Could Donald Trump break the deadlock in Congress over gun control? In the wake of Orlando, he sent out a tweet suggesting he’s going to try. “I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns,” The Donald said in his wire. Naturally, this was welcomed by the Democrats, right? That’s what any normal person would do, welcome the presumptive GOP nominee to help seek a solution.

Not a chance. Senator Feinstein, the Democratic Party warhorse, who is pressing a bill to strip those on the terror watch list and no fly lists of their Second Amendment rights, told reporters, according to the Times, that she doubted a deal would be reached. “Oh,” she added, “Trump just makes everything worse.” The actual Democratic nominee was off the field in the debate, and it looks like Congress may fail — yet again — to enact legislation of a useful kind on this head, though we’ll see.

It happens that the Sun is not a big fan of the idea of stripping those on the no fly list and the terror watch list (the latter has more than two million names) of their Second Amendment rights. At least not without a more of a due process procedure than seems to exist for these lists. By our lights, the country is also in need of a Bill of Rights watch list, meaning a list of politicians who, having been sworn to support the Constitution (as all office holders, legislators, and judges must be in America), proceed to betray the oath.

Neither, incidentally, are we all that certain that Mr. Trump is going to find the NRA as forthcoming as he and Mrs. Feinstein seem to think it ought to be. “The N.R.A. believes that terrorists should not be allowed to purchase or possess firearms, period,” said NRA’s Chris Cox, in a statement quoted by the Times. “At the same time, due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed.”

By our lights, Mr. Cox has it exactly right. It used to be the liberals who looked out for these kinds of questions, even when the rights involved covered, in some cases, horrible criminals. In their zeal for gun control, however, the Democrats and their apologies have abandoned all pretense of concern for civil liberties or due process — or even for anything but the political gamesmanship. The Times promptly issued an editorial suggesting in respect of terrorism the NRA is guilty of “complicity.”

What an absurd thing for a newspaper to say on the eve of a meeting between the presumptive nominee and the head of the most important civil rights organization working on the question of guns. It’s almost as if the Times doesn’t really want a compromise on the no fly list. It’s almost as it resents Mr. Trump’s efforts to help broker a solution in Congress. It may be that the Gray Lady and Mrs. Feinstein would just like to use this issue to try to scare the voters in the coming election. It’s hard to see what other than bitterness they’ve brought to the table.