Congressional Republicans Overwhelmingly Support Selling Firearms to People on the U.S. Terrorist Watch List, As Well As Felons and the Mentally Ill

From today's New York Times editorial:


While the nation suffered through the shock of another bloody massacre, on Thursday every Senate Republican except Mark Kirk of Illinois voted against legislation to prevent people on the F.B.I.’s consolidated terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns or explosives. 

 The measure has been introduced repeatedly since 2007. The Government Accountability Office has documented that over years of congressional blockage, hundreds of suspected terrorists on the watchlist bought guns. 

 Another bill that would have expanded background checks to gun show and online firearms sales to screen out convicted felons and the mentally ill also failed on Thursday. The four Republican senators running for president — Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham — all turned up to vote against these common-sense measures. 

 “If you need proof that Congress is a hostage to the gun lobby, look no further than today’s vote,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored the terror watchlist measure.



Let that sink in. Every Republican but ONE and every Republican in Congress running for the GOP presidential nomination want people on the U.S. terrorist watch list -- POTENTIAL MASS KILLERS (as well as felons and the mentally unstable) -- to be able to purchase firearms, with no restraints. 

These cowards, and the people who support them, are the same people who never shut up about President Obama being a "secret Muslim," who isn't doing enough to keep the US safe, so therefore he must be on the side of ISIS. But it isn't President Obama who voted to allow people on the terrorist watch list as well as felons and the mentally unstable to own firearms, it is the very people who believe Mr. Obama is siding with the terrorists.

Can someone explain that insanity?

Don't forget, the people who support the GOP are the same whose heads explode whenever a mass shooter turns out to have a Muslim name, or background. 

IMO by supporting the legislators who vote to allow people on the US terrorist watch list, felons, and the mentally ill to freely purchase all the firearms they want is to support more mass murders -- domestic terrorism. 

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out.



Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post:


The common denominator in mass shootings is the use of firearms. Variables such as political ideology, religious fervor and mental illness are motivating factors, but death comes from the gun. Until our society recognizes that simple truth, the list of place names to which Colorado Springs and San Bernardino were recently added will have no end.


 It's abundantly clear that an overwhelming number Congressional Republicans and a small number of Democrats have no problem with the mass shootings in this country, their useless and phony "thoughts and prayers" notwithstanding.