Posted on 11/04/2010 3:48:33 PM PDT by atomic_dog
An angry electorate… More divided than during the Bush years… Marked by nasty ads and commentary, over-the-top rhetoric, and even violence.
These are just some of the ways that political observers have described American voters and the 2010 mid-term elections.
Without a doubt, many election contests were bitterly fought and divisive. Now comes the hard work of legislating and governing.
It won’t be easy for either side, but if there is one thing the new Congress and President Obama ought to agree on, it’s that gun violence victims deserve their support, their leadership, and their determination. And that should be easy.
America runs away with the disturbing distinction of having the highest rate of gun deaths among high-income countries. We lose more than 30,000 men, women, and children each year because of gun deaths – and that’s in addition to the 80,000 or so non-fatal gun injuries inflicted each year.
The majority of American voters (regardless of party) support common sense legislation that saves lives and helps keep us safe.
A number of Tuesday’s winning U.S. Senate candidates from both parties have supported common-sense restrictions to help keep dangerous guns from dangerous people. They include, on the GOP side, Senator-Elect Mark Kirk in Illinois and Senator-Elect Dan Coats in Indiana. On the Democratic side are Senators Barbara Boxer in California, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in New York, Ron Wyden in Oregon, Barbara Mikulski in Maryland, Michael Bennet in Colorado and Daniel Inouye in Hawaii. Democrats Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut and Chris Coons in Delaware are strong sensible gun law allies who were elected to the Senate as well.
While the number-crunching and analysis for the mid-terms will go on for weeks and maybe months, it already seems clear that the Democrats incurred huge losses in the House largely because they abandoned their base, which overwhelmingly backs stricter gun laws.
More than half the Democrats who were swept out of office in Tuesday’s House contests cozied up to the National Rifle Association for an endorsement. Nearly 60 percent of the Democratic incumbents who lost had received an “A” rating from the NRA.
Meanwhile, 98 percent of Democrats running for re-election who co-sponsored our immediate legislative priority — closing the loophole that allows private sellers to sell guns without Brady criminal background checks — appear to have retained their seats.
Newly-elected Democrats will be strong advocates for our agenda. For example, Brady-endorsed U.S. House candidate David Cicilline, who made promoting sensible gun laws one of the defining aspects of his tenure as mayor of Providence, R.I. and was one of the first to join the Mayors Against Illegal Guns campaign, won in Rhode Island’s 1st District.
Cedric Richmond, who as a state legislator fought to restrict access to assault weapons, flipped the seat from Republican to Democrat in Louisiana’s 2nd District. Colleen Hanabusa received our endorsement and flipped another seat to the Democrats in Hawaii’s 1st District.
There is much to do. As voters cast ballots Tuesday, a trial was underway in California for defendants who plotted to kill a prosecutor with a high-powered rifle. “Thirty rounds, a high-powered rifle, better off than a handgun. Unloading that whole (rifle) clip on him would have been overkill. Yes, it would have,” testified Pablo Cruz, who had been in on the scheme to murder Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Marc Leventhal.
On the other side of the country, Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood mourned the death of a mother of four who was gunned down in a hail of bullets by an AK-47-wielding man who burst into a convenience store, shooting, and also wounding, the owner. Another Boston mother who witnessed the bloody aftermath described it as “awful,” adding, “But a lot of people kind of looked at it as another episode of Law and Order.”
In other words, too many Americans are numb and feeling somewhat hopeless. They have lost faith in our political leaders’ ability to combat gun violence because they don’t see enough of them making a serious effort.
In the 111th Congress, the Democratic leadership was frequently paralyzed by the perceived need to protect the NRA stalwarts in their caucus. But now we see that appeasing the gun lobby did Congressional Democrats little good and was a grave disservice to gun violence victims, whose numbers mount every hour of every day.
We now have lost two more years in the fight to stop the plague of gun violence. For the good of the country, the 112th Congress and elected officials from both parties need to push vigorously for laws that will help turn the tide in favor of a safer America and far fewer innocent people being gunned down while trying to live their lives.
We are going to be seeing a lot of these fund-raising letters from all sides in this deadlocked Congress.
Its the price we pay for freedom.
I own a weapon so my chances of becoming a gun violence victim are lessened .
Ya right, and if the Dems had come out ahead in this election then it would be a mandate from the people to increase gun control. Brady idiots, please just shut up and go away. You make me tired.
I do too. Lock up all the violent punk gangbangers that commit 97% of gun crimes and leave the rest of us peace loving gun owners alone.
And a goodly fraction of that bogus “30,000” were “good shoots” — scum that “just needed killin”...
“highest rate of gun deaths”
Who is killing all these guns? We need a law!
Take the guns from cops so they can’t shoot any more of those vicious Labs.
That was a funny article. The Democrats don’t have enough problems with the majority of the electorate. They really needed to add the gun control issue to totally disappear from the midwest and the south!
My Ex father in law, a dimwit fool from way back, used to argue with me that the government needed to “do something” about guns. I would question him and ask if he really thought outlawing guns from people like me would reduce crime and he would say, “No, but we have to DO SOMETHING”. He would totally agree that gun control didn’t stop crime or even reduce it but it was “doing something”. You can’t reason with liberals they don’t have brains.
Gun control was a creation of the Democrats, wasn’t it? I believe it was. Something about keeping guns out of the hands of newly freed black slaves. Slavery! Now there’s something I know we can thank the Dems for. In this day and age they want to take over of sixth of the economy and be our doctor. Wow. Just like the Russian Communists did in 1920. Create a health care system where none had existed before and then determine who gets ‘’sick’’ and who gets ‘’well’’. Besides having an enormous data base on everyone. Man! The Democrats are always there at the great moments of history aren’t they?
...and SECURE THE F**KING BORDER so at least the hispanic gang-bangers can’t come here. And lock up and throw away the key for the indiginous bangers and others who commit crimes with firearms.
And leave the rest of us the hell alone.
In states and locales in the U.S. where it is less difficult to obtain a license for a hand gun, which is also the states and localities where more hand guns are sold and owned, the rates of violent crime are lower than those states and locales that attempt to be the most restrictive on hand gun ownership.
That’s not politics or political opinion, just the facts.
But it tells you that the problem is not in the physical production of guns, its in the social production of violent thugs.
Fools like Mayor Bloomberg need to be told to get the tree out of their own eye; solve their city’s social problems and quit blaming legal gun ownership. A gun never decides to shoot anyone and the term “illegal to own” never stopped a criminal.
Yes, that's how gun control started.
If you really want to help gun victims from further harm sponsor a bill that will subsidize their training in the use of a firearm, then give them a choice of 9mm or .45 cal and give them 100 rounds per year
More guns have been sold and CCWs issued in the last ten years than anytime since gun control began; I would love for the dems to try pushing gun control. This issue alone would seal their fate for another decade!
Yeah! Like CCW reciprocity laws that mimic driver's license laws. Or better yet, nationwide "Vermont/Alaska/Arizona Carry" (CCW with NO LICENSE).
I guess they missed the NRA endorsement list...
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