Bloomberg backlash

Bloomberg’s effort risks turning a discussion about guns into a war of competing cultures. People in North Carolina and Virginia don’t want people from out-of-state telling them what to do. They especially don’t want a New York City mayor telling them what to do. That is what Sen. Pryor was getting at when he said, “I don’t take gun advice from the mayor of New York City. I listen to Arkansans.” …

When political operatives talk about how vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election in 2014 can survive voting for effective gun control, they say that those senators will be able to rely on their local connections to voters to explain their votes. They claim they’ll have the “messaging tools.” Explaining why their vote wasn’t a capitulation to the New York money of the soda-pinching mayor will require a few more tools.

These complaints are just the kind of noise lawmakers make when they are being pressured. Lawmakers who want to have it both ways—shake their heads about gun violence but do nothing about it—often try to sidestep the issue by saying they support the goal but not the methods. So these complaints could simply be a dodge. Or, those lawmakers fixated on a bipartisan solution may be deluding themselves about the chances for a deal. In that case, Bloomberg’s campaign and President Obama’s remarks Thursday with victims of gun violence are a necessary push to get squishy lawmakers to fall into line. But can they create enough pressure?