The recent mass shootings from California to Paris stoked fierce debate on Thursday between US Republicans, who argued that the killings should intensify the focus on Muslim militans, and US Democrats, who again pushed and then failed to pass gun control measures.
Violence around the world, rather than uniting the US, is escalating the ideological fights over gun control, immigration, foreign policy and religion.
Partisans did not hesitate to try to frame the Wednesday shooting in San Bernardino, California, through their ideological lens, even though investigators had not yet reached a conclusion about the motivation of the killers.
Illustration: Yusha
Republicans seized on the Muslim heritage of the couple identified as the assailants by the police as proof that stopping the flow of refugees and fighting Muslim militancy must be the top priority, just as many Democrats seized on the shooting in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last week as proof that the harsh criticism of the group had set off deadly violence.
On Thursday, Republicans in the US House of Representatives pushed ahead with legislation that would impose new visa restrictions on foreign visitors to the US who have traveled to Syria, Iraq, Iran or Sudan.
“This bill will become law,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said at a news conference on Thursday.
A vote on the measure is expected early next week; the US Senate has its own version.
McCarthy added that a House terrorism task force would possibly investigate the incident in San Bernardino.
For their part, US Democrats said they need to draw some lessons from US Republican tactics.
“We need to learn from the other side’s playbook,” said US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, who with several of his colleagues on Thursday pressed for the revival of a bill calling for more rigorous background checks for gun purchasers and to deny firearms and explosives licenses to suspected terrorists.
“They have been much more adept than we have on organizing on a raft of issues,” Blumenthal said. “I think we ought to be prepared to do anything within our rights.”
“Curious to hear the Democrat talking points for today after this act of terrorism,” Representative Jeff Duncan said on Twitter.
“Will they say ‘Workplace violence.’ Blame 2nd Amendment?” he wrote.
The episodes have touched off a debate even over the appropriateness of offering prayers for victims of shootings, which some US Democrats argued is a way of avoiding talking about gun control.
“Members don’t get elected to send out sympathy tweets,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said.
A measure to prevent people on a terrorist watchlist from getting guns on Thursday failed to get support on the the Senate floor, as did a Republican amendment that would have guaranteed those on the watchlist are given due process from federal agencies before being denied the right to buy a gun.
A bill that has previously failed in the Senate — a bipartisan measure to enhance background checks — also went nowhere, but attracted a short and contentious floor debate.
The events in California, coming on the heels of the escalation of military action in Syria, have added to a rising legislative movement on Capitol Hill around national security issues, pushing aside domestic issues that dominated for years.
US Lawmakers are considering measures to address the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, domestic surveillance and the power of Congress to authorize war.
“The issues drive what we do here,” Republican Senator Johnny Isakson said. “Americans are legitimately afraid for their own security and the security of the United States. Most people in Congress feel we need a coordinated plan,” he said.
The politics of national security remain difficult.
The shadow of the Iraq war hangs over bipartisan efforts to authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State group.
Since World War II, such authorizations have largely been pursued in concert with the White House, but Republican antipathy toward US President Barack Obama has made many congressional efforts more confrontational.
Republicans are working to balance their hawkish policy inclinations with their distrust of Obama, while Democrats are weighing their desire to support the president against a liberal base and nervous voters hostile toward more military conflict.
“Politics no longer stop at the water’s edge,” said Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Benghazi Select Committee. “Now they just begin with a new ferocity.”
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