Dems vow they'll do more on gun safety — but it could take years

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said describing the gun measure as a first step “accurately reflects people’s sincere hopes, and often success builds on success.” But he cautioned that “my read of the room here is, if we do this, we’ve got a lot of other issues that are on the table right now. And it’ll probably be a while before we return to anything in the gun safety space.”…

Some Democrats are tired of hearing the party line that they will come back for more later.

“This almost fell apart three times over the weekend. We are barely getting this done. And so one of the things I struggle with is, this constant ‘it’s not enough!’ and ‘we’ll get more later’ is just rank bullshit,” said one Democratic senator who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “For the foreseeable future, I think this will be the high-water mark.”

Republicans, meanwhile, said the forthcoming gun safety package is about as far as their party will go, especially considering that four of the 15 Republicans likely to back the bill will retire at the end of this Congress. Then there’s the political consequences of bucking the hard-core conservative faction of their own party as well as gun-rights groups like the National Rifle Association.