McConnell ‘doesn’t give a damn’ about gun violence, advocates say at surprise meeting with legal counsel

WASHINGTON — Sometimes it pays just to show up.

It did on Wednesday for gun control advocates frustrated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is refusing to call any gun bills until President Donald Trump tells him what he wants done.

A remarkable scene unfolded when about two dozen victims of gun violence, including the suburban Chicago mother who lost two kids to shootings, survivors of the Parkland and Las Vegas massacres, folks from Kentucky plus several House Democrats — Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois was one of them — showed up unannounced at McConnell’s office in the Russell Building.

They asked for a meeting.

If they couldn’t get McConnell, they got the next best thing, his legal counsel, Tiffany Ge.

She spent an extraordinary 80 minutes hearing the painful stories of survivors and victims and their pleas for McConnell to do something productive — call a bill, have a hearing, throw out some ideas on what Trump might do. I was also in the room, watching this remarkable discussion unfold.

Let me back up and explain how these gun control advocates ended up together.

They were in Washington for an “end the violence” gun rally outside the Capitol. Father Michael Pfleger, the senior pastor at the Faith Community of St. Sabina, organized a 600-person contingent from Chicago, with 12 buses traveling overnight. The rapper/actor Common and Democrats Sen. Dick Durbin, Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Bobby Rush and Danny Davis and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx were on the stage or speaking.

Gun control advocates are increasingly focusing on McConnell, who is up for reelection in 2020. Pfleger told me his next move may well be to send buses to Kentucky rather than Washington.

Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times

Kelly and Christian Heyne, vice president for policy at Brady United Against Gun Violence spontaneously organized the group at the rally. “Survivors came in to talk to Mitch,” Heyne said. “We did not have any plans in place until we were at the rally and said, ‘Let’s get this going.’ We had a group of survivors who were fed up and ready to act.”

In McConnell’s office, Eddie Campbell, the president of the Kentucky Education Association told Ge students “need to feel safe” in schools and “should not have to go through emergency lockdown drills.”

Hollan Holm was wounded in the head in the December 1997 shooting at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky. Almost 22 years later, little has been done and Holm emphasized, “These shootings keep happening again.”

Rep. Lacy Clay of Missouri asked Ge if she had any “indication of a timetable of movement.”

And — give Ge credit for candor — she replied, “We are waiting to get a proposal from the White House as to what the president is going to do on this issue.”

The advocates want McConnell to take his foot off the brake and allow votes, even if Trump ends up vetoing the legislation.

In 2012, Jordan Davis, the son of Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, was killed in Jacksonville, Fla., by a white man who said the black youth was playing music too loud.

“We are asking Mitch McConnell to do what’s right,” said McBath, a freshman.

Kelly, whose signature issue is curbing gun violence, told Ge, “It does come off, I am going to be blunt, like he doesn’t give a damn.”

Ge said, “I assure you, it’s an important issue for him.”

But no one was buying her explanation that McConnell didn’t see the point of putting legislation to a vote Trump wouldn’t sign. His wait-on-Trump approach was unacceptable.

Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon from Georgia, said, “We cannot continue to wait,” adding, “It’s not a threat.”

Just letting her know.

The victims wanted Ge to hear how gun violence upended their lives.

Las Vegas mass shooting survivor Heather Sallan of Reno told of the horror of “11 minutes of machine gun fire” as bullets whizzed by her in the massacre when a lone gunman killed 59 and wounded 422.

Delphine Cherry of south suburban Hazel Crest lost two children to gun violence. Her son Tyesa was shot in 1992 by a stray bullet and — who can bear this pain — her daughter Tyler was shot in front of her home in 2012.

Cherry asked why McConnell would wait for Trump.

“Just curious. I lost two kids and nothing has changed. Why do I have to wait on a president to pass a bill?... Sounds like it’s an excuse to me.”

Parkland shooting survivor Aalayah Eastmond, summed it up, telling Ge, “It’s time for you to tell your boss to do something, since it’s all in your hands.”