Democrats put gun control front and center on third night of convention

PHILADELPHIA — Democrats made gun violence one of the biggest issues of their four-day convention on Wednesday night, devoting nearly an hour to the topic.

On a night otherwise devoted to President Obama’s primetime speech boosting nominee Hillary Clinton and to introducing her running mate — Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia — to the nation, Democrats set a somber tone for much of the night.

It was a grim tableau, illustrating the depressing toll of mass shootings that have come to increasingly dominate the nation’s consciousness over the past several years. Democrats highlighted three of the most horrific attacks of the last few years: the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults in 2012; the Emanuel AME church shooting in July 2015 that took the lives of nine people; and the shooting at Pulse night club in Orlando just six weeks ago that killed 49 people.

The variety of root causes driving the shooters — mental illness, racism, extremist Islamic ideology — served as a way for Democrats to say that guns were the common factor and access to them should be limited.

Christine Leinonen, whose son Drew was killed in Orlando, spoke first, along with survivors of the attack: Brandon Joseph Wolf, Jose Francisco and Arriagada Duran. Erica Smeglieski, daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, also spoke. And then so did Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, the only two adult survivors of the Emanuel AME shooting.

To talk about the government’s response, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., got a major speaking slot by virtue of his emerging status as an outspoken proponent of gun control legislation.

Murphy, a first-term senator who in June held a 15-hour filibuster to draw attention to gun control, focused his remarks on the ease with which lone wolf terrorists in the U.S. can gain access to guns, and to his belief that those on the terrorist watch list should not be able to buy firearms.

“I stood on the Senate floor for 15 hours because I had had enough. Enough of children dying in classrooms, enough of nightly bloodshed on our city streets, enough of our police officers being outgunned, ambushed and cut down in the line of duty,” Murphy said. “Enough.”

The terrorist watch list debate is a complicated one, however. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have roundly criticized the list, both for the way American citizens are placed on it, and for the difficulty of being removed from it.

When the Senate voted down a ban on gun sales to those on the watch list in June — in a vote that broke down along party lines — there was plenty of criticism for the Democrats’ quest for this measure, not just from the right but also from liberals who support some forms of gun control but who find this particular fight foolish and counterproductive.

But as a messaging tool in an election year, Murphy and the Democrats clearly see the terrorist watch list as turf they want to fight on.

“I am furious, furious, that in three years since Sandy Hook, three years of almost daily bloodshed in our cities, the Republican Congress has done absolutely nothing to prevent the next massacre,” Murphy said. “It stokes inside me a sense of outrage I’ve never felt before.”

Some forms of gun control poll extremely well with the public — such as background checks and mental health screenings — but more severe restrictions generally don’t have majority support. And the fear that Clinton will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who greatly restrict access to firearms has been one of Donald Trump’s greatest tools in winning over skeptical Republican voters and leaders to his candidacy.

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer also argued that “none of the proposals they’re going to have would have stopped any of the shootings they’re going to talk about.”

“There’s a lot of talk in the [Republican] party about mental health screenings and ways to enforce existing laws,” Spicer said. “There are areas of agreement with that we should be acting on.”

And so far the targeting of police officers has not been a primary focus of any night’s program, though speakers such as former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., have mentioned it and two chiefs of police have been featured speakers.

Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey spoke during the gun control segment Wednesday night.

Ramsey endorsed Clinton’s support for background checks and a so-called assault weapons ban. “We need a strong, steady leader … to stop our officers from being outgunned by weapons of war,” he said.

After Ramsey came former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who herself survived being shot in the head in 2011, in an attack that killed six others. Giffords still has difficulty speaking, but her husband, Mark Kelly, who has joined her efforts to stem gun violence, introduced her.

Kelly said Clinton would “stand up to the Washington gun lobby that works to protect the shameful status quo.”

Democrats tried to end the gun violence portion of the night with an uplifting note. A group of Broadway stars sang “What the World Needs Now.”

The song, of course, says that what the world needs is “love, sweet love.”

But the song is also a plea for an end to difficulty:

Lord, we don’t need another mountain

There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb

There are oceans and rivers enough to cross

Enough to last till the end of time

And while the nation undoubtedly does need more hope and positive action from all of her people, the prospect of its challenges receding any time soon — from terrorism, economic unrest and racial tension — does not seem likely.

_____

Related slideshows:

On the ground at the DNC — a photo report >>>

How newspapers covered the historic second day of the DNC >>>

Bernie Sanders’ supporters make a last stand >>>

Sanders supporters weep at DNC >>>

How newspapers covered the DNC’s first big day >>>

Demonstrators protest outside the DNC >>>