Gun Bill Background Check Amendment Fails
Huffington Post
WASHINGTON — With shouts of “Shame on you!” echoing in the chamber, the U.S. Senate failed to muster sufficient support Wednesday for a gun-buyer background check bill that’s supported by nearly 90 percent of Americans.
It also voted down other key measures and counterproposal’s, defeating a string of amendments in a series of procedural votes that likely doomed any major legislation to curb gun violence.
The background check measure — painstakingly crafted by the bipartisan duo of Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) — was seen as the key to passing the first legislation in decades to address the sorts of mass slaughters that so recently horrified the country in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six educators were gunned down at an elementary school, and in Aurora, Colo., where 12 people were killed in a theater.
The amendment failed 54 to 46, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster. That failure upset anew victims of the Sandy Hook shootings and other slaughters who watched from the Senate gallery.
“Shame on you!” shouted two women in the gallery after the vote. One was Patricia Maisch, who grabbed the third clip from the gunman who opened fired at then-Rep. Gabby Giffords in the Tuscon., Ariz., shooting in 2011. The other was Lori Hass, whose daughter was injured in the Virginia Tech shootings six years and one day ago.
“I think we’re going to continue to work for the right thing to be done. I think the senators who voted against this will have to live with that vote, and I think they’re going to have to account for themselves,” said Peter Read, whose daughter, Mary, was among the 33 killed at Virginia Tech.
An angry and disappointed-looking President Barack Obama also hammered the vote in a Rose Garden speech on Wednesday.
“All in all, this is a pretty shameful day for Washington,” Obama said.
“The American people are trying to figure out — how can something that has 90 percent support not happen?” Obama said.
He was echoed by other victims of mass shootings who watched the Senate vote.
“I was extremely disappointed,” said retired Col. Bill Badger, one of the people who tackled Jared Lee Loughner in Tucson. “When 90 percent of the people want something, and the senator votes against them, the next election, we’re going to take care of those senators, because they’re not representing the people.”
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2013-04-17 19:34:22
Source: http://princevega.com/gun-bill-background-check-amendment-fails/
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um asking 100 democrats and having 90 of them agree to this legislation isn’t exactly 90% of ALL the people, is it?!?!?! its just 90% of those they polled!
They did not and could not ask ALL the people, nor would they because it wouldn’t suit their lies!
The sad thing is that this bill would do nothing to prevent any of the events such as Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Gabby Giffords, etc. As much as I can tell, one of the most significant things that these events have in common was that they were committed by people suffering from mental illness. It’s sad to see these people go after the tool used by these killers, instead of the root cause.