Yesterday the House passed Lamar Smith's Scientific Research in the National Interest Act (H.R. 3293) 236-178, all but 7 Democrats voting NO and all but 4 Republicans voted YES. Donna Edwards wrote an amendment that was meant to allow scientific research about the national epidemic of gun violence and it was brought to the floor as the Democrats' Motion to Recommit. Her intent is to allow scientific research to resume-- the NRA ordered Congress to have it halted some years ago-- so as to "increase the understanding of the causes and prevention of gun violence."What's odd about the rejection of this bill by the Republicans + 6 NRA-controlled Democrats-- Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA), Jim Langevin (RI), Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)-- is that Republicans, at least in public, always mouth the idea of studying the mental illness associated with gun violence but, spurred on by the NRA's #1 whore in Congress, Paul Ryan, always vote against what they claim they want themselves. Donna addressed the issue head on... and the Republicans, as you can see in the video up top, refused to even give her the courtesy of listening to her points. This is what they didn't want to hear:
We have a gun violence problem in the United States. According to The American Journal of Medicine, compared to other rich countries, Americans are: 25 times more likely to be violently killed with a firearm; 6 times more likely to be accidentally killed with a gun; 8 times more likely to commit suicide using a firearm; and 10 times more likely to die from a gun death overall. To address it, Americans deserve the facts and Congress needs the breadth and data of the epidemic.“Just think if we were able to use the public health approach to address our gun violence epidemic. This is a small, yet powerful step that could lead to significantly reducing the number of Americans killed by firearms. Innocent victims like second-grade teacher NeShante Davis, her daughter Chloe, and all Americans deserve nothing less. Even if we are able to save just one life, it will have been well worth it.
Right now, Donna is running for the open Senate seat in Maryland. An establishment Democrat, Chris Van Hollen, is running against her and he is loaded with special interest money, much of it unethically obtained through his position as Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee. Van Hollen is flooding the state with high-priced ads and Blue America is struggling to help Donna keep up. If you'd like to contribute to her campaign, you can do that right here. We need people in the Senate who are going to take this epidemic seriously.
