Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun
lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the
first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School
felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those
children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember
their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that
they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students
heard if the gunman found them.
On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave in to fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for
criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of
deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those
in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many
communities to count.
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.
Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m
furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators
have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in
the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot
allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that
they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go
on.
I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about
the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to
stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my
vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail
lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their
offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.
People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater
courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we
dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in
the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward
me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and
then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway
for hours.
I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run
away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The
senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show
sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun
buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.
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.
They will try to hide their decision behind grand talk, behind willfully
false accounts of what the bill might have done — trust me, I know how
politicians talk when they want to distract you — but their decision was
based on a misplaced sense of self-interest. I say misplaced, because
to preserve their dignity and their legacy, they should have heeded the
voices of their constituents. They should have honored the legacy of the
thousands of victims of gun violence and their families, who have
begged for action, not because it would bring their loved ones back, but
so that others might be spared their agony.
This defeat is only the latest chapter of what I’ve always known would
be a long, hard haul. Our democracy’s history is littered with names we
neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress
while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted
to join that list.
Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress
we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a
different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the
gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the
American way.
