By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times
They agreed on the need to do something" about guns in the wake of Orlando but senators couldnt find the sweet spot Monday instead retreating to partisan corners and stalemating on competing plans to try to keep firearms out of the hands of terrorists.
Democrats said Republicans proposals didnt go far enough while GOP lawmakers said the Democrats plans ran roughshod over Second Amendment rights denying Americans the right to buy a gun if they ended up on one of the
FBIs secret and error-prone watch lists.
All sides knew the outcome beforehand and party leaders seemed content to take the issue to voters in November hoping the elections will provide clarity that has escaped the debate for more than a decade.
Mr. and Mrs. America you have to stand up and you have to say Im going to vote only for people who will do something to close the terror gap" said
Sen. Dianne Feinstein the California Democrat who led the terrorist watch list proposal. Maybe just maybe this next election can produce something."
But rank-and-file Republicans blamed both sides saying neither extreme seemed to want to find a middle-ground solution.
Why arent we working on something that could actually get done?" pleaded Sen. Patrick J. Toomey a Pennsylvania Republican who tried to broker a compromise after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting but saw those efforts doomed by the same gridlock that still prevails four years and dozens of mass-shooting deaths later.
