If you’re looking for evidence that Congress doesn’t give a damn about the American people, about the will or the safety of their constituents, look no further than the weak and shameful gun bill announced yesterday. While apologists trumpet a victory for bipartisan compromise, anyone with a working brain and heart can see the bill for what it is – another victory for the NRA.
The deal calls for closing a loophole that exempted 40% of gun sales - those done at gun shows and over the internet - from background checks designed to keep criminals and the mentally ill from buying firearms. That’s just common sense. The compromise would also classify as federal offenses gun trafficking and the use of straw buyers to illicitly secure weapons. Again, simply common sense.
But there will be no national assault weapons ban. There will be no national high capacity magazine ban. There will be no national gun sale registry. There will be no national database to track large sales of ammunition.
What there will be are more Newtowns, more Auroras, more Columbines.
This was the time when we as a nation were finally going to do something meaningful to staunch the bloodshed. This time there were 20 children, 20 bright, beautiful innocents, blasted to bits by an animal with an assault rifle and all but unlimited ammunition. If the faces of those children and the heartrending grief of their families and community wouldn’t be enough to prod Congress into action, surely nothing else possibly could.
Fools we were, those who hoped for better from our lawmakers. The cowards – no, traitors - who claim to represent the American people have no heart, no soul and certainly no integrity. They don’t even care about their own. It was already perfectly clear that Gabby Giffords nearly being killed in a mass shooting meant nothing to them. And if you’re thinking it might take a gunman opening up in the Capitol Building itself to finally get something done, forget it. Four terrorists sprayed 30 rounds of semi-automatic gunfire from the visitors’ balcony in the House of Representatives wounding five congressmen way back in 1954 and, after the blood and shell casings were cleaned up, it was back to business as usual.
If you’re thinking that this is a victory for the Second Amendment, don’t be so naïve. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA and the politicians they carry around in their pockets don’t give a flying f--- about the Second Amendment.
What they care about, the only thing they care about, is the $20+ million dollars that pour annually into the NRA’s bank account from gun manufacturers, more than half of which gets funneled directly into the campaign coffers of their politician puppets. LaPierre isn’t protecting the rights of gun owners, he’s protecting his $970,000 annual paycheck. Not far behind LaPierre on the NRA payroll is Chris Cox, the organization’s executive director in charge of lobbying, who draws $666,000 a year to make sure the strings the NRA pulls are well connected.
“In God We Trust?” Get real; “Don’t Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs” is what ought to be printed on our currency. That is, after all, the guiding principle of our nation's lawmakers.