90% of Americans.

Update: Gabby Giffords’ powerful op-ed in the NY Times:

“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.

And shame on Rand Paul, who called families of victims “props,” as President Obama discusses below.

Update: Obama’s speech. Haven’t seen him so pissed/heartbroken in a long time. Watch to the end:

Like getting a driver’s license is an assault on my rights, too!

Update:

Another apt comment: A day after the anniversary of the VT shootings, where the killer was able to purchase guns after being committed by the state to a psychiatric ward.

Great comment via a friend (ironically, on Facebook): “This is our own fault…Joe Biden and the President begged us to call Congress and make our voices heard and hardly anybody did. Congressmen and Senators received calls 5-1 in favor of people’s 2nd amendment rights….If this were happening in Europe, people would have been out on the streets demanding gun safety laws for the protection of our children and citizens against gun violence.

Apparently sharing things on facebook isn’t enough.”

Breaking: Shame on the US Senate. No background checks!?

Shame on the Senate. And shame on us, and me, for not doing more.

The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to require background checks.

Yet another sad day for America. We’re on roll. A common sense, mild, bipartisan bill supported in principle by 90% of Americans. Voted down. The NRA, and 48 Senators, ought to be held responsible for the next failure of commonsense background checks to keep weapons out of the hands of the unstable, the criminal.

Read the rest at the NY Times:

Senate Rejects Background Check Measure, Blocking Drive for Gun Control:

A wrenching national search for solutions to the violence that left 20 children dead in Newtown, Conn., in December looked close to collapse on Wednesday after the Senate defeated a bipartisan amendment to gun safety legislation that would have expanded background checks for gun buyers, and it appeared poised to reject several measures to expand gun control.

The victims and survivors of recent mass shootings looked on from the gallery above.

 

In the first vote, the background check measure, drafted by Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, fell short of the 60-vote threshold it needed in a 54-to-46 vote.

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