Last Call

And as I predicted long ago, Senate Republicans have filibustered the gun bill.

The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks.

It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with five Democrats voting against it. Only four Republicans supported it.

Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) voted against it. Reid supported the measure but voted against it to preserve his ability to bring the measure up again.

GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) voted "yes."

With 41 of the 45 GOP senators voting against it, it didn't matter what the Democrats did.  And so the GOP blocks yet another bill that a majority of Americans wanted to pass.  Republican senators simply don't have anything to fear from voting against gun control, but everything to fear from voting for it.

Gabby Giffords penned this op-ed today, calling out these folks.

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 — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them. 

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.

The reality is the NRA will handsomely reward the GOP senators who killed this bill, and they will use that money to buy ads calling their Democratic opponents tyrants and socialists and they will win.  They will win in states like Texas and South Carolina and Kansas and Mississippi and Wyoming and Kentucky and they will win easily because voters in those states are simply not interested in punishing senators for voting against President Obama's "gun grab".

Until that changes, Gabby Giffords can write as many op-eds as she likes.  Voters in red states just don't give a damn.  The President today called this round one.  The fight will take a long time.  But nothing's going to change until the lock on red states is cracked open.