The anger in Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s voice was clear as could be, even on a telephone 800 miles away.

“Until the Democrats have total control of the Senate, I don’t think we’ll win a vote,” she said, referring to efforts to toughen national gun control laws after the latest American tragedy, the massacre of 21 children and teachers in a Texas school. Republicans “have (yet) to show they care more about dead kids than the NRA.”

That’s not the language of compromise. It can raise hackles, even if it comes from someone like Duckworth, who has young children herself and clearly is seeing the news of the day through their eyes.

But is it wrong? As Republicans from coast to coast insist that not some reasonable limits on firearms but only tougher security and mental health checks are the ticket to keeping kids safe from gun violence, and as leading Illinois GOP gubernatorial hopeful Richard Irvin dances all around the subject, I’m starting to come around to the hard-line view.

If now isn’t the time to do something real about a crisis we as a culture should have dealt with decades ago, when is the time? If the GOP can’t move itself to do something about weapons that kill people, maybe it’s time to throw caution to the wind and go for everything.

Let’s for the moment set aside the hard 2nd Amendment crowd. You know them. The ones who insist that because the founders wrote something about keeping your musket for the town militia in 1788 that they have an absolute right to own as many guns of whatever caliber and as large of a magazine as they want. Period. My right is supreme, they claim. It overrules all other rights, like the right to live in a sane and safe society.

And the rest of us? Polls show there’s widespread agreement on much of this subject. Most of us believe in mandatory background checks for prospective gun purchasers. Most agree that deranged and convicted people should not be allowed to have a gun. My suspicion is that most of us also believe that straw purchasing to get around such limits should be illegal, and that large, quickly changed ammunition clips with 20 or more rounds need to go.  

I'd be willing to bet one other thing. That’s that most Americans would be appalled that someone who turned 18 just a day earlier can walk into a gun store and, without training or parental involvement or anything except payment, stroll out with two AR-15 assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammo. Yet, that’s exactly what happened in Uvalde, Texas, where the law holds that you’re not mature enough to get a bottle of beer until you’re 21, but acquiring a kindergarten sweeper is A-OK.

There’s talk of some possible compromise. Like extending background checks. Or red flag laws that allow a hold on sales to people whose conduct indicates they can’t be trusted. I’m not optimistic. The New York Times reported that only five of the Senate’s 50 Republicans now say they’re willing to consider such steps. And after this week’s hearing, it’s likely that Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will have to hold together all 50 of his Democrats to win confirmation of a new head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the lead federal agency in dealing with gun crimes, which has been without a permanent head for seven long and bloody years.

Back in Illinois, would-be-governor Irvin declared on TV this week that the system the state uses to vet gun buyers, requiring them to possess a Firearm Owners ID card, “is broken.” Irvin mumbled something about “fixing” it, but the clear impression he left is that FOIDs can go away—at least until after the Republican primary. Somehow, he neglected to mention that just nine months ago, he hosted Gov. J.B. Pritzker at Aurora police headquarters, where the guv, with a beaming Irvin at his side, signed a new law expanding use of FOIDs and adding a fingerprint requirement. 

As Hadiya Pendleton’s mom put it in a City Club appearance six years ago, the only change since her daughter was shot down in 2013 was that shootings have “gotten worse.” Will anything change now?

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