There was a good deal of excitement about the bipartisan deal on gun control, in which 10 Republican senators agreed to endorse proposed legislation. That’s enough to block a filibuster, if all 10 Republican senators vote for the legislation. When even one Republican agrees to any form of gun control, it’s cause for celebration.

Since the Uvalde massacre, public support for gun control has solidified along partisan lines. According to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 59% favor curbing gun violence, while 35% do not. That includes 92% of Democrats in favor, along with 54% of independents. However, “70% of Republicans say it’s more important to protect gun rights. Notably, however, 56% of gun owners say it is more important to curb gun violence than protect gun rights.”

NPR summarized the key points of the new agreement:

The proposal, which has not been written into legislative text, includes money to encourage states to pass and implement so-called “red flag” laws to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, money for school safety and mental health resources, expanded background checks for gun purchases for people between the ages of 18 and 21 and penalties for illegal straw purchases by convicted criminals.

CNN described what’s in the deal and what’s not.

It has been endorsed by major gun control groups, like Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, because it is the first such measure with a chance of passage since 1994, when Congress agreed to ban the sale of assault weapons, a ban that expired in 2004.

I say the proposed legislation is a nothing-burger. It is toothless, or to be fair, it has only one or two teeth.

It will not stop future massacres. It does not ban the sale or manufacture of AR15s or other automatic or semi-automatic weapons that have been used in massacres. It makes no attempt to buy back the 400 million weapons now owned by Americans.

It does not raise the age from 18 to 21 for buying a military-grade assault weapon, even though federal law prevents those under 21 from buying a handgun.

It does not require a waiting period of 2-3 weeks to buy an assault weapon, although there are heightened background checks for buyers under 21.

It does not ban internet sales of AR15s and other military-grade weapons.

It pours billions into mental health programs and school security, which is a good thing, but satisfies the Republican claim that guns are not the problem, mental health and school security are.

Under the terms of this bill, the Uvalde killer could still buy his weapons.

The murderer of 20 children and six school staff at the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 would still have weapons because his mother bought them.

The 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were murdered by a man with semi-automatic weapons, would not have been deterred.

The mass murderer who killed 60 people at a Las Vegas music festival in 2017 would not have been stopped.

The 2018 massacre of 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh by a white supremacist and anti-Semite would not have been prevented.

This is weak tea. Even the NRA could possibly endorse this bill, although it is just as likely to raise symbolic opposition to satisfy its most zealous members. The lead Republican negotiator was Texas Senator Jon Cornyn, a favorite of the NRA. He is one of the top recipients of NRA funding. The NRA gave him an A+ rating for his fidelity to its evil agenda (and he bragged about it on his website).

With this two-tooth bill, Republicans can crow that they supported “responsible” (I.e. limited) gun control. Democrats can claim victory too simply because a gun control bill was forged and might pass. Democrats will support it because a slice of bread, even a few crumbs, is better than nothing at all.

But this bill will do nothing to prevent future massacres in schools, churches, synagogues, nail salons, movie theaters, nightclubs, anywhere that people gather.