Is Gun Control, Voting Rights, and Police Reform legislation all languishing?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Thought it'd be simple to get a quick status on these three topics that mean SO much to us: Gun Control, Voting Rights, & Police Reform. All murky at best, nothing sounded promising.

Evidently we don't have the votes in the Senate to pass anything. Has it always been like that and I just didn't notice? That if the votes aren't there the bills are not introduced, debated and voted on? Nothing done that I could find in Senate on:

HR 8 Expand Background check cases

HR 1446 Extend Background check review period from 3 to 10 days ( Charleston Loophole)

HR 7120 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act holding law enforcement accountable for misconduct.

HR 1 For the People Act expanding access to the ballot box & reduce influence of big money in politics.

[Elessar Zappa]

1. Probably none of that will pass.

Until Manchin and Sinema agree to lift the filibuster, we can only pass certain laws twice a year through reconciliation.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. I didn't realize they needed a super majority for For the People Act HR 1

[tritsofme]

7. Basically everything that isn't budget reconciliation or a presidential nominee needs 60 votes

to clear the Senate.

[Bettie]

2. Republicans and their enablers

in the Senate are ensuring that none of that sees the light of day anytime soon.

[jimfields33]

3. The majority leader should bring them all to the floor

Call their bluff. Let’s see the live voting. American population need to see this. House already passed all of them. Voters will know who votes against it.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

9. I tend to agree because it strikes me that we are getting nowhere fast

We either need to hold them to a vote if we can't do anything else. Or create bills that are broken apart and simplified. I think the general public was outraged by mass shootings, police brutality and lies about the election elections.

Time to rethink strategy so that we can win something instead of nothing

[jimfields33]

10. I like the idea of splitting them up

So what if it takes 5 bills to get to 2.5 trillion infrastructure. If we did 500 billion a month ago, work would be starting in many places. And yes it’s a gamble that the other bills may not happen. But I disagree because when that 500 billion starts and people see progress, they will be happy to see congress pass more infrastructure bills.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. That's depressing. Strikes me that we need to at least pass

SOMETHING that they'd agree to. Or, bring it up for a vote and let them vote no. Is that naive? Has it always been like that? What happens if we bring up and it fails? Does that mean you can never try again? At least they'd be on record for the next campaign.

[Calista241]

5. The only thing that has a slight chance of passing, is Police Reform

And only after it's been significantly watered down. And honestly, we're going to have a huge intra-party war over that.

Lucy McBath is my rep, and she primarily serves the northern suburbs of Atlanta. If she votes to 'defund the police' or any bill significantly restricts their behavior, she's going to be out of office so fast it will be amazing. All Sandy Springs can talk about is how much crime there is down in Atlanta, and how our police officers are preventing it from spreading up here.

[LiberatedUSA]

8. There is no way this current SCOTUS will allow some gun control to pass.

Justice Kennedy was the reason gun cases were getting turned away in the past; that won’t happen now. Roberts can vote against and they will still get a 5-4.

Any bill that won’t allow owners of semi-automatic weapons to keep them without spending money to keep them will not survive this court. I doubt a ban on those guns from future sales would survive either; they will say we are banning “guns in common use” as stated in Heller.

If we don’t want abortion outlawed and we want to stop legal ownership of semi-automatic weapons, we will need to:

End the filibuster
Expand the Supreme Court
Rebuild law enforcement from the ground up

Allow only certain highly trained groups of cops to have semi-autos. The SWAT teams will not be used like they are now; but for real serious threats only; such as disarming gun owners that are found in non compliance of any gun control we pass AFTER we first do the steps listed first.