Sinema Signals She Won't Bust Filibuster for Gun Control

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) says she doesn’t believe “that DC solutions are realistic” for stopping massacres like yesterday’s in Uvalde, Texas.

NBC’s Jake Sherman said Sinema stopped reporters outside the Senate chamber because she “had something to say.”

“This is rare” for her, he added.

Sherman asked if Sinema would be willing to “set aside” the filibuster to force some kind of gun control measure through the evenly divided Senate. Her fellow Democrat Senator, Jon Tester of Montana, waited mere hours after Tuesday night’s slaughter to press for universal background check legislation. “Come on guys, kids got killed yesterday for Christ’s sakes,” he told colleagues this morning.

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“Let’s talk about what can be done, not talk about what somebody wants, all right. Let’s talk about what can be done!”

But Sinema isn’t having any of it.

“I’m going to start having conversations again with colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” she told reporters today, “to determine whether or not there’s something we can actually do to help increase safety and protect kids.”

“Both sides of the aisle” indicates that whatever gun control measure might be considered, it had better have bipartisan support. That means the filibuster stays put.

“Something we can actually do to help increase safety and protect kids” indicates that Sinema is uninterested in showboating legislation. Given her apparent disdain for the “heated rhetoric here in DC” and the general futility and unconstitutionality of federal gun control laws, it sure looks like nothing will get past the talking stage so long as Sinema sticks to her guns, so to speak.

Arizona is one of the most Second Amendment-friendly states in the Union. Conservatives have guns, independents have guns, progressives have guns. My friend, colleague, and Arizona native Stephen Kruiser might tell you that in Arizona, even dogs that think they’re people have guns.

It isn’t just Sinema refusing to upend Senate rules and traditions in the heat of the moment.

There’s also West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, another Democrat from a gun-loving state. Like Sinema, he knows the only way to keep his job is to keep on the right side of protecting the Second Amendment.

Sen. Joe Manchin says he would do “anything I can” to move “common sense” gun legislation forward, but still refused to eliminate the filibuster to get gun legislation through the Senate, per @jessicadean pic.twitter.com/lrnfOA4egQ

— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) May 24, 2022