The single greatest impediment to reining in gun violence in America isn’t the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump, or even the Supreme Court. It’s Mitch McConnell. Virtually every path to vastly reducing the number of Americans who die in senseless shootings runs through the Senate majority leader. Time and time again, he has proudly erected a roadblock.

Gun control has gained new attention, as it always does, by the latest spasm of mass death. Last weekend’s massacres in El Paso, Texas, where a white nationalist killed 22 people in a Walmart, and Dayton, Ohio, where another gunman killed nine people in a bar in less than 30 seconds, increased pressure on federal lawmakers to act. On Monday, McConnell responded to those calls by largely trying to defuse them.

“Today, the president called on Congress to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way to address the recent mass murders which have shaken our nation,” he said in a statement. “Senate Republicans are prepared to do our part.” He cited past efforts by lawmakers that did nothing to tighten the process by which Americans buy firearms. At the same time, he did not respond to calls by Democratic lawmakers to cut short the August recess to address mass shootings.

My statement regarding President Trump's call for bipartisan, bicameral cooperation following the mass murders in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. https://t.co/Rz6moSkwY6 pic.twitter.com/OcAnArpF5t — Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) August 5, 2019

The New Republic’s Alex Pareene recently described McConnell as the “nihilist-in-chief,” arguing that his political career evinces no higher values than the relentless accumulation of power. There may be no finer example of the senator’s cynical approach to American government than his fierce opposition to gun control, for which he reaps a political windfall. He closely aligned himself with the National Rifle Association (NRA) early in his political career, eventually taking millions of dollars in campaign donations from its network, and has long fed the right-wing paranoia that Democrats are coming for your guns.

After a gunman killed 20 elementary students and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, President Barack Obama pressured Congress to take action. Even some Republicans, notably Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, spoke up in favor of modest reforms. McConnell did not. As minority leader at the time, he could not directly block legislation from reaching the floor. But he could misconstrue it to his heart’s content. Barely one month after the Sandy Hook massacre, McConnell sent a vivid warning to his supporters. “Our Founders fought a revolution to secure our rights,” the email read. “They would have been appalled by what they heard from an American president the other day. President Obama has the left wing media in a frenzy. And, like his old Chief of Staff, he is determined to not waste a crisis. The gun-grabbers are in full battle mode. And they are serious.”