According to Chris Cillizza at Washington Post's "The Fix" blog, the Sunlight Foundation has calculated that only 26 U.S. Senators have a higher potential for considering some sort of gun legislation which Chris says would be in the "middle ground". Final conclusion of the analysis: "the political calculus points against the Senate passing any reform."
Closest to home Republican Senator Daniel Coats of Indiana makes the list of senators who might be persuaded toward some middle ground. He was given a C+ by the NRA and doesn't represent a district with a very high percentage of firearm businesses.
The study confirms an earlier report in Forbes that the NRA wields significant influence on both sides of the aisle in Washington DC. But the most interesting fact is one which underlies all of this analysis.
Democrats and Republicans would not likely act so strongly as the NRA might like if they didn't sense that the people who elect support the NRA position. And while a number of polls have reported that the American people favor to some degree various restrictions such as the so-called "universal background check" (or as Wayne LaPierre calls it the "check on law abiding citizens") those studies don't seem to be persuasive in moving lawmakers.
So where is the middle ground that "The Fix" thinks some senators might go? Well, if the NRA has its way, and it seems that it will, the middle ground might be something as simple as identifying the number of effective laws already passed by Congress which are not being enforced and demanding to know why not.
If my experience with judges can translate to legislators, the one thing which raises the greatest ire is issuing a directive that gets ignored.
Legislators pass laws but depend upon the executive branch to enforce them, and when they don't get enforced and constituents begin to demand that something be done Congress be persuaded to shift the focus off of themselves and onto a lax attitude toward prosecution by the department of justice. That's the kind of approach which could easily inspire bi-partisan support.
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