The NRA Gave These 9 Senators Over $22 Million To Vote Down Gun Laws

The Republicans went nuts last week after President Obama issued his executive order on guns and it goes something like this:

1. Keep guns out of the wrong hands through background checks.

To that end, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [ATF] is making it clear that it doesn’t matter where you conduct your business —a store, a gun show, the Internet: If you’re in the business of selling firearms, you must get a license and conduct background checks.

Simple. The ATF is also finalizing a rule to require background checks for anyone trying to buy some of the most dangerous weapons through a trust, corporation, or other legal entity, while the FBI is overhauling the background check system to make it more effective and efficient. The envisioned improvements include processing background checks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and improving notification of local authorities when certain prohibited persons unlawfully attempt to buy a gun.

2. Make our communities safer from gun violence.

This part of the order won’t change the laws, but it will urge law enforcement to enforce the existing laws, and give federal agencies more resources to do so.

The President’s 2017 budget will include funding for 200 new ATF agents and investigators to help enforce gun laws. In addition, the ATF has established an Internet Investigation Center to track illegal online firearms trafficking and is dedicating additional personnel to enhance the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network. The ATF is finalizing a rule to ensure that dealers who ship firearms notify law enforcement if their guns are lost or stolen in transit.

3. Increase mental health treatment and reporting to the background check system.

Obama called out those politicians who blame mass shootings on mental illness as a way of diverting attention from gun control:

“Here’s your chance to support these efforts. Put your money where your mouth is.”

The Obama Administration is proposing a new $500 million investment to increase access to mental health care, and the Social Security Administration has said it will begin the rulemaking process to include information in the background check system about beneficiaries who are prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons.

4. Shape the future of gun safety technology.

“If we can set it up so you can’t unlock your phone unless you’ve got the right fingerprint, why can’t we do the same thing for our guns?”

President Obama has directed the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology, and has also directed those departments to review the availability of smart gun technology on a regular basis, and to explore potential ways to further its use and development to more broadly improve gun safety.

So how is this bad? How? And what reason does the GOP have for trying to fight this?

Well, some politicians have about twenty-two-million reasons.

Scott Bixby from Mic.Com took a long, hard look at the 50 U.S. Senators — one Democrat and 49 Republicans — who voted against a bill last week that would have expanded background checks for guns bought at gun shows and through online vendors, and he came up with some rather interesting findings:

One Republican Senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and that lone Democratic Senator, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, haven’t received a single dime in campaign funds from the National Rifle Association [NRA] directly or indirectly through PACs and other groups but …

Those other 48 Senators — every single one of them a Republican — have taken over $27 million dollars from the NRA   over the course of their careers. In addition, the NRA spent over $14 million to take down candidates who support background checks, despite the fact that 90% of Americans — and 74% of NRA members — support the idea.

But, yes, another but, let’s look at just nine politicians, again all of them Republicans, who have taken the lion’s share — over $22 million — from the NRA in campaign donations:

1. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): $1,262,189
2. Roy Blunt (R-MO): $1,433,952
3. Pat Roberts (R-KS): $1,584,153
4. Tom Cotton (R-AR): $1,968,714
5. David Perdue (R-GA): $1,997,512
6. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): $2,867,074
7. Joni Ernst (R-IA): $3,124,773
8. Cory Gardner (R-CO): $3,939,199
9. Thom Tillis (R-NC): $4,418,833

Our Congress is owned by the NRA, so is it any wonder we cannot have sensible gun control in this country?

Head to the link at the bottom for the breakdowns and list of NRA spending on all 48 senators who are against gun control in this control and, maybe, just maybe, you’ll think about voting them all out of office the very first chance you get.

And maybe then we can get some of the blood off of our hands.

Reverb Press