POLL after poll following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (where 20 innocent first graders and six adults were massacred by a deranged young man) showed that 90 percent of Americans agree that Congress should pass stricter gun control laws, like a universal background check, to help prevent tragedies like this from happening again.
President Obama has made the fight for stricter gun control legislation among his top priorities, in the beginning of his second term.
In his State of the Union Address, he said it is time for Congress to vote on the legislation.
Two pro-gun senators took leadership in the Senate, heeding the call of the American people.
Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.) crafted a bipartisan plan for expanding federal background checks to cover firearms purchases at gun shows and online.
President Obama and other gun control advocates said the bipartisan legislation showed respect for gun owners and do not infringe on the constitutional right of responsible people to own guns. Expanded background checks, they argued, would just make it harder for convicted felons, people convicted of domestic violence, and those with severe mental illness to buy a gun.
Families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims went to Washington to share their personal experiences with the lawmakers, so the proposal could gain the needed 60 votes in the Senate.
But April 17 turned out to be “a pretty shameful day for Washington,” as a defiant President Obama described it.
The Senate voted to reject a bipartisan plan to expand background checks for gun purchases, as bereaved family members of Newtown victims and other relatives of gun violence victims looked on, with disbelief and disappointment.
“What happened in Newtown can happen anywhere. In any instant, any dad in America could be in my shoes. No one should feel the pain. No one should feel our pain or the pain felt by the tens of thousands of people who’ve lost loved ones to senseless gun violence, ” said Mark Burden, father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim.
“Two weeks ago, 12 of us from Newtown came to meet with US senators and have a conversation about how to bring common-sense solutions to the issues of gun violence. We came with a sense of hope, optimistic that real conversation could begin that would ultimately save the lives of so many Americans. We met with dozens of Democrats and Republicans and shared with them pictures of our children, our spouses, our parents who lost their lives on December 14th,” Burden said.
Former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Gifford shared her fury and frustration in a New York Times Op-Ed: “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, whom polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them, wrote Gifford.
“The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill,” Obama angrily said. “They claimed that it would create some sort of ‘big brother’ gun registry, even though the bill did the opposite. This legislation, in fact, outlawed any registry.”
President Obama said the senators “caved to pressure and started looking for excuses, any excuse, to vote” against it.
Rep. Gifford echoed Pres.Obama’s disappointment: “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,” Gifford pointed out.
The Senate also voted down a Democratic proposal to ban nearly all high-capacity gun ammunition clips and magazines containing more than 10 rounds — cementing a major defeat of Obama’s gun control efforts.
Pres. Obama said: “I see this as just round one.” He vowed “this effort is not over…,” as he urged Americans to voice their opposition to inaction.
Rep. Gifford also reaffirmed her commitment to the cause: “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,” Gifford warned.
Mark Burden expressed the stronger unwavering resolve shared by the families of the 20 kids gunned down in Sandy Hook Elementary School : “We’ll return home now, disappointed but not defeated. We return home with the determination that change will happen — maybe not today, but it will happen. It will happen soon.”
“We’ve always known this would be a long road, and we don’t have the luxury of turning back. We will keep moving forward and build public support for common-sense solutions in the areas of mental health, school safety, and gun safety,” Burden added.
Despite another round of victory for gun lobbyists and the lure of political survival among lawmakers, Pres. Obama shared Burden’s optimism: “I believe we’re going to be able to get this one. Sooner or later we are going to get this right. The memories of these children demand it, and so do the American people.”
Do you share Pres. Obama’s optimism?
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
