Not that it much matters to Donald Trump and his Senate sycophant Mitch McConnell, but the heads of some 150 companies signed a national letter urging the Senate to act meaningfully to curb gun violence. From Airbnb, Conde Nast and Levi Strauss to Royal Caribbean Cruises, Twitter and Yelp. Also, interestingly enough, among the signees: Bain Capital and Thrive Capital. The former was co-founded by Mitt Romney, the latter was founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of the president’s son-in-law. In short, there’s serious societal pushback on a government that only does the politically acceptable minimum to combat mass murder. It complements what the consensus of polls now tells us: The majority of Americans support banning assault weapons.
But there were prominent no-shows on the national letter, including Apple, Bank of America, Citigroup, Facebook, Google, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Google’s rationale was deplorably summed up in a policy statement that said, in part: “Our primary responsibility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics.” America is in crisis, and that’s Google’s overriding priority?
That has to change (in a country with 10 million AR-15s), because when the business community goes all in on something, something gets done. It has that much leverage, including political contributions. But when there are still impactful corporate giants on the sidelines, that leverage is undercut. When DICK’S Sporting Goods has more of a social conscience than Facebook, America is in crisis.
It’s all enough to prompt nostalgia for the 1994 assault weapons ban—part of an overall crime bill–that expired after a decade. But it’s sure in hell not enough to prompt action in this NRA- and-Trump-neutered Congress. It’s nothing like ’94 when a key ban proponent was Republican Rep. John Kasich of Ohio. Today, neither House Speaker Nancy Pelosi nor Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have said anything encouraging about prospects for reviving the ban. Not even California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored that ’94 ban, holds out much hope. “We don’t have the votes to pass it,” she bluntly assessed.