‘Time for Congress to Get Off Its Ass’: Democrats Demand Action After 58 People Killed in Mass Shooting
‘Your Cowardice to Act Cannot Be Whitewashed by Thoughts and Prayers’
Democratic lawmakers are speaking our loudly and forcefully after a gunman opened fire on 22,000 people at a Las Vegas country music concert, killing at least 58 people, and wounding more than 500.Â
“It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something,” Connecticut Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy said in a statement. Murphy has been one of the leaders in the Senate demanding gun control reform. Murphy was elected to the Senate just weeks before the 2012Â Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in his home state that killed 20 first grade students and six school officials.
“Nowhere but America do horrific large-scale mass shootings happen with this degree of regularity,” Sen. Murphy also said. “Last night’s massacre may go down as the deadliest in our nation’s history, but already this year there have been more mass shootings than days in the year.”
“This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic. There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference.”
He also posted this tweet:
To my colleagues: your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers.
None of this ends unless we do something to stop it.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 2, 2017
Fellow Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, also of Connecticut, took to Facebook, saying: “Congress refuses to act. I am more than frustrated, I am furious.”
Although many details of this mass shooting remain unclear, one thing is certain: yet again, we are watching in horror…
Posted by Senator Richard Blumenthal on Monday, October 2, 2017
U.S. Congressman Jim Himes, another Democrat of Connecticut, had a pointed message for his colleagues who are sending “thoughts and prayers,” while refusing to enact smart gun control laws that nine out of ten Americans support:
A message to my colleagues today. pic.twitter.com/mWUn77rw30
— Jim Himes (@jahimes) October 2, 2017
On Facebook, Himes slammed Congress for its refusal to act.
“Once again, Congress will retreat into grief and silence,” he posted, adding, “here we are, more than a year later,” from the Pulse nightclub mass shooting and terror attack. “Almost 5 years after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School took the lives of 26 innocents, including 20 children. And Congress. Has. Done. Nothing.”
https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanJimHimes/posts/10155753235603620
Randy Brice, the Democrat who is challenging Speaker Paul Ryan for his congressional seat in Wisconsin, offered this:
50 dead 100s wounded.
Can we please do more than offer thoughts and prayers so that we don’t have to keep waking up like this?
💔— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) October 2, 2017
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA):
I’m heartsick for people in Nevada & across the country who woke up to this news & are worried that their family & friends are ok.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) October 2, 2017
Tragedies like Las Vegas have happened too many times. We need to have the conversation about how to stop gun violence. We need it NOW.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) October 2, 2017
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) retweeted his own tweet from June of 2016, after the Pulse attack. He siply added the hashtag “#LasVegas,” after having tagging it originally, “#Orlando.”
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Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords of Arizona, who was the victim of an assassination attempt at a constituents’ event in 2011, offered these thoughts:
In a just a matter of minutes, one man killed at least 50 people. Another 200 were injured. This is a grave tragedy for our nation.
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) October 2, 2017
My heart is with the victims, their families and friends, and the law enforcement officers who risked their lives to save others.
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) October 2, 2017
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