Sunday School 2/25/18

I only wanted to see one classroom today - ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, where the NRA's Dana Loesch was going to be the guest.

Loesch, you'll recall, is the national spokesperson for the NRA, who sort of hit the big time after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, with her comment that

Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. Now I'm not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are gold to you and many in the legacy media...

Stephanopoulos started right in on the first question, wondering whether the NRA would back the president's call for raising the age to purchase rifles to mirror the age for purchasing a handgun.

DL: Well, the NRA has made their position incredibly clear. The five million members of the NRA have made their position incredibly clear, and I do want to caution people...

 GS: And that's a no, then?

DL: Well, I do want to caution people, because I know that people are trying to find daylight between president Trump and five million law abiding gun owners all across the United States. These are just things that he's discussing right now. I think that it's great as president he had all of these individuals, all of these constituents come into the White House, he had this listening session. He's really looking for solutions. He wanted to hear what they had to say, and that's what he's doing. So, nothing's been proposed yet. The NRA's made their position clear...

GS: Well, let me just -  the position is you do now want to raise the age?

DL: That's what the NRA came out and said. That's correct. 

How hard is it to say "yes, we agree that the age should be raised?" The same difficulty happens on the bump stock question. Stephanopoulos asked if the NRA was backing that.

Well the NRA already called for -- they already made it clear, the ATF needs to do their job and they need to make sure their definitions are consistent. The NRA called for this before the president made a statement...

She went on to say that the  ATF is on the same page as the president and the Attorney General.

GS: No, they're not, they're actually not on the same page. The ATF says they don't have the authority right now to ban bump stocks. The president has now said he wants those to be banned. Will the NRA back that?

DL: The NRA doesn't back any ban. The NRA has asked the ATF to do its job and make sure that these classifications are consistent. 

If you're out of the loop like I am, you might be wondering what the NRA is referring to with "classifications.' Here's some information on that.

Following the Las Vegas shooting, a significant amount of public attention has been focused on bump stock-type devices. ATF has received correspondence from the general public and from members of both houses of Congress requesting that ATF reexamine is past classification decisions concerning bump stock devices to determine whether they should be classified as machine guns... (it is) the initial step in a regulatory process to interpret the definition of machine gun to clarify whether certain bump stock devices fall within that definition. If, in a subsequent rule making, the definition of machine gun under section 5845 (b) is interpreted to include certain bump stock devices, ATF would then  have a basis to re-examine its prior classifications and rulings.

So - do we know whether or not the NRA supports classifying bump stocks as machine guns, which would make them much harder to obtain? You'll have to be the judge of that. I just know that Loesch said they don't back a ban.

Also, note from the same article about the ATF, it was noted that when they reached out to manufacturers, they asked whether "new regulations would hurt sales or a company's bottom line."

What else did Loesch offer?

• Well, that the shooter at the Congressional baseball practice was a "former Bernie Sanders staff member" who, according to reports, was a one-time volunteer for Sanders, and a supporter of his candidacy - but not a staff member.
• When Stephanopoulos talked about no other country having the "wide access" to AR-15s or  the "frequency or intensity of these kind of shootings"  Loesch argued that France had in one year a higher casualty rate than the two Obama terms. Which I guess is true, if you compare a coordinated ISIS attack across multiple locations, including both bombs and guns, to be the equivalent of multiple school shootings resulting in the deaths of children. 
• Stephanopoulos noted a recent Quinnipiac poll reflected 97% of Americans supporting background checks for all gun purchases. Loesch said that "the question for that poll, by the way, was do you support background checks if it prevents, you know, those who are dangerous and -- terrorists, et cetera from getting firearms" when in fact, the question simply asked "Do you support or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers?"

One point she raised that I thought was actually a valid one, was asking Stephanopoulos if he was going to start having politicians on the show to grill them about whether their states were submitting all of the required information to the NICS background check system, because we're told that many states are way behind in their reporting. Stephanopoulos said it was a good idea -- we'll see if he goes through with it.

Stephanopoulos did not push her on her comments at CPAC; I'm not sure whether it was because he knew he'd get nothing new, or else he thought he might not have been able to control the interview - which I suspect was true. 

I'm not sure there's a way to control any of these interviews on guns, gun control, and finding common ground. I think it probably starts with wanting to find the common ground...

See you around campus.