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Ohio senator calls on McConnell to bring the Senate back
01:34 - Source: CNN

Editor’s Note: Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in Washington and author of the book, “The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness.” Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely her own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

CNN  — 

Since two more mass shootings left more than two dozen people dead in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio this past weekend, Americans—from left, right and center – have been amplifying their demands that someone do something, anything, to end America’s long national nightmare of gun violence.

Jill Filipovic

Like, perhaps, bring two bipartisan laws for background checks regulating gun sales—which have already passed the House of Representatives– to the Senate floor.

But that’s not happening, thanks in large part to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell may have been elected to represent the state of Kentucky, but he works hard to make sure that no one in Congress can get anything done unless he judges it politically expedient.

In fact, the politician – the longest serving Republican US Senate leader in history – has spent his tenure squelching bipartisan legislation aimed at making Americans safer from guns.

We are talking about basic, common-sense laws – things like a prohibition on person-to-person sales of firearms without a background check, and a limit on what kinds of military-style weapons civilians can get their hands on. Strong majorities of Americans, including Republicans, support background check laws.

But elected Republicans block them over and over and over. Even when a few members of the GOP come around and support gun legislation, their leadership makes it impossible to pass into law.

Republicans instead offering “thoughts and prayers” in the face of an unrelenting stream of mass shootings and then running scared from legislation that might decrease gun violence is common enough to be a cliché.

McConnell himself tweeted that he found the shootings “horrifying” – but not horrifying enough, apparently, to actually do anything. It is in McConnell’s power to call a special session to pass gun control legislation. That he doesn’t use his position for what it was intended – to pass laws and govern according to the will of the American people – is a dereliction of duty and a profound moral failure.

Indeed, McConnell hardly even pretends to care about the huge loss of life that his inaction and the gun lobby enable. Witness just how out of touch and callous he becomes as he goes through his cynical paces.

Just hours after the shooting in El Paso, McConnell’s official campaign tweeted a photo of a mock graveyard that included a headstone of his opponent, with the caption “The Grim Reaper of Socialism”—a self-congratulating allusion to his reputation as an obstructionist who subverts the Democratic process by killing bills.

The Republican stranglehold on the Senate is not likely to end soon; we won’t see real, comprehensive gun laws unless opposing these necessary measures begins to cost conservatives.

There is only one option here for Americans: Turn being a toady for the gun lobby into political oblivion. That means that Democratic voters should of course focus on getting toxic, immoral actors like McConnell out of office.

But it also means that reasonable Republican voters who are sickened by gun violence – truly sickened, not just sickened for “likes” on Twitter – have a moral obligation to refuse to support ghoulish enablers like the majority leader, who allow deadly violence to flourish.

Those Republicans don’t need to vote for a Democrat. But if there’s no Republican running who won’t do their part to make the nation safer, then conservative voters should stay home.

It’s sad and disturbing that protecting American citizens from mass violence and death is a partisan political issue. But here we are. This is a national emergency, and the GOP has proven it’s not going to act. Voters need to examine their consciences and act on them by voting out these lawmakers unless they step up and do their jobs.