Everybodyâs favorite crazy uncle Joe is also the U.S. Vice President.
Vice President Joe âdouble barrelâ Biden will now be riding the bench in the White Houseâs continued effort to reform the nationâs gun laws, Politico reported.
It wasnât presented as a demotion or a âHey, this guy is not only useless, but heâs detrimental to our cause,â but rather as a move that hews to a new bottom-up gun control strategy, one targeting state capitols, municipalities and local networks as opposed to a top-down tactic that goes directly after sitting members of Congress. The objective is pressure lawmakers into supporting tougher gun laws via their constituents, not via the bully pulpit.
âIf thereâs more the president could do to change a couple Republican votes, we have no reason to think he wouldnât do it,â said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, noting how both Obama and Biden are hamstrung. âBut this is now about applying Chinese water torture to senators for as long as it takes and winning in the states.â
Biden tacitly endorsed this approach at the Clinton Global Initiative in September, where he touted the efforts of the single most powerful voice in the modern gun control movement, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
âOne of the things that President Obama said at the memorial to the victims of the Navy Yard shooting is that change isnât going to come on this issue from Washington; itâs going to come to Washington,â Biden said of Bloomberg. âAnd when it does, itâll be because â they used to say in my neighborhood, because Mike has sent it.â
Taking over for Biden, who was the point person for Obamaâs gun control agenda spawned in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, is Valerie Jarrett, a senior aide to the president who oversees the White House Office of Public Engagement.
According to Politico, OPE Director Paulette Aniskoff or official Paul Monteiro hold weekly meetings with representatives from all the major gun control organizations, including MAIG, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action, the Center for American Progress, Organizing for Action and Americans for Responsible Solutions. Collectively, theyâre known as the âGun Violence Table.â
Will Biden be missed at the Gun Violence Table? It doesnât appear that he will be given the remarks of Democratic Strategist Bob Creamer, who helps to organize the Gun Violence Table meetings.
âItâs pretty fair to say that the vice presidentâs people were more heavily engaged when there was a game on the legislative front,â Creamer told Politico.
In other words, since the Senate failed to pass several major gun control bills back in April, including a ban on so-called âassault weaponsâ and an expanded background check requirement, Biden has not been as aggressive on the issue. In fact, some gun control activists admitted to Politico that they hadnât heard from him since May. But to them it makes no difference because thereâs not much he or his chief of staff Bruce Reed could do right now to change the landscape.
âThere wasnât a formal memo that went around passing any baton, but itâs what made sense,â said the gun control activist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. âWhat would we say every week in a meeting with Bruce Reed right now? We talk about what weâre doing to keep this issue in the front of the American consciousness.â
While there may be some truth to this reasoning and grassroots strategy, itâs hard to imagine that gun control advocates were ever really thrilled with Biden at the helm. Not for nothing, but the guy has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth:
Plus, it doesnât appear that his peers take him all that seriously, especially Republican lawmakers, which are the folks he needed to win over if any of those gun control measures stood a chance at clearing the Senate. In the end, Biden taking a backseat in the gun control movement is probably a good thing for gun control advocates and their cause.