WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell recounted the still emerging details of how the horror transpired. He solemnly described the characteristics of the 10-year-old victims. And he invoked a Bible verse to offer comfort to the brokenhearted families.
But in his first remarks on the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead, including 19 children, the Republican Senate leader offered no indication that the latest rampage has altered his thinking on the need to change America’s gun laws.
“It’s literally sickening – sickening to consider the innocent young lives that were stolen by this pointless, senseless brutality,” McConnell said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “The entire nation’s hearts are broken for the victims and for their families. Words simply fail.”
Once McConnell concluded his brief remarks, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would offer more than words on Thursday, when he planned to bring legislation to the floor that would empower special government offices to more closely monitor and track domestic terrorism.
The bill gained new urgency after the racially motivated shooting on May 14 in Buffalo, New York that left 10 dead.
“Will he join us in allowing a debate and amendments to that bill that will address the gun plague in America?” Schumer asked of McConnell Wednesday. “Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need action.”
The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which has already cleared the House, would require the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and FBI to coordinate their work on domestic terrorism and review their training procedures and resources, particularly on cases involving white supremacy. It would require the FBI to assign an investigator to each field office to investigate hate crimes and create a task force to deal with white supremacy and Neo-Nazism within the military and law enforcement agencies.
The bill cleared the Democratic-controlled House. But right now, prospects for passage in the Senate look unlikely due to Republican opposition.
McConnell has not personally weighed in on the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, but members of the Republican caucus have said that law enforcement should already be targeting acts of terrorism and see the proposal as a government-sanctioned intrusion on free speech.
But McConnell’s immutable opposition to even incremental adjustments to gun laws has earned him critics outside the political spectrum.
During emotional remarks during a press conference Tuesday in the wake of the Uvalde shootings, Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, name-checked McConnell and called out GOP senators.
“There’s 50 senators right now who refused to vote on H.R. 8, which is a background check rule that the House passed … It’s been sitting there. And there’s a reason they won’t vote on it. To hold on to power,” Kerr said. “So I ask you, Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings, I ask you, are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers? Because that’s what it looks like.”
The bill Kerr is citing would close loopholes in gun purchases by requiring a background check for all gun sales.
Kerr then challenged viewers to ask how they would feel if it was their child who was murdered in an attack in their own school.
“We can’t get numb to this,” he pleaded. “We can’t just sit here and read about it and go, 'yeah, let’s have a moment of silence.'”
But in the immediate aftermath, most Republicans are choosing to recognize the incident with prayers rather than legislative fixes.
In a statement, Rep. Andy Barr said he was praying for the victims and their families but added, “Now is not the time to politicize this tragedy. Instead we must unite in our grief and outrage, support a thorough investigation, establish the facts and seek justice.”
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