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.
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.
I've recently introduced a new feature, What I Will Not Write About Today of news items that are so frustrating and/or disheartening and/or annoying that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that I can't believe I did write about today:
Via Taegan, here are a couple of today's eye-popping stories. Follow the links for more:
– North Carolina State Senator Tommy Tucker (R), quoted by the Raleigh News and Observer, to Goldsboro News-Argus publisher Hal Tanner who was opposing legislation to change public notice requirements for local government.
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.
Just an FYI in case you missed the breaking news, via a New York Times email alert:
A bipartisan collection of Senators on Wednesday announced a compromise measure to expand background checks for gun buyers, increasing the chances that a viable package of new gun safety laws will soon hit the Senate floor.
Senators Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania have joined forces on the deal.
Under the terms of the agreement, background checks for gun buyers would expand to gun shows and online sales — a huge portion of gun sales that are made without the background checks used by gun stores — and will maintain record-keeping provisions that law enforcement officials find essential in tracking criminal gun use, but which gun rights groups find anathema.
Below are statements from the Mayors Against Illegal Guns co-chairs, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
The coalition today also released this fact sheet on the Manchin-Toomey amendment.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg:
“Over the last few months, Americans across the country and in both parties have demanded that those in Washington take commonsense steps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the seriously mentally ill. Today, Senators Manchin and Toomey have forged a bipartisan compromise agreement to extend background checks to cover commercial gun sales, including online and at gun shows. In addition, the bill preserves the same record-keeping practices of the past 40 years that have helped law enforcement solve crimes. I want to thank Senators Manchin and Toomey for their determination to find common ground on a bill that Democrats and Republicans can fully support. This bill will not only help keep guns out of the wrong hands – it will help save lives and keep our communities safe. Our bipartisan coalition of more than 900 mayors strongly supports this bill and looks forward to working with other leaders, including Senators Schumer and Kirk who have worked tirelessly on this issue, to do all we can to ensure its passage.”
Mayors Against Illegal Guns Co-Chair and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino:
“Today’s announcement of a bipartisan Senate agreement to require background checks for virtually all commercial gun sales shows that, even in an age of Washington gridlock, both parties can work together to reform our gun laws in a way that makes sense and keeps Americans safe. I applaud Senators Toomey and Manchin for putting forth a commonsense bill that will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. We’ve seen far too many American lives lost over the years – now is the time for the rest of Congress to stand with the American people and pass sensible gun reform for the sake of our neighborhoods, our families, and our children.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a whole lot of money. So does the NRA (thank you, gun manufacturers). But now Bloomberg’s nonprofit group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is introducing a scoring system similar to a system used by the National Rifle Association, one that ranks lawmakers with grades of A through F.
The NRA has been using their report cards to grade Congress members… or as I like to call it, keep them under its thumb. They use the letter grades against (or for) politicians to influence them, and as a result, affect election outcomes.
NRA score card, meet Michael Bloomberg’s score card. The Washington Post:
“For decades, the NRA has done an admirable job of tracking to minute detail how members of Congress stand on gun bills. We’ve simply decided to do the same,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which is chaired by Bloomberg and is made up of more than 900 mayors from across the country.
This is Bloomberg’s latest move to establish his organization as a counterweight to the influential NRA and to create legislative momentum on Capitol Hill around President Obama’s proposals to toughen the nation’s gun laws. [...]
Between the Mayors Against Legals Guns’ ad campaigns and their report cards, it’s a whole new ball game. So get ready voters and political donors, the NRA is no longer the only group in town that rewards/punishes lawmakers for the gun laws they support/reject.
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