The Senate is in recess currently, but will return at 2:15 to resume debate, which should happen until 3:30 or so. We’ll be doing live updates here when that begins.
2:15PM: The Senate is now returning.
2:16PM: Harry Reid is speaking to the media. So far it’s about the Second Boston Massacre. He says they will continue forward and have votes as soon as they can. He says perhaps today or later.
2:20PM: Reid is now taking questions from the media. I’ll update this timestamp if they ask anything about gun control. A reporter asks of momentum has been lost on background checks. Harry Reid notes he has hay fever, but says there’s significant momentum. Notes that their party caucus was as moving as any he can remember. Joe Manchin gave a moving, tearful presentation. Blah, blah, blah. He notes that they have the wind at their back, and the American people agree with them. Reid notes that Cho couldn’t have passed a background check, but he did, Harry. Someone asks about concealed carry. Harry Reid said it’s like baseball, it depends on the bill, but that he’d look at it. We’re back to questions about Boston and terrorism.
2:27PM: Back to the Senate floor, where the crickets are chirping.
2:33PM: I should mention that the more you’re hearing crickets, the better off we are. When they come out on to the floor to vote, that usually means some kind of deal has been reached, and the what follows will be pretty much kabuki theater. If you’re following along on C-SPAN, hearing Chopin is good. Chopin is our friend.
2:37PM: I should note that whatever deal might be reached doesn’t imply it will go badly for us. It could be a deal that involves acceptance Toomey-Manchin will go down to defeat, and either be replaced by something else, or we just scrap all this nonsense and move on. A deal is not necessary defeat. Wait until votes are posted. In the mean time, hope for Chopin. I like Chopin anyway. Good background music while I work.
2:42PM: C-SPAN is replaying the speeches from the Senate floor earlier. I hate it when they do this because it makes it harder for me to hear if we’ve transitioned to a live speaker. Music to speech is a much easier transition than speech to speech.
2:55PM: “The week is finally here,” notes Chris Murphy (D-CT), where the Senate gets to vote on gun control. How exciting. Speaking too soon hopefully. Now he’s recounting what he was doing when he first heard of Sandy Hook. He’s also reminding us that this is For the Children(TM). He’s continuing with his stories of the murdered children. Apparently these are the last few. Now he’s reminding everyone that the NRA hates Newtown victims and children because they won’t go along with punishing millions of American gun owners for the acts of a lunatic.
3:14PM: Chris Murphy (D-CT) is still up talking about murder victims, like any of us have anything to do with any of this.
3:22PM: Now he’s talking about being a responsible gun owner. This is a subject he knows nothing about. He’s talking about Glock 9s and high capacity ammunition. He has no business legislating or bloviating on this subject. He’s speaking now of gun accidents, and not noting that gun accidents are at an all time low, largely because of spreading a culture of safety through education, something Chris Murphy has never spent a minute of his time doing.
3:29PM: Murphy motions to extend the debate time until 5:30.
3:31PM: Back to Chopin.
4:16PM: Now Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is up speaking. Starting off with a statement about Boston. He’s now running down a list of crazies with guns none of us had anything to do with. He’s now saying Cho bought guns online and at a gun store without a background check. This is a lie. He’s sponsoring a magazine ban on behalf of Lautenberg. He’s thanking the victims for being courageous. Why is it courageous to lobby your lawmakers?
4:24PM: Blumenthal yields the floor. He suggested that the vote may be “as early as tomorrow,” meaning it’s likely not happening today.
4:26PM: Chopin!
4:31PM: Mitch McConnel is up asking for a resolution honoring Margaret Thatcher.
4:33PM: Back to Chopin.
4:57PM: Still short on votes.
4:59PM: Barbara Boxer is up. She’s noting her state has been hit too often by gun violence, including mass shootings. I guess California must have weak gun laws! She’s speaking about Patrick Purdy and the Stockton Massacre. Now she’s talking about an assault weapon attack in San Francisco in 1993. I’d note that was years after California banned them. She has a chart up showing a map of gun violence. She is noting that 300 million Americans own guns, and speak of Americans owning many, many guns as if there’s something wrong with that. 87 people die every day from gun violence, she says. That number just keeps magically going up, and up. Ah, yes, she got to that number by counting suicides, if you do the math. Killed or wounded in 2012 in a mass shooting: 175. I think more people were killed by their bathtubs last year. How does anyone vote for these people? This is just such crap. Another lifesize printout of a powerpoint slide: number of people killed or wounded in K-12 shooting since 1999: 262. I’ll bet more were killed in accidents on the way home from school. For the Children(TM)! Now she’s talking about her school security bill. She notes it doesn’t include armed security. So how is it worth anything?
5:26PM: Debate extended until 6PM.
5:28PM: Ted Cruz is up talking about Margaret Thatcher.
5:42PM: Ben Cardin (D-MD) is up saying we need to ban magazines and scary guns. He says that this will have zero impact on legitimate hunters or legitimate shooters. He can kiss my ass. Now he’s upping the number of private sales to 50% of all gun purchases. Hey, if you’re going to lie, why not make it worth your while?
5:50PM: Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is up talking about climate change. It’s a right wing conspiracy, or something. One of his slides made it look like he was planning to take people, and turn them into pizza.
6:04PM: Sheldon Whitehouse makes his contribution to stopping CO2 pollution by stepping off the platform, and the Senate goes into recess. There will be no vote today. There could still be a vote, but the caucusing will continue.