Politics with Amy Walter: The Past and Present of Gun Control

Last weekend, there were two mass shootings in the span of 13 hours. In El Paso, 22 were killed in what federal authorities are considering a domestic terrorist attack. And in Dayton, nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire in the city’s Oregon district.

After horrific events like these, there's always questions like "Will lawmakers take action?" and "Will this time be different?" While there has been some small movement in the wake of the Parkland and Las Vegas mass shootings, the issue of gun control is largely at a standstill.  

This week, we're revisiting the last time major gun control legislation was signed into law. Twenty-five years ago, Congress passed two major gun control bills, but the votes didn’t line up exactly as you’d expect. The Brady Bill, which was signed in 1993, didn’t go into effect until February 1994, and that was followed by the Assault Weapons Ban later that year.  

Plus, we take a look at the complex world of absentee ballots. Last week, a new round of charges were filed against a political operative in North Carolina. He's being investigated for alleged voter fraud related to his handling of absentee ballots during the 2016 and 2018 elections. We also break down another voter fraud scandal in Brooks County, Georgia, from 2010. 

Guests:

Hank Brown (R), former Senator from Colorado

Glen Browder (D), former Congressman from Alabama

German Lopez, senior correspondent at Vox

Professor Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Steve Harrison, political reporter for WFAE

Jon Ward, national political correspondent with Yahoo News

Andra Gillespie, associate professor of political science at Emory University