 After weeks of deliberation, Chris Murphy, who is the Democrat leading gun control talks with Republicans, has announced that they've reached a bipartisan agreement, shockingly enough. Now, is it underwhelming? Yes. But is it something? Sure. And a lot of people are currently of the mentality that something is better than nothing, anything is better than inaction. But there's also an argument to be made that if they don't even do the bare minimum, that also could be harmful because what is the goal here? Is it to pass something to say that they did something or is it to actually curtail the number of mass shootings in this country? And if the latter is your goal, which it should be, then you actually have to produce meaningful legislation. Because if you pass something and gun deaths keep happening at a very alarming rate, then all of this was for nothing. But to me, if I could be a little bit more cynical here for a moment, it just kind of feels like they're trying to do something to placate people who want to see action when this really reasonably isn't going to curtail gun violence. But let's talk about what's in it and what's the good. As NBC News reports, a centerpiece of the Senate deal is to provide substantial resources for states to implement red flag laws which allow individuals like police or family members to petition courts to keep firearms away from people deemed a risk to themselves or others. Currently 19 states and the District of Columbia have red flag laws on the books. The new provisions are aimed at increasing that number and improving their implementation. The agreement also establishes a more rigorous process for background checks on people between 18 and 21 years old with an enhanced review that includes contacting state and local law enforcement for criminal records that could be disqualifying and to appropriate state organizations for mental health information that could affect the decision. Their proposal also seeks to clarify ambiguities over who must register as a federally licensed firearm dealer for the purposes of conducting background checks. Now, red flag laws, to be clear, that's a genuinely surprising thing. I didn't really expect them to agree on that, which is why my cynical mind believes that's probably going to be cut from this framework when it actually does become legislation. But let's talk about what's not in the bill, things that are conspicuously absent here. As Hill Capporte tweets out, no ban on semi-automatic weapons, no ban on high capacity magazines, no 21 minimum age to buy AR-15 style rifles, and no universal background checks. Yeah, so when 80-90% of the country, depending on the poll, says we want universal background checks and they don't even do that, I can't help but feel skeptical here. If they just passed universal background checks, I think that that would probably be one of the biggest things that they can do. If they're not going to ban AR-15s, if they're not going to ban high capacity magazines, background checks, that could really be an important thing in conjunction with red flag laws because some people who shouldn't own weapons don't have criminal records. They're young men, as we've seen, right? So the red flag laws will work with the federal background checks. That's really important. But they're not doing universal background checks. They're doing expanded background checks for people between the ages of 18 and 21. Except you shouldn't be allowed to buy a weapon at all until you're 21. So the fact that you're expanding background checks really feels kind of stupid, right? If you're not going to expand background checks for everyone when that's what the country wants, if you're not going to raise the age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 and you're only going to expand background checks, then that just seems dumb. Now, I understand the sentiment in the country currently. They want something to be done, anything to be done, right? And that pressure is why they're currently acting. But here's where this could be an issue, right? Let's say that this gets passed and it is very, very milk toast reform and gun violence keeps happening, which it will. Well, what's going to be the message from Republicans? It's not the gun, see? We passed gun control legislation. We had this bipartisan effort. We passed it. And we did everything that the Democrats wanted, but yet gun violence is still happening, see? We were right. We need to do door reform. We need more prayer in schools. That's what they're going to say. And their argument will be more compelling because they can claim they've taken action. They can point to this legislation. But if they pass this inadequate legislation and gun violence continues to happen, then that's just going to be all the more reason to not do gun control that actually works in the future because they can point to this as evidence that gun control doesn't work. Do you understand? So this is why I'm really a mixed bag on this. I'm not saying that they shouldn't pass this because they have to do something and the red flag laws assuming it remains in this bill could really make a meaningful difference. But at the same time, if it's not good enough, it's just not good enough. We have to admit that we can't just pretend as if this is sufficient when it very, very clearly is inadequate. And even as milk toast as what they've come up with in this framework is look at the Republicans who decided to actually support this. John Cornyn, Safe through 2026. Tillis, Safe through 2026. Cassidy, Collins, Graham, all safe through 2026. Blunt, Burr, Portman, Toomey, retiring soon. Mitt Romney, Safe through 2024. In other words, not a single Republican who's up for a reelection this year is supporting this. Goes to show you how big of cowards these Republicans are and even the ones who are safe through 2026 after the next presidential election. They're like, this is all I can do. Okay, I can't support universal background checks, which 80% of the country wants, but we can expand background checks for 18, 19 and 20 year olds. It's truly ridiculous. I mean, they're corrupt. They're taking money from gun manufacturers, interest groups, and this is why they won't do it specifically because any real action is going to cut into profits of these gun manufacturers. They don't want to do that. This is them delivering for their donors, so they come up with this milk toast thing and they say, we did it, applaud us when... No, I'm not going to applaud you for doing the bare minimum when you quite literally didn't even do the bare minimum. The bare minimum to me would be universal background checks for everyone. I don't care if you're 18, 21. If you want to buy a gun, you have to undergo a background check, a federal background check. If you can't even do that, you don't get to brag because it's just... I mean, come on. Do you want to curtail gun violence or do you not? If you don't do background checks, then that to me is almost a non-starter. I'm not saying that if I were in Congress, I would vote against this definitively, but there's got to be more pressure, right? The pressure is very clearly working, hence the reason why there's some action. They're at least pretending to deliberate on some sort of bipartisan framework, even though they should have voted like weeks ago. It's hard. You know what we want and what you need to do. But I mean, again, I just worry that they're going to use this as evidence that they took action. And very clearly, gun control isn't the answer because gun violence is still happening. So, you know, Democrats, they've got to try to thread that needle, produce something because they have an incentive to get things done before the midterms as well. Republicans want to get voters out their backs. So you have these spineless politicians coming together to not even agree on the bare minimum, and we're supposed to applaud them. I just can't. I can't applaud you for this. This isn't good enough. Come back to me with the real proposal. Come back to me with red flag laws still there and universal background checks. And then maybe I'll say, all right, you know what, that's the compromise position. But when you come to me with this and you can't even support something that the overwhelming majority of the country wants, including gun owners, we just, we can't accept this. We shouldn't accept this. It's just not good enough. So this is only the beginning. I hope that Democrats continue to fight. But unfortunately, Democrats don't know how to fight. So if Republicans just say, I guess the only thing we're willing to support is expanded background checks for 18, 19 and 20 year olds. Democrats would go along with it just so they too can say we passed something. But if the goal is to curtail gun violence, this simply isn't good enough. I'm sorry, but that's true. Do you enjoy watching independent news shows like the Humanist Report, the Rational National and the Majority Report? But oftentimes, YouTube doesn't deliver our videos to your subscription box. Well, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Optout app, available right now in the iOS app store coming soon to Android. 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