Steve Israel's DCCC Has Thrown Away The Advantage Democrats Had With Gun Safety

In 2006, Blue America backed Kirsten Gillibrand for Congress when she ran against corrupt, drunken wife-beater John Sweeney. We helped her raise consciousness about what a crook Sweeney was and we helped her raise money and we even got the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Rickie Lee Jones to do a song for her campaign which got a ton of airplay on the local radio stations. So, of course, we were very disappointed when she joined the Blue Dogs after being elected-- pretending to be a progressive-- and we were mortified when she showed herself to be a total shill for the NRA. She seemed to think she needed to take that posture to win elections in a "backward district." Authenticity!

Yesterday we looked at another craven career politician just like her-- Kathy Hochul, who was defeated in 2012 after one miserable term, only be be resurrected by Andrew Cuomo to run against progressive icon Tim Wu as Lt. Governor. Hochul, who used to run on both the Democratic Party line and the Conservative Party line, has been a big NRA supporter-- one of many who powers inside the Republican wing of the Democratic Party (like Cuomo) are putting into key positions. This should alarm progressives who routinely give their votes to a mostly undeserving Democratic Party.

And, of course, Cuomo is hardly the only Democrat smuggling NRA supporters into the highest reaches of the party. The worst of all is Blue Dog Steve Israel, chairman of the DCCC, who has gone out of his way to recruit as many shitty conservative candidates as he could find-- shitty conservative candidates who stand with the Republicans in opposition to gun safety. And although Israel warns his repulsive mystery meat candidates to never talk about progressive issues, he seems delighted to see them bragging about their sickening and perverted gun fetishism. This piece of shit is a Democrat? It sure is in Steve Israel's word!

Look at the grotesque array of worthless garbage on his Red-to-Blue list-- yes there are 3 or 4 token progressives for appearance sake-- and you find a compendium of NRA worshippers. Many of his candidates still have no issues on the websites and most of the ones who do, don't talk about gun safety. The only positive exception I could find was the Wall Street-owned Democrat Kathleen Rice campaigning for the seat being given up by the House's #1 gun safety advocate Carolyn Maloney. "Gun violence," she writes, "is a public health and safety epidemic in our country. Communities torn apart. Parents robbed of their children. Brave police officers caught in the crossfire. Desperate young adults being placed on paths to prison rather than college. The need to take action has never been greater." You'd think there would be more Democrats with messages like that. But each of these has been recruited by Israel and the quote comes from their official websites.

• Jennifer Garrison (OH)- "There are too many politicians in Washington who don’t understand or respect the role of hunting in communities like ours. I have always supported the 2nd amendment and I was proud to have been endorsed by Buckeye Firearms and the NRA as a state legislator. As a Member of Congress, I will continue to support the 2nd Amendment and our values."

• Jerry Cannon (MI)- "As a veteran, a law enforcement officer, and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I’ll always defend the right of Americans to keep and bear arms."

• Patrick Henry Hayes (AR)- "In Congress, Hays will oppose any law, including an assault weapons ban, that would take guns away from law-abiding citizens."

• Aaron Woolf (NY)- "He's a strong supporter of the Second Amendment-- especially in a region that so many responsible gun owners call home. Aaron believes law-abiding citizens should have the right to own a firearm-- without infringement from the government-- plain and simple. For that reason Aaron does not support New York’s 'SAFE Act.'"

• Ann Callis (IL)- "Ann Callis is a strong believer in our Second Amendment right to bear arms and comes from a family of gun owners. However, as a judge she has seen firsthand what happens when criminals and the mentally ill get their hands on guns. Like Senator Kirk, Ann Callis believes we can work together to find ways to improve background checks to keep guns away from dangerous criminals and those who are mentally ill."

• John Lewis (MT)- "John Lewis is a strong supporter of the Constitutional right of law-abiding American citizens to own firearms.  Responsible gun ownership is a Montana tradition that John will always defend in Congress."

• Glen Gainer (WV)- "Glen is an avid hunter, firearm owner, and proud member of the NRA." [And that's from his official bio on the site; he has no issues page at all.]

Now, think about Rachel's video about Chris Christie's veto up top. Are these the kinds of candidates who will be part of the problem or part of the solution? After the massacre at Sandy Hook, Carolyn McCarthy and Diana DeGette worked on a proposal to make the high capacity magazines illegal. McCarthy: "These assault magazines help put the ‘mass’ in ‘mass shooting’ and anything we can do to stop their proliferation will save lives in America. These devices are used to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time possible, and we owe it to innocent Americans everywhere to keep them out of the hands of dangerous people. We don’t even allow hunters to use them. Something’s deeply wrong if we’re protecting game more than we’re protecting innocent human beings." It was never voted on but sent to die on Bob Goodlatte's House Judiciary Committee. He told the media that "We’re going to take a look at what happened there [in Newtown] and what can be done to help avoid it in the future but gun control is not going to be something that I would support." and neither would many of the candidates Israel recruited to run as Democrats in November, something that will help hold down progressive turnout. An example of the kind of Democrat running who Israel has refused to back is Tom Houghton, the Democratic candidate running against deranged right-wing gun-nut Joe Pitts in PA-16, a swing district with an R+4 PVI and which Obama narrowly won in 2008 and narrowly lost in 2012. Israel adamantly refuses to give Houghton, who was the first Democrat elected to the London Grove Board of Supervisors and the first Democrat to represent the 13th Legislative District, the time of day. Maybe Israel doesn't like his position on gun safety.

I agree with groups like Americans for Responsible Solutions, who support reasonable and responsible gun laws, while standing behind the right to own guns. ARS has pointed out many of the flaws in our existing background check system. These problems significantly damage the ability of this law which is in place to make us all safer.

