WATCH: John Cornyn Get Viciously Booed In Texas Announcing Compromise On Gun Legislation

I can’t help but think that this gun issue is going to be the death of this republic. We have seen mass fatalities take place everywhere, from music festivals to supermarkets to shopping malls, and most heartbreakingly, in public schools. It’s glad I am that I’m not a schoolgirl anymore. There were enough things back in the day that worried me. The Cold War was fearsome, the Vietnam war was divisive, many things troubled me, but I never, ever once thought that I might go to school and be machine gunned to death and my life would be over, before it had really begun. That is a new generational reality and I frankly don’t know how the kids handle it.

We all know how the gun reform cycle goes. Basically it is: 1) Mass shooting; 2) hysteria and recriminations; 3) lots of media coverage; 4) pressure for gun reform, vows for gun reform; 5) the deadlock in Congress begins; 6) Nothing happens to change gun laws. Rinse and repeat. More death.

We are now at number four, pressure for gun reform, and it is predictably ugly. There are ten GOP senators who will go along with the bi-partisan bill. The going is ugly. Take a look.

Better video of Sen John Cornyn getting drowned out by boos attempting to speak at the TX State GOP convention after negotiating a compromise on gun legislation. pic.twitter.com/sQGgsTRASg

— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) June 17, 2022

It’s virtually impossible to hear what he’s saying that they’re reacting to. Here is some context from Axios:

Behind the scenes: At Tuesday’s private Senate GOP lunch, several senators questioned Cornyn about the proposal and pushed for specific details about what the legislation would entail.

• Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) “very vocally” requested more information from Cornyn on the substance of the framework. Those requests were rebuffed, three sources familiar with the lunch told Axios.

• The proposal to incentivize state red flag laws has been especially unpopular among conservatives. Sens. Crapo, Cruz and others have voiced their concerns to leadership about it potentially becoming too easy to strip Americans of their right to bear arms.

• And Scott, the chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, feels snubbed by the bipartisan group after holding early talks with Cornyn and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

• “No one’s telling me anything. I’ve just asked for the text, and I haven’t gotten anything,” Scott told Axios. “My whole goal is that we shouldn’t be rushing something like this through; we should take our time.”

The other side: Cornyn is aware of the growing conservative backlash and has sought to tamp it down in a series of media appearances and in public remarks — including today, when he walked out of negotiations and told reporters: “It’s fish or cut bait. I don’t know what they have in mind, but I’m through talking.”

• He’s also emphasized the provisions he fought to keep out of the bill, such as raising the age to purchase assault weapons to 21.

• Cornyn has rebranded “red flag laws” — a toxic phrase among conservatives — as “crisis intervention.”

• He’s said he wants states to have the option to use the federal grant money to “incentivize” them to pass red flag laws for other purposes.

A Cornyn aide told Axios the senator and his staff have answered several questions and taken feedback from many of these members and their staff every day this week.

• “Cornyn has been talking to and answering questions one on one from multiple of these members. He or our staff has been in particularly close contact with Crapo and Lee.”
• “Part of the reason McConnell selected him is because he has credibility and a track record on this issue and has a wide reach across the board among members,” a Senate GOP leadership aide said. “He is uniquely suited to take on this challenge.”

The bottom line: Given his leadership aspirations, Cornyn is taking on a bigger risk than the nine other Republican senators who signed onto the bipartisan gun safety framework.

It’s not news that we live in two different Americas. Gun America doesn’t want anything to change. Gun America is apparently alright with the regular slaughter of children.

The Second Amendment issue has morphed into something else. When all of this chatter started up, however many decades ago, the balancing act was how to keep the right to defend the home alive vs. having guns easily accessible to the mentally ill. That was the core of it. But since then, the issue has turned into something else. Gun culture is out of control.

There are millions of guns in this country and they’re not to defend the home. They’re fetishist symbols of some kind of drive which has gone awry. The guns symbolize far far more than a way to keep the home safe. They symbolize a sub-culture ready to go to war and just waiting for the right moment.

The fact that so many Republicans running for reelection this fall, and every election year, take out ads featuring them prominently shooting high powered assault weapons and blowing things up says everything you need to know.

Things would be easy if the two Americas were divided by a border, or better yet a wall. But they’re not. We co-exist side by side, contiguous and comingled. You might literally be on your way to the store to buy ice cream for your kid’s birthday party and never make it back alive if something from the other America decides that today’s the day to go off his nut.

That’s the plain truth of the matter. Danger lurks. America is a war zone. And our politicians are terrified. We’re either still fighting the Civil War or we’re already into a new one.