Bloomberg News has
an article online now about how the fate of the Senate's scaled-down gun safety bill is still in doubt even though senators voted yesterday to move forward with a debate on the measure. The article includes a lot of teeth-gnashing and hemming and hawing from Democrats and Republicans alike about whether or not they can bring themselves to vote for the bill, but this was really the key of the whole piece:
Mandatory background checks for most gun purchasers are supported by 91 percent of U.S. voters, including 96 percent of Democrats, 88 percent of Republicans and 88 percent of gun- owning households, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 27-April 1.
Background checks are at the heart of what's left of the gun legislation, and more than nine in ten Americans support them. Even in the 60-vote Senate, 91 percent is a majority. This is really a no-brainer. The fact that there's any doubt at all about passage is pretty powerful testimony to just how out-of-touch so many senators have become.