Federal law already requires licensed gun retailers to perform background checks on those seeking to purchase a firearm via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. The purpose of the NICS is to prevent dangerous individuals, from convicted criminals to those with serious mental illness, from purchasing firearms. This program has successfully prevented over 1.7 million persons who are prohibited from owning a firearm, from purchasing a gun. I support our existing background check requirement. However, there are problems with the law, and the NICS itself, that seriously impede its efficacy.

While licensed retailers must perform background checks, private sellers are exempt from the background check requirement. This provision of the law, known as the “gun show loophole” provides relatively easy access to guns for those whom we have already agreed should be prohibited from owning a firearm. In order for our background check system to be an effective means for protecting our safety, it must be universal.

The “gun show loophole” is not the only problem with our background check system. The NICS is missing millions of pertinent records that should be in the system to identify prohibited gun purchasers. The gaps in the NICS are the result of insufficient reporting by state and federal agencies. This situation must be remedied and the records in the NICS must be up to date and complete to make sure that no dangerous individuals are allowed to legally purchase guns because they have simply fallen through the cracks.

In addition to making the NICS more effective, we must address the issue of gun trafficking by empowering law enforcement to deal with those who are facilitating the illegal traffic in guns. Currently, a very small percentage of licensed gun dealers are responsible for the majority of guns recovered in criminal investigations. These offenders must be stopped, and we must give law enforcement the tools they need to stop them. At the same time, we must stiffen penalties for these gun traffickers if we want laws against gun trafficking to have a real impact on the illegal gun trade.

After addressing the issue of effectively keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals, we must address the issue of what kinds of firearms and ammunition clips are responsible and reasonable for people to own.

I support a ban on assault weapons, as well as a ban on high capacity magazines. The majority of American gun owners own guns for the purposes of sport shooting, hunting and personal defense. Assault weapons and high capacity magazines are not necessary, nor particularly well suited to any of these activities.

On the other hand, assault weapons are involved in up to seven percent of homicides, as the Harvard University institute of Politics points out. The shooters in mass shootings, such as James Holmes in Aurora, have used assault weapons to devastating effect. These weapons allow criminals, like Holmes, to do significantly more damage in a limited amount of time than that which would have been possible without assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Even former Vice president Dick Cheney has come out in support of limiting high capacity magazines.

Banning these “weapons of mass destruction” will keep our families and communities safe. In addition, this will allow police officers to do their job-- the job of protecting us, more safely. Again, According to the Harvard University Institute of Politics, since the expiration of the assault Weapons Ban in 2004, there has been a substantial increase in police deaths as a result of gunshot wounds.

I know that many will criticize me on the issue of limiting access to assault weapons and high capacity magazines, or banning them altogether. I do not support these measures because I want to abridge the rights of American citizens. I support these fixes because I believe in keeping our communities, our families and especially our children safe, while respecting our constitutionally protected right to own guns. As an advocate for common sense responsible gun ownership legislation, I do not seek to limit our second amendment rights but to protect them. I believe that only by taking steps to ensure responsible gun ownership, we can preserve the right to own guns in the long run.

As of the April 30 FEC reporting deadline, Pitts had raised $795,062, 82% of it from PACs. With Israel telling Democratic donors to ignore Houghton, he has only managed to raise $36,938, virtually all it from individual donors. Israel and the DCCC would rather waste their resources on candidates like NRA supporter, Henry Patrick Hayes who is campaigning on a platform of promises that he "will oppose any law, including an assault weapons ban, that would take guns away from law-abiding citizens." Go Dems!

But even as Israel, a meathead and born loser in life, has squandered the gun safety issue for the House Democrats this cycle, the Senate Dems have a more rationale approach. This morning, Ed O'Keefe, reporting for the Washington Post, explained why a new fight over gun safety is about to break out in the Senate:

A new political gun fight would be the first since a bipartisan gun-control measure was swiftly defeated in April 2013, just four months after national outrage over a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., sparked calls for new legislation. The possibility of a new, mostly partisan debate on gun control likely would upend debate on a bipartisan measure to expand hunting rights on federal lands that is considered a potential political lifeline for about a half dozen Democrats seeking reelection in Republican-leaning states.

Senators of both parties said Tuesday that they are readying gun-related amendments and are poised to introduce them this week. Republicans want to expand the right to purchase or transport firearms and ammunition across state lines, limit when a military veteran can be denied a firearm due to mental illness and allow gun owners to carry weapons on to sites controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. Democrats said they are working on proposals to limit the sale of certain weapons and ammunition or expand the national background-check system.

The proposals would be added to the Bipartisan Sportsmen Act, a measure that would make it easier to hunt and fish on some federal lands, allow the construction of more public shooting ranges at national parks and wildlife refuges and make it easier to purchase federal permits to hunt ducks, geese and other waterfowl. Those and about a dozen other proposals in the bill are popular in rural states where hunting and fishing are common.

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who faces one of the most challenging reelection fights this year, is a lead sponsor of the measure along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). The bill has a total of 26 Republican co-sponsors, making it one of the most popular legislative proposals debated by the Senate this year. A similar version of the bill was debated in the Senate in 2012 but failed to advance amid GOP opposition.

…Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), whose state is still reeling from the Newtown shooting, said that he and other Democrats are discussing plans to introduce a proposal to curb gun violence. The hunting bill is "innocuous," he said, and "the failure to address gun violence is a gaping unacceptable omission" from the bill. "We should not be in effect expanding the use of guns without addressing gun violence," he added.