[Updated April 10, 2021] Another day, another mass shooting in America. Wednesday, it was near Rock Hill, S.C. Thursday, it was Bryan, Texas. This uniquely American endless “lather, rinse, repeat” cycle of mass shootings, recriminations, and no action is dispiriting and must stop. GOP collective handwringing with no constructive action on this issue once again demonstrates the pervasive influence of Susan Collins on the Party.

It’s peculiar that those who proudly proclaim “American Exceptionalism” are also the ones who essentially claim there is nothing that can be done to stop the epidemic of mass shootings in our country – although virtually every other industrialized country in the world has been able to do so. Exceptional, indeed, but in this instance, clearly not in a good way.

The GOP, an NRA affiliate under the umbrella of the Putin/Russia conglomerate, refuses to make any good faith effort to stop these horrific killing sprees. Sadly, they seem to identify more with the mass murderers (unless they are black, Muslim, or Hispanic) than the victims — a cruel irony, given that they usually proclaim victims’ rights and accuse Democrats of coddling criminals.  Perhaps the GOP sees most mass murderers as cut from the same cloth as their base – lonely, disaffected loser, white guys – and they don’t want to risk alienating their supporters.

Real action on gun reform requires Congressional action, but President Biden is doing what he can through Executive actions announced this week, taking what he described as “initial steps to reduce gun violence,” such as:

“- Stopping the proliferation of ghost guns

– Regulating pistols modified with a stabilizing brace

 – Helping states adopt red flag laws

– Supporting community violence interventions”

However, the President recognized that other actions are necessary, stating “We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country,” and “The Senate should immediately pass the three House-passed bills to close loopholes in the gun background check system,” calling such action “one of the best tools we have right now to prevent gun violence and save lives.”

Of course, garnering Republican support for reasonable gun reform measures is always a longshot. In fact, with each new outbreak of gun violence, Republicans seem to get more and more combative. The Texas shooting occurred nearly at the same time as its lunatic Governor, Greg Abbott, tweeted the Republican mantra that President Biden is “threatening our 2^nd Amendment rights” and liberals want to “take away our guns,” which “we will NOT allow in TX,” along with a plea for state legislation to make TX “a 2^nd Amendment Sanctuary State.” Boebert being Boebert, she also tweeted something incendiary and stupid on guns.

Republicans say they want to keep guns out of the hands of mentally disturbed individuals, yet they explicitly voted against such a measure. They act like extended background checks (although Don Winslow’s suggested “Violent History Checks” is a much more compelling label) would infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens – yet such checks are specifically designed to ensure that violent, non-law-abiding citizens do not obtain firearms.

And, as others have pointed out, the arguments against re-imposing an assault weapons ban are nonsensical. No civilian needs an AR-15 for any legitimate reason, as Lindsey Graham unwittingly proved with his “reason” for supposedly owning one.

GOP posturing and inaction on this critical issue has gotten to the point where it would not be a surprise for Republicans to suggest that the way to reduce the number of mass shootings in America is to raise the threshold for defining a massacre as a mass shooting. The current threshold appears to be 3-5 victims, depending on who defines the term. Be on the lookout for Moscow Mitch McConnell or Treasonous Ted Cruz to propose raising it to 10, 15, or 20 victims and then declare “Problem Solved,” when the number of mass shootings declines.