Senators who voted against expanding background checks on gun sales are learning this week that they're going to have to keep facing the families of children and school staff killed six months ago in Newtown, Connecticut.
Eight Newtown family members were in Washington to press for gun law reform:
"We're here for the marathon that this is," said Bill Sherlach, whose wife Mary was the school psychologist at Sandy Hook Elementary School, one of six adults and 20 children killed in the Dec. 14 attack. "I really have no choice. Because I'll spend the rest of my life without my wife."
"It's six months later and my heart breaks not only for my family, but also for the eight families a day that will suffer a loss of a child to gun violence in this country," said Nelba Marquez-Greene, whose 6-year-old daughter Ana was killed in the shootings. "We're not going away. We're not going away."
They're still looking for the votes to pass the background checks bill that was filibustered in April, and met with Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat who voted against it, as well as with House leaders.
If a politician has any kind of conscience, it must be excruciating to look into the eyes of the Newtown family members, or family and survivors of other mass shootings, knowing you're going to vote against any bill that might give them less company in their grief. Because as things stand, the litany of mass shootings, from Newtown to Aurora to Tucson to Oak Creek, is going to keep growing, and there are going to be more and more families going to Washington, looking for change.