Sen. Lee says effort to stop debate on gun control bill not a failure
Matthew Wilson, political scientist at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, talks about the effectiveness of tactic by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to stop debate on gun control bill before it began.
By Lisa Riley Roche
SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mike Lee labeled the Senate's decision to reject the effort by him and other conservatives to stop debate on gun control legislation even before it started a "procedural success."
"I don't view this as a failure," Lee, R-Utah, said after the Senate voted 68-31 to proceed with debate on the bill drafted in response to December's deadly school shooting in Connecticut. "We were still able to extend things two or three days longer."
Lee, along with fellow Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, backed the maneuver that forced supporters of the bill to come up with at least 60 votes to begin debating expanded background checks and other measures next week.
It was Lee who spoke on the Senate floor Thursday in favor of not taking up the bill....
...Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said Lee and other opponents likely won't be able to stop the gun bill from passing in some form....
What the opponents will be able to do, Wilson said, is "win points with the NRA, which is an important interest group."...