Attention liberal women and pussified men!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/us-usa-guns-idUSBRE93F00D20130418
Senate Blocks Obama's Gun Control!
WASHINGTON | Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:52pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's campaign to curb gun
violence after the Newtown school massacre was dealt a crippling blow on
Wednesday when the Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks for
gun buyers.
Despite emotional pleas from families of victims of the shootings in
Newtown, Connecticut, and broad public support, the plan to extend
background checks for sales made online and at gun shows failed on a 54-46
vote, six short of the 60 votes it needed to clear a procedural hurdle in
the Senate.
It was a stark reminder of the gun culture's hold on America - or at least
its politics - and a display of how each party has used Senate rules to
effectively block legislation even when it has the support of the majority.
At the White House, a visibly angry Obama said he sympathized with Americans
who were trying to make sense of it all.
"This was a pretty shameful day for Washington," said Obama, flanked by
Newtown families and former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was
severely wounded in a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona.
"I see this as just Round One," Obama said. "Sooner or later, we are going
to get this right. The memories of these children demand it."
The plan by Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Pat Toomey
of Pennsylvania to expand background checks represented Obama's best hope to
pass meaningful gun-control legislation after the killings of 20 children
and six adults at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Other measures backed by the president - including a proposal to ban
rapid-firing "assault" weapons like the one used in Connecticut and a limit
on ammunition clips - also failed in a series of Senate votes that reflected
senators' reluctance to be seen as undermining the constitutional right to
bear arms.
The votes also showed the enduring political power of gun-rights defenders
and the National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun lobby.
"Our hearts are broken. Our spirit is not," Mark Barden, whose son was
killed in Newtown, said at the White House after the vote as Obama looked
on.
Barden vowed that his group of Sandy Hook victims' family members would
continue to seek "common-sense solutions" to gun violence.
'SHOW SOME GUTS'
The votes in the Democratic-led Senate on Wednesday were the culmination of
weeks of intense negotiations and lobbying over the proposed gun
restrictions, and signaled the likely demise of the biggest package of gun
legislation in Congress in two decades.
By contrast, the shootings in gun-free zones invariably result in far higher
casualty figures -- Sikh temple, Oak Creek, Wis. (six dead); Virginia Tech,
Blacksburg, Va. (32 dead); Columbine High School, Columbine, Colo. (12
dead); Amish school, Lancaster County, Pa. (five little girls killed);
public school, Craighead County, Ark. (five killed, including four little
girls).
All these took place in gun-free zones, resulting in lots of people getting
killed -- and thereby warranting inclusion in the Mother Jones study.