GOP Senator Bill Cassidy Signals He's Down with Gun Control

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The U.S. Senator appears to want to take the Mitt Romney route. He wants to be the responsible moderate adult in the room, and he believes he doesn’t actually need conservatives to win a gubernatorial race.

That much is even more obvious now, given his sudden desire to talk about gun control efforts proposed by Democrats.

Cassidy, who joined Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said that federal red flag laws and an expansion of required background checks on firearm sales are is “certainly something to discuss,” though he stopped short of endorsing specific measures.

“We have to do what is required that we can find 60 votes on to keep this from happening again,” Cassidy said.

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Which brings me back to Cassidy. His support of opening “discussion” puts him at odds with his own state, which is currently trying to pass its own version of a constitutional carry bill. If he hopes to represent his state either in the governor’s mansion or in the U.S. Senate, he’s going to have to understand what his voters actually want. And taking part in these discussions isn’t it.

And let’s be honest: You don’t believe in starting the discussion with these policies unless you support these policies. Republicans have plenty of ideas about how to address this crisis, but red flag laws and other gun control measures aren’t on the list for a reason. Cassidy, though, appears to be done pretending to be a conservative. His strategy, it seems, is to pretend to be smarter than his electorate, who put him in the Senate for a reason.

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