To: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK-1), Sen. Dan Sullivan (AK-2), Sen. Richard Shelby (AL-1), Sen. Doug Jones (AL-2), Sen. John Boozman (AR-1), Sen. Tom Cotton (AR-2), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-1), Sen. Martha McSally (AZ-2), Sen. Cory Gardner (CO-2),...

We'll remember your vote to allow terrorists to buy guns

Your vote to allow terrorists to buy guns is outrageous. This capitulation to corporate gun lobbyists will be remembered for putting your campaign interests ahead of the American people.

Why is this important?

This petition will go to all of the Senators who voted against blocking suspected terrorists from being able to buy a gun.

"When Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) stood on the Senate floor for 15 hours last week, joined by nearly 40 of his colleagues who recounted stories of six-year-olds gunned down by assault weapons and trauma doctors who attempted to resurrect dozens of bullet-pierced bodies in Orlando, he knew he was waging a battle against a powerful force.

"On Monday, Republicans in the Senate proved, yet again, how strong the National Rifle Association’s grip is on the nation’s highest lawmaking body. Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation to prevent suspected terrorists from buying firearms and to expand background checks to all gun sales both failed in the Senate. Just 47 senators voted in favor of the first measure and 44 for the second.

"Roughly 90 percent of Americans — including 80 percent of gun owners — support these measures. But the gun lobby’s outsized political spending and influence in Congress prevailed. In total, the NRA has given more than $36 million to the 56 Republican senators who blocked the gun control measures on Monday.

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)’s measure would have given the attorney general the power to block gun sales to people potential terrorists on the federal government’s watch list. Given that Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was under FBI watch for periods of time in the past three years, it’s possible that Feinstein’s measure would have prevented him from purchasing the weapons he used to carry out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history."
-From Think Progress