Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refers to himself as the Grim Reaper, meaning he kills off all of the legislation passed in the House of Representatives. It may mean something more disturbing than that, though.
After the two shooting massacres, legislators on both sides of the aisle have been calling for changes to the existing law. In Dayton, Ohio a man killed nine people in 32 seconds. In El Paso, Texas another man killed 22 people in less than 10 minutes. The weapons that they used were military-grade rifles, one with a bullet drum that carried 100 bullets.
These weapons went beyond killing fields. They broke bones and pulverized organs. One woman who is recovering said that when the El Paso killer came into the store he was deadly calm with no emotion and shot only people of Hispanic descent.
Over 200 Democratic lawmakers backed up Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chair Mike Thompson (D-CA) in increasing the pressure on McConnell to bring a vote on the House bill that would at least strengthen background checks for all gun purchases. There has been a loophole exempting gun shows and for online sales.
The 213 representatives sent the majority leader a letter arguing the law was backed by most Americans and would be life-saving. The trouble was that we do not know how the Kentucky senator feels about white nationalism or about the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA gave Donald Trump $30 million for his 2016 election.
The legislators wrote in their letter:
‘We strongly urge you to take immediate action to call the Senate back into session to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act.’
The legislators wrote:
‘In February, the new Democratic House Majority took swift action to pass these bipartisan bills which not only save lives, but also has the support of more than 90 percent of the American people. Since that time, you have allowed more than 150 days to pass and countless lives have been lost including those most recently lost in Gilroy, California, El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois and the many others who will never make the headlines.’
The letter pled with McConnell to bring the bill to the floor to stop criminals from accessing these dangerous weapons and make mass killings harder to accomplish:
‘This inaction must stop. We know background checks save lives. Every day background checks stop more than 170 felons and 50 domestic abusers from getting a gun.’
The letter added:
‘Any delay to pass commonsense gun violence prevention legislation only increases the chances that more innocent people in America may suffer from the tragic and needless loss caused by gun violence.’
Earlier House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) calling for McConnell bring the Senate back from its recess earlier than usual to deal with gun measures.
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