Warning goes out to senators who voted to kill off almost the entire programme of reforms sought by Obama administration
The Obama administration joined gun control groups on Thursday in vowing to target senators who blocked draft measures that represented the best hope for reform in a generation.
As the Senate resumed voting on the tattered remains of the bill, the campaigning arm of the Obama administration issued an uncompromising warning to those senators who destroyed the bill.
Jon Carson, executive director of Organising for Action, Obama's vast grassroots organisation, wrote: "Those senators who decided that not crossing the gun lobby was more important than making our kids and communities safer, OFA supporters will call them out and hold them accountable to their constituents."
The deployment of OFA is a sign of intent by the Obama administration that it is not planning to accept defeat and move on to other issues. Obama looks as if he is going to make guns one of the dividing issues going into the congressional mid-term elections next year in the hope of ousting Republicans.
Obama will face renewed criticism for delaying the push for reform. Senators closely involved with the bill said it would have passed if it had been done in the immediate aftermath of the Newtown school shooting in December.
Republican senators, with the support of a handful rebel Democrats, killed off almost the entire programme of relatively modest reforms sought by the Obama administration.
They voted down by 54-46, six short of the 60 needed to avoid a filibuster, a bipartisan compromise to extend background checks on gun-buyers to ensure they had no criminal records or mental health problems. They also voted down six other proposals, including a ban on semi-automatic weapons and a reduction in magazine clips to five.
On Thursday they passed – by 95 to two – the only proposal left from the Obama programme: more money to help identify and treat people feeling suicidal or with other mental problems. That had not been a central part of the pro-reform lobby.
The other measure passed, by 67-30, was a Republican amendment in support of gunowners' rights, protecting data relating to sales from increased scrutiny by the police and other law enforcement agencies.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama remained committed to pushing for gun control legislation in spite of the defeat. "The president has public opinion on his side," he said. "And the president will continue to mobilise that public opinion in support of these common-sense measures." Polls suggest 80-90% of the public support reform.
He noted what he described as a passionate and persuasive opinion piece in Thursday's New York Times calling for action by the former congresswoman Gabby Giffords who recovered after being shot in the head in Tucson Arizona, in 2011.
Gifford wrote: "I'm furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done … I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: you've lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators' email lists and to stop giving them money. I'm asking citizens to go to their offices and say: you've disappointed me, and there will be consequences."
Much of the anger among the reformers was directed against four Democrats who broke ranks to join Republicans in voting against the background checks amendments: Mark Begich,of Alaska, Mark Pryor, of Arkansas, Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota, and Max Baucus, of Montana – all from conservative-leaning states.
Josh Horwitz, executive of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a national coalition of gun reform groups, said they would mount pressure on the senators who voted against. In some ways it was easier now, he said, because the vote clarified the arithmetic.
"We know now who we need to put pressure on. Just five votes. We will target the four Democrats. Absolutely," Horwitz said.
He hoped that it might still be possible to salvage the draft bill.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, set up by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and the best-funded of the groups, is to push ahead with a scheme to rate members of Congress based on their voting records on the issue – a counter to a similar National Rifle Association system.
Mark Glaze, director of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said the rating system would help Democratic donors identify who should be helped and who should be cold-shouldered.
Democratic senator Joe Manchin, of the sponsors of the defeated amendment on background checks, told MSNBC he was not giving up. "We're going to win this thing," Manchin said, saying he intended to lobby colleagues who had voted against.
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Alison Rourke, Rory Carroll, Warren Murray, Peter Walker, Amanda Holpuch 19 Apr, 2013
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/white-house-gun-control-fight
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