Friends -
Yesterday I voted YES on a comprehensive package that would make our communities safer from gun violence.
It passed the House safely with a handful of Republican votes.
It has no chance in the Senate because of the filibuster.
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback over the past two weeks about gun violence prevention.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of the feedback I get centers around Senator Sinema and the filibuster. So I thought it important to share some thoughts on that with you today.
Here is the honest truth:
Unless we are willing to break the filibuster or credibly threaten to break the filibuster, we’re going to get piecemeal changes to our gun laws — AT BEST.
If Republicans knew the filibuster could actually go away, they would actually compromise, and we could probably get a very good bill. Maybe universal background checks, maybe stopping people below 21 from buying assault weapons…
But because Republicans know Senators Sinema and Manchin aren’t moving, they’re just going to bide their time.
Now, Joe Manchin, to his credit, once introduced legislation to expand background checks along with Republican Senator Pat Toomey.
What stopped it from passing?
The filibuster.
This is, once again, where Senator Sinema has a chance to exercise some actual power for her constituents, and for the country.
She should go to her Republican friends and say unless we do some real, sensible gun safety reform, we’re going to end up getting rid of the filibuster.
And you know what would happen? Republicans would buckle.
We’d get change.
Until that happens, she might as well just offer up her thoughts and prayers. Because at best, we may see some very small changes that are not going to make anybody feel much better except for some politicians.
Thank you for reading. I thought it important to share my thoughts on this with you.
All my best,
Ruben
Ruben Gallego is running for re-election to the House in Arizona. And while he has not made up his mind about what he will do after this election, every donation he receives sends a powerful message about the importance of bypassing the filibuster to create change on a whole host of issues including protecting our democracy, abortion access and gun safety.
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