New gun control laws are likely dead in congress due to the impeachment inquiry.

Senator Chris Murphy. Politico/Getty.

Member of congress feel that new gun control legislation is dead due to the focus on the impeachment inquiry. Politico. With Senator Chris Murphy (D) endorsing impeachment, it seems clear that no deal will be made with President Trump on gun control laws. The co-sponsors of the background check bill, Pat Toomey (R) and Joe Manchin (D) both admit that things have slowed down. The chances of a deal were poor before the impeachment push but seem to be totally dead now, even as some argue that congress could do two things at once. 

The Democrats are so focused on hurting the Republican Party and the President that they are unable to get anything done because of it, including legislation on gun safety, lowering of prescription drug prices, infrastructure, etc. So bad for our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019

My Comment:

Looks like the Democrats have really shot themselves in the foot with this impeachment push. They had a real chance of getting something done on gun rights but now that's completely dead. There is basically no chance of President Trump working with Democrats when they are actively trying to remove him from office over nothing. 

Of course, this doesn't affect the gun control laws, it's everything that congress was working on. Other Democrat priorities, such as climate change, health care and immigration aren't going to be worked on either. And there will be no effort to solve bipartisan priorities like a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Everything is on the back burner right now. 

This is amazing news for gun rights supporters. Many of us had given up hope that we would escape this session of congress without a massive new infringement on our rights. Trump was looking somewhat squishy on the issue and there was a huge media push to bash guns. I had assumed that at the very least we would have legislation on red flag laws. 

Instead it looks like nothing will happen at all. Even if there is another mass shooting, or even a couple of them, there is no chance that any of the parties involved with each other will come to an agreement. 

One of the biggest advantages of our political system is how dysfunctional it all is. That makes gun laws a lot harder to pass as public outrage passes very fast. However, gun control legislation takes a long time to craft and it's almost impossible to get anything passed before the public gets outraged against something else. 

Of course, this doesn't mean much long term. Sooner or later this impeachment drama will be over (probably by the end of this year) and congress might move on something. I doubt anything will get done before the 2020 election but after that all bets are off. But for the time being things look up for the first time in a long time. 

As for the impeachment inquiry, it has been an absolute joke. The media is trying to sell President Trump as having somehow broken the law but by releasing the transcript Trump blew a hole in their plans. The whistleblower complaint was blown out by the transcript and it seems clear that political bias motivated it in the first place. 

Furthermore, John Solomon at The Hill released a massive trove of documents that show how involved with Ukraine Joe Biden really was. I haven't had time to review the documents myself but it does seem pretty damning for Biden. It seems insane to me that the Democrats expect the American people to get mad at President Trump attempting to expose corruption at this level. Biden's campaign is probably done and the impeachment inquiry will likely go nowhere.