Since congressional Democrats are stuck and unable to pass meaningful gun control laws, they are now vowing that they will push through domestic terrorism legislation to “improve intelligence sharing and coordination between law enforcement agencies”  following last Saturday’s mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called the shooting an act of  “domestic terrorism,” echoing many others in her party who see the horrific event as “an avoidable convergence of racist extremism and easy access to guns capable of inflicting mass casualties.”

According to the New York Times, “In response to the killings, the House would soon move to take up legislation that would ‘strengthen efforts to combat domestic terrorism.'”

via Twitter / @nytimes

While Pelosi offered no specifics, Democrats on the House Judiciary passed a bill in January that would create offices in the Department of Homeland Security, The FBI and the DOJ  “to monitor, investigate and prosecute cases of domestic terrorism.”

An almost identical bill passed the House without opposition, a year ago and earlier this year, the measure passed over the objection of all 17 committee Republicans who try to argue that it could be abused to start investigations against conservatives for exercising free speech.

“Nancy Pelosi” by Gage Skidmore is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

New York Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler, chair of the committee, sent an email to the Times:

“Buffalo is a clarion call. The Republicans feel they owe something to the white nationalist, extremist, farthest right fringes of their party.”

Senator Chris Murphy (D. CT) echoed Nadler on MSNBC on Sunday:

“In the wake of this Buffalo shooting, it may be that we have to put a vote up in the Senate or in the House to show the American people where folks stand.”

Democrats are having trouble reaching the 60 votes needed to pass bills in 2021, failing earlier this year on voting rights and more recently to codify abortion rights in the wake of the leaked supreme court opinion that would overturn Roe V. Wade, meaning gun control or domestic terrorism bills they try to pass would almost assuredly be shot down in the chamber.

US Capitol via Flickr / Stephanie Clifford https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The Times continues:

“Even in rare instances there is bipartisan agreement to address an issue, Democrats have had to drop some restrictions on who can purchase guns.

In March, Congress renewed the Violence Against Women Act, a law designed to combat stalking, domestic violence and sexual assault, after Democrats agreed to ditch a provision that would have prevented any dating partner, not just spouses, who had been convicted of domestic violence from owning a gun.”

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Christopher Powell