Never mind mass shootings, Republicans want would-be terrorists and criminals to keep their guns

Six days after the Colorado Springs mass murder and the day after the San Bernardino massacre, Senate Republicans voted proactively to allow potential terrorists and mentally unstable people and potential mass murderers to easily obtain firearms. They made the decision that they didn't want to take a stand against anyone—even people who should clearly never be allowed to have a more deadly weapon than a butter knife—owning as many guns as they want. Even as an empty statement in a bill that is never going to become law.

In one of a series of near-party-line procedural votes, the Senate by 54 to 45 blocked a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would have stopped people on the government’s anti-terrorist "no fly" list from buying guns. Republican opponents said that the no-fly list includes too many errors to be used for preventing gun sales.

By a 50 to 48 vote the chamber also blocked a measure by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) to tighten the background-check system.

Never mind their sanguine acceptance of the fact that the terrorist watch list is not the most effective tool for fighting terrorism—which they are all obsessed with these days—they just voted against any potential terrorist from arming him or herself to the teeth. Because America. Well, because the National Rifle Association. If you're a Republican, they're the same thing.

Now, a political party in charge of both chambers of Congress might be serious about actually governing. A political party that says, as Chris Christie did Thursday, that "every place in America is a target for a terrorist attack" and that "we are in the midst of the next world war" would want to make sure that the terrorist watch list wasn't error-ridden. It might want to show it was serious about combatting terrorism here at home by making sure would-be terrorists couldn't get their hands on fucking guns.

Clearly, that's too much to expect from the political party that runs one of the three branches of our government.