President Obama called it a shameful day in Washington when the Senate voted against a modest gun bill that would increase the level of background checks needed to purchase firearms.
Even though 90% of the American people supported it, the Senate DENIED the bill that could prevent future acts of horror and massacres. They DENIED 90% of the nation they work for!!!
And needless to say, survivor Gabby Giffords is none too pleased about it either!
In a brutally honest piece she wrote into the New York Times, she calls the “cowards” out:
“Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.
On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.
Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.”
She continues to drive the point home by rebutting the arguments she knows will aid in their cowardice:
“I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we├óΓé¼Γäóre going to hear: vague platitudes like ‘tough vote’ and ‘complicated issue.’ I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.”
And so, since the Senate obviously can’t fulfill America’s will, she calls the people to action:
“I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You├óΓé¼Γäóve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators├óΓé¼Γäó e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I├óΓé¼Γäóm asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You├óΓé¼Γäóve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.”
Yeah!!! You tell ’em, Gabs!!!
Screw this being scared shizz! The senate needs a big fat reminder of that, so everyone — make sure you take her last piece of advice there and let ’em know it!!!
CLICK HERE to read Gabby’s piece in full.
[Image via AP Images.]