Here’s the part at the bottom that you can’t read (click to enlarge):
Mayors Against Illegal Guns emailed the above graphic to share with everyone. They’re as disgusted as I am:
To wrap up a week when the U.S. Senate blocked background checks, Mayors Against Illegal Guns is today releasing a new infographic (available here) that includes key facts like how the deciding votes were cast by senators from four states that represent just 1.4% of the U.S. population, how much money the senators who voted against background checks have received from the gun lobby and most importantly: how more than 19,000 Americans will be murdered by guns between now and November 2014, the next time any of these senators are up for re-election.
Are you kidding me? The Republicans in the Senate are so concerned that the mentally ill and criminals may not have access to guns that they prevented expanded background checks from coming up for a vote?
The same day that three people were killed in Boston, perhaps 30 or more were slain with guns. Thousands of Americans’ lives can be saved by preventing guns from being purchased by people with mental illnesses and criminal records and by strengthening rules against straw purchases.
That the current Senate can’t pass even the most common-sense regulations is unforgivable. Those who voted against this should be ashamed of themselves.
David Bendall
Aliso Viejo
***
I’m always mystified when commentators refer to the “courage” needed to pass gun control laws in the Senate.
What is the worst thing that can happen to a member of Congress who votes in favor of background checks, causing the National Rife Assn. to pump money into a campaign to defeat him? He would lose his seat and then get a better-paying job in the private sector.
If someone told me that if I took an unpopular position, I could get fired but afterward would get a higher-paying job, I would have plenty of courage.
As majority leader, Reid set the rules of the Senate prior to this term, as he did prior to the last term. He deliberately allowed the super majority requirement prior to any meaningful vote to stand and, as a result, preserved the threat of a filibuster. Harry Reid bears the responsibility for the lack of a vote and passage of this legislation. The 46 senators who voted with Reid against allowing a vote are almost all Republicans. They were joined by the normal cast of atavistic Democrats including Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana who also chairs the Senate Finance Committee. [...]
As Collins adds, “Two other parts of the gun control passage fell after the background check fiasco. Bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines are finished.”
Although the reporting on the amendment was confusing due to the threat of a filibuster issue, the gun state Idaho Statesman got it right:
…It’s minority rule, and the Dems keep backing down on changing the filibuster rules. [...]
That’s a bit scary when you read a lengthy article in the April 17 New York Times (NYT) that describes how individuals can buy guns on the Internet without background checks, because they are considered “personal” and not “commercial” transactions.
The NYT points out that …for now, it continues to be an unregulated market for what are likely many illegal sales. The NYT begins the investigative piece by focusing on a felon who tried to buy and sell guns on a firearms exchange website Armlist.com [...]
Given that the somewhat universal background check for gun buyers proposed law did not pass, due to a filibuster threat, Armslist.com is open for business today.
When around 10,000 people are murdered a year with guns, you would think that appropriate policy would apply to decrease that death toll. [...]
To paraphrase Bill Maher: New rules, the minority wins in the Senate.
The result is as Michael Collins sardonically writes:
So what do we have at the end of Wednesday, April 17, 2013. If you are a violent criminal with a record or seriously mentally ill, you have the right to buy invasion-of-Iraq grade assault weapons with high capacity magazines for ammunition. As a bonus, you can buy these weapons of messy destruction at a gun show near you without the inconvenience of a background check. This must be what Greg Palast meant by the title of his book, Armed Madhouse.
A few minutes ago a minority in the United States Senate decided it wasn't worth it. They blocked common-sense gun reforms, even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery. By now it's well- known that 90 percent of the American people support universal background checks that make it harder for a dangerous person to buy a gun. We're talking about convicted felons, people convicted of domestic violence, people with a severe mental illness.
And a few minutes ago, 90 percent of Democrats in the Senate voted for that idea. But it's not going to happen, because 90 percent of Republicans in the Senate just voted against that idea.
[A] minority was able to block it from moving forward. … The American people are trying to figure out, how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen?
We had a Democrat and a Republican — both gun owners, both fierce defenders of our second amendment with A grades from the NRA come together and work together to write a common-sense compromise on background checks.
And Gabby Giffords, by the way, is both. She's a gun owner and a victim of gun violence. She is a Westerner and a moderate, and she supports these background checks.
In fact, even the NRA used to support expanded background checks. The current leader of the NRA used to support these background checks.
But instead of supporting this compromise, the gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill. They claimed that it would create some sort of "Big Brother" gun registry, even though the bill did the opposite. This legislation in fact outlawed any registry… And unfortunately, this pattern of spreading untruths about this legislation served a purpose, because those lies upset an intense minority of gun owners, and that in turn intimidated a lot of senators.
