Is The Gun Carnage Acceptable To Nebraska Republicans?
The U.S. continues to be plagued by mass shootings. As of June 7, there had been 33 mass shootings since Uvalde. In June, we’ve already had gun massacres at hospitals, churches and cemeteries. (Should we arm priests?) Nobody is safe anymore.
In response to the ongoing slaughter of the innocents, President Biden delivered a prime time speech to address the problem. He proposed the following:
Assault weapons ban
Barring that, increase age to buy to 21
Expanded background checks
Safe storage requirements
Red flag laws
Repealing the gun industry’s liability shield
Addressing the mental health crisis
The Senate Republicans responded by entering into bi-partisan negotiations with a group of Democratic senators led by Chris Murphy (D-CT). Already, Mitch McConnell has signaled that his caucus will not support any changes to gun laws. Instead, the GOP will only approve of further fortifying the schools and money for mental health.
Already, Nebraska’s U.S. Senators have fallen in line with McConnell. Deb Fischer maintained that guns aren’t the problem and essentially said she would simply follow her party bosses. Fischer’s support for mental health funding rings hollow since she opposed the Medicaid expansion as a state senator and has voted numerous times to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan.
Ben Sasse has refused to answer any questions from the press on one of our nation’s most pressing issues. (Why are we even paying him?) In any event, Sasse has always opposed gun safety reform.
Both Fischer and Sasse have “A” ratings from the NRA. Sasse has collected $68,000 in campaign cash from the NRA and Fischer has grabbed approximately $20,000 from the gun lobby. They work pretty cheap compared to many of their GOP colleagues. For example, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has collected a whopping $3.3 million from the NRA.
Closer to home, Pete Ricketts revealed his radical views on guns. Ricketts supports allowing 18 year olds to obtain assault weapons. The billionaire governor said “Absolutely yes” when asked whether an 18 year old should be allowed to purchase an AR-15. Oddly enough, though, Ricketts does believe that marijuana kills kids. You can’t make this stuff up.
Ricketts doubled down on his extremism in a revealing interview with David Axelrod on CNN. Ricketts believes that the Second Amendment contains the right to an armed rebellion against the U.S. government. Ricketts said that people should be armed against a potential tyrannical government.
That is a pretty common view on the radical right. What they don’t know is that the 2008 Heller case recognized that the Second Amendment isn’t absolute and reasonable restrictions on guns are consistent with the right to bear arms. Moreover, the issue of whether we have the right to a treasonous armed rebellion was settled back in 1865.
Jim Pillen — Pete Ricketts’ hand picked successor — also wants to do nothing about guns. Pillen — like most Republicans — supports locking down schools and more money for mental health. However, Republicans never deliver on the mental health promise. In 2018, Ricketts vetoed a bill that provided more funding for mental health that was aimed at reducing school gun massacres.
State Senator Carol Blood said she would advocate for “reasonable and responsible solutions to gun violence.” The goal, Blood said, is to enhance personal safety and security without infringing on the Second Amendment.
The stakes couldn’t be any higher in 2022. The election is literally a matter of life or death. The Republicans will continue to allow the mass slaughter of innocent Americans. The Democrats are committed to reining in gun violence.
Vote Blue in 2022!