NRA Assaults Congress

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee-- one of the most divided and partisan committees in the Senate, which includes NRA shills and gun fanatics like Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jeff Sessions (KKK-AL)-- held the first Congressional hearing on gun violence since the Sandy Hook school massacre-- or as the far right extremists like to call it, the Sandy Hook Hoax. Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords started the hearing with a simple and pointed statement:

"Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard but the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you."

Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, told the senators that new weapons restrictions are not a "serious solution" to the problem. "We need to enforce the thousands of gun laws that are currently on the books," he said. "Prosecuting criminals who misuse firearms works. Unfortunately, we've seen a dramatic collapse in federal gun prosecutions in recent years... That means violent felons, gang members and the mentally ill who possess firearms are not being prosecuted. And that's unacceptable... We need to look at the full range of mental health issues, from early detection and treatment, to civil commitment laws, to privacy laws that needlessly prevent mental health records from being included in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System."

Sounds familiar? Those are the NRA talking points being endlessly repeated by the Members of Congress they own and, of course, by Fox and Hate Talk Radio hosts. And Sunday we heard those same words coming out of the mouth of a "Democrat" running for Congress in Jesse Jackson's old Southland seat. Debbie Halvorson, a self described "conservative Democrat" who has twice been rejected by voters in the district in the past two years, is the NRA candidate in the race. She's running on a platform opposing President Obama's proposal to ban assault weapons. Sunday she told voters at a candidates forum that "I refuse to take a look at these wide ranging gun bans and pass one more law against a law abiding citizen until there is something done against those who get their guns illegally or criminal." She has an "A" rating from the NRA, which is backing her in the race.

State Senator Toi Hutchinson is one of the sponsors of a bill in the Illinois legislature banning assault weapons. She's Halvorson's top-rated opponent, the stalwart progressive in the race-- and an across the board contrast to Halvorson's pro-gun posturing. If Halvorson manages to divide the vote and slip back into Congress, she'll continue voting with corrupt conservatives, like she did last time she was in Congress. If Toi Hutchinson is elected she'll be working for common sense solutions to gun violence with President Obama and with Members of Congress like independent-minded New Hampshire Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, whose message on gun violence is very much like Toi Hutchinson's. Shea-Porter sent this column, "Time for Action," to her constituents.

As I write this column, the news is covering still another shooting, this time on a college campus. We will learn who was involved, who was standing where when it happened, who witnessed it, who was hurt, who the hurt people’s friends and families are. Students-- reportedly 10,000 students attend the college-- will say how terrified they were. And then… the story of this shooting will be dropped from the news cycle, only to be replaced by another shooting story. And Americans will wonder why we can’t seem to stop the violence. Or can we?

When the children and teachers were executed in a mass murder at an elementary school, right before Christmas, while we were talking about love and faith and family and peace, everyone thought that this time, politicians would take action. It did seem for awhile that we had reached our breaking point, and that we would finally be ready to pass responsible gun legislation that would give us both the freedom to hunt and protect our families and the freedom to go about our daily lives without fear of being gunned down in still another act of violence. There was encouraging talk about passing legislation as quickly as possible, and President Obama did sign some Executive Orders with the families of the murdered six and seven year olds and the slain staff in the room.

The fight was already ugly, but that’s where it got uglier. The head of the National Rifle Association said that President Obama was “attacking firearms and ignoring children.” There was a sea of outrage that President Obama had children at the event. Children were at the site of the massacre-- I think it is appropriate that children who knew it happened and wrote about it should be in the room when grownups say we are going to try to stop this from happening again to children, or anyone else. The NRA leadership also dragged the President’s own children into the fray, as they falsely warned that President Obama was going to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.

Some in Congress were upset at even the mildest suggestions, such as doctors asking if there are guns in the house so they can talk about safety issues involved when there are children in the residence. Doctors ask if somebody smokes around children. They talk about being safe and careful with candles and stoves, but apparently, they should not ask about a huge killer of children-- guns.

It’s time to stop the fighting and work on the solutions here. It is time to stop bowing to special interests and yes, the money they bring to campaigns, and talk about how we are going to protect both the right to have guns for sport and for protection, and the right to be safe from gun violence.

The easiest step should be to require background checks for gun sales. This means gun sales involving most private sales also. The majority of Americans support this plan. We also need to make sure that critical information is available when there is a background check. Records right now are too often incomplete, and do not identify a buyer’s criminal history or a dangerous mental illness.

It is time to end high-capacity magazine sales. It used to be that citizens had a chance to get away from a shooter when he had to stop to reload. But with high-capacity magazines, the killer can just keep firing away a lot longer, murdering many more innocent folks. Hunters do not need to fire 30 rounds. Neither do citizens exercising their right to defend themselves. I support banning magazines holding more than ten rounds. This will help law enforcement and the public to disarm a mass shooter, and it will give people a better chance to escape a madman.

I support President Obama’s call to close loopholes in gun trafficking laws, and to beef up law enforcement in communities. Let’s also step up mental health services, and work together to encourage a reduction of violence in video games and television and movies. All of these ideas should be the easiest to enact. There is another step, an assault weapon ban, that will require more political debate, but these ideas listed here are common-sense ideas that should have no political test of courage attached to them. Can’t we at least get this done now? Let’s get it done now. It already has been a long and deadly wait.

While the banksters and Wall Street interests on whose behalf Halvorson worked while she was in Congress, funnel cash into her campaign, Toi Hutchinson is running a people-powered grassroots effort. If you can help, please go to the ActBlue special election page here. This election is less than a month away.