[M]ost of these senators could not offer any good reason why we wouldn't want to make it harder for criminals and those with severe mental illnesses to buy a gun.
They worried that that vocal minority of gun-owners would come after them in future elections. They worried that the gun lobby would spend a lot of money and paint them as anti-Second Amendment. And obviously a lot of Republicans had that fear, but Democrats had that fear, too. And so they caved to the pressure, and they started looking for an excuse, any excuse, to vote no.
I've heard some say that blocking this step would be a victory. And my question is, a victory for who? A victory for what?
I've heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced. A prop, somebody called them. Emotional blackmail, some outlets said. Are they serious? Do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don't have a right to weigh in on this issue? Do we think their — their emotions, their loss is not relevant to this debate?
So all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.
[W]hoever you are, you need to let your representatives in Congress know that you are disappointed and that if they don't act this time, you will remember come election time.
[T]hose who care deeply about preventing more and more gun violence will have to be as passionate and as organized and as vocal as those who blocked these common-sense steps to help keep our kids safe. Ultimately, you outnumber those who argued the other way. But they're better organized, they're better financed, they've been at it longer and they make sure to stay focused on this one issue during election time. And that's the reason why you can have something that 90 percent of Americans support and you can't get it through the Senate or the House of Representatives.
So to change Washington, you, the American people, are going to have to sustain some passion about this.
And when necessary, you've got to send the right people to Washington.
We're going to have to change.
I'm assuming our expressions of grief and our commitment to do something different to prevent these things from happening are not empty words. I believe we're going to be able to get this one. Sooner or later we are going to get this right. The memories of these children demand it, and so the American people.
This just popped into my inbox. Hey Harry Reid, you wanna rethink that filibuster “gentleman’s agreement” with Mitch McConnell now?
The Senate has rejected a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks on firearms and close the so-called gun show loophole, handing President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders a major defeat on one of the key pieces of the president's second-term agenda.
The vote was 54-46, with only four Republicans crossing the aisle and voting with the Democrats in favor of the bipartisan proposal by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Sixty votes were needed.
"As we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools."
Here is the statement from Mayors Against Illegal guns, via email. Bolding is mine:
Today’s vote is a damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington. More than 40 U.S. senators would rather turn their backs on the 90 percent of Americans who support comprehensive background checks than buck the increasingly extremist wing of the gun lobby. Democrats – who are so quick to blame Republicans for our broken gun laws – could not stand united. And Republicans – who are so quick to blame Democrats for not being tough enough on crime – handed criminals a huge victory, by preserving their ability to buy guns illegally at gun shows and online and keeping the illegal trafficking market well-fed. Senators Manchin and Toomey – as well as Majority Leader Reid and Senators Schumer, Kirk, Collins, McCain and others – deserve real credit for coming together around a compromise bill that struck a fair balance, and President Obama and Vice-President Biden deserve credit for their leadership since the Sandy Hook massacre. But even with some bi-partisan support, a common-sense public safety reform died in the U.S. Senate at the hands of those who are more interested in attempting to protect their own political careers – or some false sense of ideological purity – than protecting the lives of innocent Americans. The only silver lining is that we now know who refuses to stand with the 90 percent of Americans – and in 2014, our ever-expanding coalition of supporters will work to make sure that voters don’t forget.
“Every night I beg for him to come to me in my dreams so that I can see him again. And during the day, I just focus on what I need to do to honor him and make change.” Now if Nicole can summon the courage to do that, how can the rest of us do any less?
Now wouldn’t you think Nicole Hockley and others who were directly affected by the Sandy Hook massacre (or any other mass shooting, for that matter) might be relevant to the gun debate we’re having in this country? After all, they are voluntarily and passionately lobbying Congress members to expand background checks, get tougher on gun trafficking and increase school safety.
Now Inhofe is revealing exactly how delusional and cold-hearted he really is. Via HuffPo:
“See, I think it’s so unfair of the administration to hurt these families, to make them think this has something to do with them when, in fact, it doesn’t,” Inhofe said.
When it was suggested that the families of Newtown victims actually believe the gun debate pertains to them, Inhofe said, “Well, that’s because they’ve been told that by the president.“
Yes, President Obama made them do it. They are clearly incapable of thinking for themselves, of feeling so much pain that they are driven to act on behalf of their slain loved ones, of drawing obvious conclusions, and taking action on behalf of their murdered family members in order to help prevent this from happening again.
Lt. Col Barry Wingard is the lawyer for Gitmo detainee Fayiz Al-Kandari. For their ongoing story + related topics, please click on the link below: Kuwaiti Citizen Detained at Guantanamo since 2002
You can read the complete story here or on Wikipedia.
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