Fifty-six percent of Americans polled think that sales of assault weapons should stop and that high-capacity magazines should be banned.
Eighty-six percent want expanded background checks on people getting guns online or at gun shows.
But a minority of 41 senators oppose those things, so the sensible gun laws that are supported by a majority of the nation's population and a majority of the Senate will very likely be filibustered out of existence today.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was impassioned in this debate.
Today our decision will determine the decision of our country. Today I choose to vote my conscience, not only is Harry Reid a United States senator but also a a husband, a father, a grandfather and I hope friend of lots and lots of people, I choose to vote my conscience because, if tragedy strikes again, I’m sorry to say, Mr. President, it will, if innocents are gunned down in a classroom, theater or restaurant, I would have trouble living with myself as a senator, as a husband, a fathers, or grandfather and friend, knowing that I didn’t do everything in my power to prevent that incident.
Reid absolutely has it in his power, as Senate Majority Leader, to do more than vote his conscience. He's got the power to allow the majority in the Senate to prevail, for once, on an issue that the has galvanized the country. He's got the power to answer for the death of so many innocents, in Newtown, in Tucson, in Aurora, in Oak Creek, in towns and cities all over the country.
He, and the majority of senators who want to actually do their jobs, could do them now and end the filibuster.
Please send an email to your Democratic senator(s) telling them to re-open filibuster reform so that we can have a functioning Senate.