Our Safety Is on the Ballot this Election

Joanna Belanger

The stakes of November 3rd couldn’t be higher.

The balance of the Supreme Court has been tilted further to the right with the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, capping off Trump’s first term with a massive takeover of the judiciary branch due to a combination of stalling and nonstop appointments over the last four years.

By the end of the year, an estimated quarter of a million Americans will have died from COVID-19, and millions will be unemployed and in poverty because of Trump’s incompetence. And tens of thousands of Americans will have died of gun violence after Trump declined to take action despite a string of high-profile mass shootings—including Parkland, Pulse nightclub, and the El Paso Walmart—while Mitch McConnell blocked meaningful, commonsense legislation that could save lives.

Americans will feel the effects of this administration long beyond its expiration date, but November 3rd can be the day we turn the corner.

Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris represent courage and change. They are tested, proven leaders who will prioritize saving lives by pursuing a bold agenda to stop gun violence. Meanwhile, Trump has shown that his allegiance is not to the American people, but to the gun lobby that helped to secure his victory in 2016.

To pass meaningful gun safety legislation and begin to see real change in this country’s long-term gun crisis, we need gun safety majorities in the House and Senate along with a Biden-Harris administration. We saw what four years under Mitch McConnell’s Senate looked like during the Obama administration: inaction, obstruction, and manipulation.

There are 35 Senate races on the ballot this year, and we need to flip just four of them to see a path forward on gun violence prevention. Candidates like Governor John Hickenlooper in Colorado, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, and Cal Cunningham in North Carolina will be leaders on gun safety and they are running against incumbents who are bought and paid for by the NRA.

$700

Cost of gun violence per American citizen

Gun violence costs an average of roughly $700 per American citizen each year—a total of over $229 billion.

Source

Mark Follman, Julia Lurie, Jaeah Lee, and James West, “The True Cost of Gun Violence in America,” Mother Jones, April 15, 2015, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/true-cost-of-gun-violence-in-america/.

In fact, not only have these incumbent senators failed to pressure Mitch McConnell to hold hearings on commonsense gun legislation passed through the House in 2019, they’ve also each voted against background checks at least twice, blocked the Violence Against Women Act, and failed to address the gun violence epidemic that has proliferated since they were elected in 2014, despite their campaign promises to be independent voices fighting for their states.

Since Mitch McConnell was re-elected and allowed to keep his gavel as Senate majority leader in 2014, more than 290,000 people have died from gun violence, a tragic human toll which has carried with it an economic cost of more than $1.1 trillion.

We can’t afford another four years of the Trump administration and McConnell’s leadership.

Trump and McConnell want voters to believe that gun violence is inevitable; that there are no good solutions. But the truth is that the House passed legislation that could help end this crisis—H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act—and the Senate failed to act on it.

Leader McConnell could have held a hearing and voted on it, but his hands are tied by the NRA. Instead, he’s failed to send the legislation to Trump’s desk, legislation that would not only save lives but also boasts overwhelming public support: background checks are supported by 97% of Americans, including 90% of Republicans.

In the next Congress, we can pass background checks through the Senate and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk, but the likelihood of that depends on what happens on November 3rd.

Voters don’t need to wonder where Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and their fellow NRA puppets stand on gun safety: their actions—or lack thereof—tell us more than enough about who they will fight for should they get re-elected (and it’s not you).

As voters cast their ballots in this election, they have a choice between corruption or courage, solutions or the status quo, policy change or thoughts and prayers. We can and we must elect Joe Biden and flip the Senate on November 3rd. Countless American lives depend on it.

ELECTIONS

GUN SAFETY PRESIDENT

Joe Biden has made gun safety a priority for decades—and has proven he isn’t afraid to take on the NRA. We need a president who will lead on this issue, not one bought and paid for by the gun lobby. Joe Biden is our pick for Gun Safety President this November.