Most politicians who fail us on guns never promised anything in the first place. Brian Mast is a harder case, because he did promise — loudly, in the country's biggest newspaper, with more standing to speak than almost anyone else in Congress.

Mast carried an M4 in the Army for years. He lost both legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. And a coach he knew personally was among the 17 people murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018.

Nine days later, he published an op-ed in The New York Times under a headline that made news around the country: "I'm Republican. I Appreciate Assault Weapons. And I Support a Ban."

What He Actually Promised

This wasn't a vague call for "doing something." Mast was specific, and we don't have to take anyone's word for what he wrote — his own congressional office quoted the op-ed in a press release:

"I cannot support the primary weapon I used to defend our people being used to kill children I swore to defend…. Therefore, I support the following: defining what constitutes an assault or tactical firearm and not allowing them for future purchase — just as we already prohibit the purchase of fully automatic firearms. The exact definition of assault weapon will need to be determined. But we should all be able to agree that the civilian version of the very deadly weapon that the Army issued to me should certainly qualify. I would not support any version of a ban that results in confiscating existing legally owned firearms."

Two days after that, on CBS's Face the Nation, he went further and asked the president to act immediately:

"For me personally, it pains me to know that I went out there willing to defend my country — willing to give everything — with almost the exact same weapon that is used to go out there, and unfortunately, kill children here in Parkland… Let's put a pause right now."

He wanted a temporary ban on AR-15 purchases modeled on Trump's travel ban, while Congress worked out a permanent definition.

Then he backed it with legislation. On February 27, 2018, Mast announced he had cosponsored five bipartisan bills, including:

• H.R. 4240, expanding background checks to all commercial firearm sales, including gun shows
• H.R. 3999, banning bump stocks
• A bill repealing the Dickey Amendment so the CDC could research gun violence
• The STOP School Violence Act and the Mental Health in Schools Act

"We must unite to save lives," he said in that release. "As Members of Congress, we weren't sent to Washington to do what's easy — we were sent here to take action, even when the conversation is difficult and the odds look long."

Then He Voted No on All of It

February 27, 2019. The House voted on H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act — the same universal background check policy Mast had cosponsored. He voted yes. He was one of only eight Republicans who did. It passed 240 to 190. So far, so good.

March 11, 2021. The identical bill came back. Eight Republicans voted yes again. Mast was not one of them — he voted no. The bill itself hadn't changed. He had.

June 8, 2022. Two weeks after Uvalde, the House passed the Protecting Our Kids Act. Mast voted no.

June 24, 2022. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the first significant federal gun law in decades, negotiated by senators from both parties, signed by the president. Mast voted no.

July 29, 2022. The House voted on H.R. 1808, the Assault Weapons Ban — the exact policy of Mast's own op-ed, prohibiting future sales without confiscating anything anyone already owned, which was precisely the line he had drawn four years earlier.

He voted no.

The bill passed the House anyway, 217 to 213. Only two Republicans voted for it. The man who wrote "I'm Republican. I Appreciate Assault Weapons. And I Support a Ban" was not one of them.

And Then He Erased It

Here is the part that tells you it wasn't a change of heart he's proud of.

Go to Brian Mast's campaign website today and read his Second Amendment page. There is no op-ed. No Parkland. No assault weapons ban. No background checks. Nothing about the coach he knew. What's there instead:

"That's why during my time in Congress I've helped pass legislation to protect the 2nd Amendment rights of concealed carry permit holders, and I have opposed efforts by Nancy Pelosi and her allies to erode the 2nd Amendment by giving unelected bureaucrats more control over firearm laws in the United States."

The page reads as though February 2018 never happened.

Why This One Is Worse

Politicians change positions. Sometimes that's growth, and sometimes it's new evidence. Neither applies here.

Nothing new was learned between 2018 and 2022 about what an AR-15 does to a child's body. Mast already knew — better than his colleagues, better than most people alive. That was the entire premise of his op-ed: I have carried this weapon, I know exactly what it does, and that is why I'm telling you.

What changed was the political weather. The Parkland moment passed, the primary electorate did not move, and the position that had made him briefly famous became a liability. So he voted it away, one roll call at a time, and then took it off his website.

Mast is now the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, one of the most powerful members of Congress. He is asking Florida's 21st District for a sixth term. His constituents in Stuart, Jupiter and Port St. Lucie were told, by a man who had bled for the country, that he would not let the weapon he carried keep killing their kids.

He said it. He wrote it down. Then he voted the other way five times and hoped nobody would check.

We deserve better.

Source

• Mast to POTUS: Implement Temporary Ban on AR-15 Purchases Immediately — Office of Rep. Brian Mast, February 25, 2018.