The National Rifle Association, the NRA, and its leader, Wayne Lapierre, control our Congress. Put another way, Republican members of our Congress are more loyal to the NRA than they are to the constitution. More loyal to the NRA than they are to the duly elected President of the United States. They are more loyal to the NRA and Wayne Lapierre than they are to their constituents.
Wayne Lapierre is more powerful than the President of the United States of America … because Republican Legislators have made him so.
After the Slaughter of Innocents at Sandy Hook, didn’t we all think that finally, finally! sensible gun legislations would be enacted? Didn’t the President make speech, after speech, after speech urging action from the House and Senate? Didn’t we make calls, and emailed, and blogged, and biked , and ranted and raved and weren’t we just convinced that this time we had broken through the block of ice holding captive the hearts of some of our Representatives? Because surely, the slaughter of babies and the outrage that followed would motivate even the coldest heart to do something, wouldn’t it? Wrong! We were so wrong.
The Need for Gun Reform
48 people were shot during yesterday’s 15-hour filibuster on gun control
“But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals; that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities,” he said.
That figure, derived from news reports, other publicly available information and data from the Gun Violence Archive, is likely significantly lower than the true number of child gun deaths, as suicides often are not covered by news media and other gun deaths sometimes go unreported. Even so, it works out to a rate of just under one death of a child by firearm every two days in this country.
In response to the mass killing of innocents at Sandy Hook, well-known personalities and organizations committed or recommitted to the fight against the NRA: Gabby Gifford and her husband; Mayor Bloomberg, the Dream Defenders, The Brady Campaign, and the overwhelming majority of Americans:
The NBC News/Survey Monkey online poll found that 61% support tighter gun control laws, compared with 38% who do not. Moreover, 60% also said they support a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, while 38% were in opposition.
All to no avail. Nothing happened in the Congress. Republicans sat on their hands and refused to budge.
Wednesday, Chris Murphy, frustrated by Senate Republicans refusing to let even the smallest gun control bills onto the floor for a vote, decided to conduct a filibuster aimed at halting all Senate activity until the GOP caved and let the votes happen. Murphy held the floor for nearly 15 hours, often standing beside other Democratic senators as they spoke, but never sitting down, lest he lose the floor. The filibuster is reportedly the 9th longest in the Senate’s history.
Senator Chris Murphy stood on that floor for nearly 15 hours! And for what?
But what Murphy did was different, and he deserves credit for creative thinking: Instead of filibustering to stop a bill, he used the filibuster to strong-arm Republicans into allowing two gun control measures to be put to a vote in the wake of the horrific Orlando shooting that took the lives of 49 people.
What did Senator Murphy’s sacrifice win for us? A promise from the GOP to hold the vote on legislation designed to close the loopholes in the law governing gun buying. That’s all.
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Appreciate GOP Senators joining last nightâÂÂs filibuster to end gun violence. But how are they gonna vote? With the people or with the @NRA?
â Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) June 16, 2016
For that pathetic concession, we are ever so grateful. What Sen. Murphy showed, and why I am encouraged, is that at long last, it seems, we are beginning to think outside the box. To think of creative ways to combat those who have made obstructionism into a fine art, and to defeat those who depend on the blood of innocence to oil the wheels of their multi-billion industry.
Yes, I’m looking forward to hearing much more from Chris Murphy and those who stood with him. This may well be the beginning of a new day.
Action!
Over the coming weeks and months, we will explore ways in which to make our voices heard in the fight against the NRA and their political arm, the GOP. In the meantime, here are some things we can do right now:
We are rapidly approaching the signature collection phase of our campaign to get the Over-Policed Rights Act on the California ballot. We will be needing your help.
This is a screengrab of the Summary and Title of the Ballot Initiative sent to us by the California Department of Justice:
Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act as seen through the eyes of the California Justice Dept
We await word from the Secretary of State who will be sending us a schedule with the maximum filing deadline and the certification deadline.
More awesome news! Our law has been submitted as a Resolution to the NAACP. That august body will now discuss and then vote on whether to adopt The Michael Brown Over-Police Rights Act (MBOPRA) at the Legislative Session of the NAACP’s Annual Convention.
Twenty-one people killed in the last seven days, and 45 killed month-to-date. Among those killed was 19-yr-old Michael Moore from Alabama. The killing officer said he saw a gun in the young man’s waist. I guess that’s enough justification to shoot. Right?
According to police, the officer saw the driver commit a traffic violation and stopped the car. During the stop the officer determined there was a problem with the license plate on the car and the driver did not have a license.
The driver was asked to get out of the vehicle. The officer said it appeared the suspect reached for a weapon and that’s when the officer opened fire, striking the suspect four times. He was taken to USA Medical Center where he later died.
During testimony, Herbert, who responded to the Western District police station to treat Gray, revealed gruesome details of Gray’s condition.
His eyes were open but not blinking, there was blood underneath his nose, he wasn’t breathing or responding to verbal cues, the smell of feces indicated incontinence, and his neck felt “crumbly, like a box of rocks,” according to Herbert.
Herbert testified that when she asked what had happened, Novak said that he wasn’t sure but that Gray could have been banging his head, and Porter and Goodson just shrugged.
But despite the considerable media attention over the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which focuses on police behavior towards black people, it is not possible for sites to include this tag. This limitation means that news stories about “Black Lives Matter” may not enjoy the same reach on Facebook as other stories that can use a tag to optimize their audience.
(Wordcloud composed of Support the Dream Defenders, Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, Expand Medicaid, Freedom of Information Act Project, Combat Racism, Demand Equality.)
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders launched four ongoing projects:
1. We came together to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defendersdefend the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by "develop[ing] the next generation of radical leaders to realize and exercise our independent collective power; building alternative systems and organizing to disrupt the structures that oppress our communities." Please donate here.
2. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, crowd-sourced at Daily Kos in the fall of 2014 after the death of Michael Brown. Our bill quickly earned endorsements from the NAACP and the ACLU. The NAACP forwarded our bill to members of Congress, and we distributed it to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. President Obama signed into a law a small piece of our bill in December 2014. The Department of Justice included parts of our law in their reports on Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature.
3. Our Freedom of Information Act project. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. Ebola has killed about 9000 people in total; Republican governors kill 23,000 people PER YEAR by refusing federal support for Medicaid, a story ignored by traditional media. Our project forces those governors to out themselves, clapping them in a Catch 22. With the support of readers, we publicize our results through letters to the editor, press releases, and petitions.
You can receive all future diaries of Support the Dream Defenders in your Daily Kos Stream by clicking here. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD diaries appear in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page.
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You are also welcome to join us on The Porch over at the Black Kos Community group on Friday afternoons at 4 p.m. ET."
