Hopes of gun laws breakthrough fade as politicians return to stalemate and deadlock

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Hopes of a quick breakthrough on changing America’s gun laws are fading, after Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on even modest proposals and Donald Trump was said to be backtracking on a vow to raise the minimum age for buying weapons.

As the President was set to meet with leaders from both parties at the White House and students from Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School prepared to return to their lessons, politicians on Capitol Hill ran into a log-jam and stalemate.

Two weeks after survivors of the shooting in Parkland that left 17 people dead, captured the imagination and hopes of many as they demanded politicians act to prevent such atrocities, legislators failed to make ground on securing even modest agreement.

A narrow background check measure, known as the Fix NICS bill, introduced in the Senate is already facing resistance, with Democrats saying it is not meaningful enough to address gun safety in an era when shootings have become normal.

Passing only a narrow plan to improve background checks “would be an abject failure and a dereliction of duty” following the Valentine’s Day massacre, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asserted.

“It is our hope that Republican leaders will help pass real legislation that makes a difference, rather than [National Rifle Association]-backed bills that make Republicans feel better without meaningfully addressing the issue of gun safety,” he added.

Meanwhile, a succession of Republicans said they were unwilling to move ahead on anything but the most modest proposals. Some senior Republicans indicated they were not prepared to pass any changes.

“I don’t think we need more gun control. I think we need better idiot control,” Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said when asked what might come next on Capitol Hill.

“Most of us believe that’s a Second Amendment right that’s not to be trifled with,” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah told Politico. He said both Mr Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had little appetite for a big gun debate.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is also Republican, said: “We’re not going to ban the AR-15.”

“But we can ban bump stocks,” he added, referring to the devices that effectively make semi-automatic rifles fire like a machine gun. “I don’t know about the age change. I don’t know where that’s going to go. It depends on what the President does.”

It is not just Republicans who are pushing back on changing gun laws. Many Democrats who are facing re-election battles in 2018 in so-called red states believe there is little for them politically in pushing for change.

Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat up for re-election in Montana, said he thought there was still room for debate on guns.

“It depends on where the gun debate goes,” he said. “I think keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, mentally ill folks, terrorists, that’s solid ground. They are not law-abiding citizens, they ought not have the same rights as law abiding citizens.”

Meanwhile, reports said Mr Trump was backing off from his original call to increase the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21. A Republican congressional source told CNN the President was “obviously moving back” from his earlier comments.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said last week that the issue was on the table for the administration.

“I think that’s certainly something that’s on the table for us to discuss, and that we expect to come up over the next couple of weeks,” she said.

However, the NRA and many Republicans have spoken out against raising the age to buy an AR-15, the weapon allegedly used by Nikolas Cruz to carry out the attack. Over the weekend, Mr Trump had lunch with senior officials from the NRA, the organisation which spent $30m to help get him elected in 2016.

Republican leaders in Congress said on Tuesday that they would not raise the minimum age for gun buyers, Reuters reported.

“We shouldn’t be banning guns from law-abiding citizens. We should be focusing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place don’t get those guns,” House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said at a news conference.

Jeanne Zaino, Professor of Political Science at Iona College in New York, told The Independent she had initially been optimistic about the possibility for change after seeing the students press their demands with such passion and eloquence.

“But obviously history suggests this is what happens [after the story moves on,]” she said. “Looking at what happened, there seems to have been mistakes on both sides.”

If Congress fails to act, which currently appears likely, it would be yet another time when Republicans and Democrats have been unsuccessful in passing any gun control measures in the wake of a mass shooting.

Larry Sabato, Professor of Politics at the Universe of Virginia, said “even minor changes are made in the gun laws nationally or in the states, it’s worth marking on the calendar of history. Normally, nothing at all is done after a mass shooting”.

He added: “Some blame Congress, which is slow to do anything about anything (unless it involves their self-interest). That’s true of course. But the real problem is that the party of the NRA, the Republicans, are in complete control of Washington and they also rule the roost in a large majority of state capitols.”