More than 200 mayors push Senate to return to Washington for gun bill vote

[riversedge]

Source: AP







Associated Press Aug 8, 2019


WASHINGTON — More than 200 mayors, including two anguished by mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, are urging the Senate to return to the Capitol to act on gun safety legislation amid criticism that Congress is failing to respond to back-to-back shootings that left 31 people dead.

In a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, the mayors wrote, “Our nation can no longer wait for our federal government to take the actions necessary to prevent people who should not have access to firearms from being able to purchase them.”

The mayors urged the Senate to vote on two House-passed bills expanding background checks for gun sales that passed that chamber earlier this year. It was signed by El Paso, Texas, Mayor Dee Margo, Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley and others where mass shootings have occurred, including Orlando and Parkland, Florida, Pittsburgh and Annapolis, Maryland.

“There is no worse thing that can happen to a city,” Whaley said of the weekend shooting that killed nine people in Dayton. “We cannot allow this tragic event to fade from our memories without taking action. Politics has stood in the way of action for too long, and I can tell you politics seems very petty when it is your friends and neighbors who are injured or dead.”

The push comes as McConnell, the Republican leader, resists pressure to recall senators from the congressional recess, despite wrenching calls to “do something” in the aftermath of the shootings.

Instead, the Republican leader is taking a more measured approach, as GOP senators talk frequently among themselves and with the White House in the face of mounting criticism that Congress is failing to act.

President Donald Trump is privately calling up senators while publicly pushing for an expansion of background checks for firearms purchases, but McConnell knows those ideas have little Republican support. In fact, the White House threatened to veto a House-passed background checks bill earlier this year. Yet, as the nation reels from the frequency of shootings and their grave toll, McConnell’s unwillingness to confront the gun lobby or move more swiftly is coming under scrutiny.......................................

Read more: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2019/08/08/Mayors-push-Senate-to-return-to-Washington-for-gun-bill-vote-mass-shootings/stories/201908080090

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Mitch McConnell plans to visit CA next week to raise money. Instead he should visit Washington DC to save lives by allowing votes on the House's common-sense gun safety bills. If you agree, retweet this message and call the @senatemajldr
at [phone] or [phone].
10:00 AM · Aug 8, 2019·TweetDeck

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., smiles after vote on a hard-won budget deal that would permit the government to resume borrowing to pay all of its obligations and would remove the prospect of a government shutdown in October, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019.

[murielm99]

1. With a broken shoulder?

He has no excuse for not going back to D.C.!

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Yes, because mayors have to deal with these problems, daily

Of course mayors are not the blood and soil constituency of Trump, the Magazis

But be of good spirit, this is democracy in action, and it's starting to roll

[FakeNoose]

3. I'm guessing most of these mayors are Democrats, am I right?

Good move!