on gun control.

Not all Republicans were happy about that, believing the party has squandered an opportunity to focus voters on terrorism, a political vulnerability for Obama, and by extension, Clinton.

“I really don’t know why we decided to take up gun control so quickly without going to committee … and, in the interim, dealing with the terrorism issue,” Sen. Bob Corker told the Washington Examiner. The Tennessee Republican is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

The answer is probably that, for Republicans running in Democratic-leaning states, the politics demanded it; at least, that’s the perception.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who faces a tough re-election bid in a state the GOP presidential nominee hasn’t won since 2000, explained the other side of the equation and why McConnell didn’t just follow Ryan and decline to hold gun votes.

“Here’s where I think my constituents land overall: If you’re too dangerous to get on a commercial flight, you shouldn’t be able purchase firearms,” Ayotte said. “They also believe strongly that if you think you’ve been wrongfully put in that position, that the burden of proof has to be put on the government.”

Trump hasn’t exactly been helpful to Republicans hoping to steer the debate in the direction of which party has the best plan to keep Americans safe from domestic terrorism.

The New York businessman, in tweet posted the morning of June 15 — three days after Orlando — said: “I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.”

Trump didn’t specify whether he was referring to a proposal from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., which Republicans opposed on constitutional grounds, or Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Cornyn satisfies the GOP’s due process concerns and which they had previously voted for (and which is supported by the National Rifle Association.)

But it appeared as though Trump might be siding with Obama and Clinton on this, a move that would have isolated House Republicans and many Republicans in the Senate.

Trump has never clarified his position and continues to express support for denying individuals on the no-fly and terror watch lists from buying guns.

“Trump should’ve specified that he backed Cornyn; the press interpreted it as Feinstein,” said a Republican strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “If he had a press shop instead of merely a Twitter account that distinction might have been clearer.”

Republican insiders are similarly critical of their party’s message machine on Capitol Hill. They complain that leadership hasn’t done enough to focus attention on the Cornyn proposal, which so far has garnered the most votes — among Republicans and Democrats — and come the closest of any of them to passing.

They’re also disappointed that many Republicans allowed themselves to get mired in the gun debate. What Republicans should have done, GOP strategists say, is coordinate and spearhead a broader national security discussion that touched on Islamic terrorism, law enforcement and civil rights, among other topics.

Some polls have shown Trump with a lead over Clinton on the issue of which presidential candidate will keep Americans safe.

Some polls also suggest that Clinton and her Democratic allies are winning the public relations battle over gun control.

Those surveys are buoying Democrats, who believe it has helped Clinton go toe-to-toe with Trump in the national security debate that has ensued since Orlando.

As Obama’s first secretary of state, Clinton’s fortunes are in some ways tied to public views of the administration’s handling of terrorism.

“There is evidence emerging already that in a number of key battlegrounds the gun debate is front and center, voters want action, and Republicans are ignoring common sense,” said Matt Canter, a campaign strategist with the Democratic polling firm, Global Strategy Group.