Since last night, well over ten thousand individuals have stepped up and contributed to our organization, Americans for Responsible Solutions, to hold the Senators who opposed background checks accountable for their vote.
I'm not going to stop fighting, and I hope you'll commit to kicking off the accountability portion of our campaign to reduce gun violence by adding your $10 contribution right now. http://action.americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/consquences
I also wrote a New York Times op-ed that I hope you'll read. It's included below. Please take a look and share it with your friends and family.
Thank you,
Gabby
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A Senate in the Gun Lobby's Grip
By Gabrielle Giffords
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 -- who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.
I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we're 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. Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I'm furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo -- desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation -- to go on.
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've lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators' e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I'm asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You've disappointed me, and there will be consequences.
People have told me that I'm courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.
I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.
They looked at these most benign and practical of solutions, offered by moderates from each party, and then they looked over their shoulder at the powerful, shadowy gun lobby -- and brought shame on themselves and our government itself by choosing to do nothing.
They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully false accounts of what the bill might have done -- trust me, I know how politicians talk when they want to distract you -- but their decision was based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but so that others might be spared their agony.
This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I've always known would be a long, hard haul. Our democracy's history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate -- people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list.
Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities' interests ahead of the gun lobby's. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.
I am a survivor of the mass shooting in Tucson, and I was in the gallery of the U.S. Senate yesterday when 45 senators voted to block common sense gun reforms that are supported by more than 90% of the American people.
When the vote was announced, my friend Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot and survived at Virginia Tech, and I yelled out exactly what we felt: “Shame on you!”
I bet you feel the same way, and we need to make sure our Senators hear it from you today!
Can you email your Senators right now and let them know how you feel about their vote?
Fifty-five of our senators deserve our gratitude. They showed courage and leadership in supporting this bill. And some of them -- like Senators Manchin and Toomey -- reached across party lines to build support for what they know is right.
But 45 senators did the bidding of the gun lobby. They hid behind talking points from the NRA and ignored the overwhelming majority of their constituents who are demanding action. More lives will be lost because of their vote, and they should be ashamed!
After the Capitol police escorted Lori and me out of the Senate gallery, we joined a group of gun violence survivors and family members of victims on the lawn in front of the Capitol. Together, we read out some of the names of those who have been killed with guns since the Newtown massacre. I hope our senators heard us.
Please email your Senators today and tell them what you think of their vote:
http://DemandAction.org/ShameOnYou
This is a movement of survivors. We will endure this defeat, but we will not forget.
The American people are already on our side. And we will continue to fight until our leaders have the courage to follow the will of the voters who put them in office.
Thank you for your support, and I look forward to working with you in the weeks and months ahead.
Patricia Maisch
Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Shameful
45 Senators Side with Gun Lobby As Newtown Families Look On
You’d think that more than 90 percent of the
American people and 55 senators — a majority — in favor of something would be
enough to get it done. You would be wrong. Late this afternoon, a minority of
senators “chose instead to obey the leaders of the powerful corporate gun lobby,
instead of their constituents,” as former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband
Mark Kelly said following the vote.
These 45 senators, most but not all of whom
were Republicans, voted against a bipartisan compromise to expand
background checks in order to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and other
dangerous people. 90 percent of Democrats voted for expanding background checks,
but 90 percent of Republicans voted no. As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
said, today’s vote “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.”
That wasn’t the end of it. A bipartisan plan to
crack down on gun trafficking — a plan even the NRA agreed to — also failed to
attract the necessary 60 votes. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity
magazines, something backed by a majority of Americans, was
also voted down.
Worse yet, all of this happened as Newtown
families and other victims of gun violence looked on from the Senate gallery.
One woman, a survivor of the Tucson shooting, shouted “shame on you!” after they watched
senators vote down background checks.
Despite today’s setback, President Obama,
Newtown parents, and other gun violence prevention advocates vowed to continue
the fight to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. In
fact, it’s time for all of us to redouble our commitment to action and let our
elected leaders know that there’s a price for ignoring 90 percent of us.
BOTTOM LINE: Every day that we
fail to pass comprehensive background checks is a day we put at risk the safety
of our children, our law enforcement, our neighbors—indeed, the safety of all
Americans. The price of the Senate’s inaction will be paid by the Americans
whose names will be added to the list of gun-violence victims every day as a
result.
http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/shameful/?mobile=nc
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