Back in April 2013, a bill went before the United States Senate that would require background checks for all gun sales, including those at gun shows and online. Polls showed that 90% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans supported the measures. Majorities in each group said they strongly supported such measures.Seems like a no-brainer, right?Unfortunately, the people with no brains prevailed. Despite almost universal support, the bill went down in defeat in the United States Senate, 54 – 46, failing to get the 60 votes required by Senate rules.Five Democrats voted against the measure: Max Baucus from Montana, Mark Begich from Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota, Mark Pryor from Arkansas, and Harry Reid from Nevada.Reid voted against the measure at the last second when it was clear it wouldn’t pass. This was a parliamentary move that allows him to bring up the measure again. He’s actually for the bill.Baucus retired from the Senate rather than face re-election this year, although he says that he didn’t decide to retire until after the gun vote. I wish he said he decided to retire before the gun vote. Then maybe I’d believe his claim that he was simply a “hired hand” charged to carry out the wishes of Montana citizens, rather than fearful of the gun lobby.No doubt Baucus remembers 1996. He won re-election that year by just 4.8%, shortly after he voted for gun control laws. You might think that’s not a bad margin considering he’s a Democrat in a Republican state. However, his average margin of victory in his other five Senate elections: 28.8%.So it’s safe to assume that since he hadn’t yet decided to retire, Baucus had thoughts of his 1996 campaign, and what might happen in his 2014 campaign if he voted for the bill.Heitkamp was just elected in 2012, so she’s not up for re-election until 2018. She defended her vote by stating her office received a lot of calls asking her to vote no. She went on to state that she didn’t believe the polls that showed 94% of North Dakota citizens supported the bill!That leaves Begich and Pryor. Both Democrats are from conservative states that haven’t voted for a Democratic president since Bill Clinton (Pryor, Arkansas) or Lyndon Johnson (Begich, Alaska). Both Begich and Pryor had politician fathers popular in their own states. Begich came to the Senate in 2008, when the man he was running against, Ted Stevens, was under indictment for corruption.And since Democrats from conservative states are usually rather conservative themselves, maybe it’s no surprise that they’d be against universal background checks.However, when 90% of Americans agree on something, you’d think that the vote should be easy. Ninety percent! We can’t get that many Americans to agree that the moon landings actually happened.Still, Begich and Pryor voted against the bill and the wishes of 90% of Americans.Presumably they were worried that the NRA might attack them like they attacked Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana in the past few weeks. It’s the classic NRA message of “someone’s about to attack you, and you need your gun to defend yourself, but this politician wants to take your gun away from you.” One ad shows a mother putting her baby to bed when someone kicks in the door, and a narrator says the police can’t protect you, and you have to protect yourself. “But Mary Landrieu voted to take away your gun rights. Vote like your safety depends on it. Defend your freedom. Defeat Mary Landrieu.”Mary Landrieu received the most votes in her race for Senate in Louisiana, and is headed for a runoff.As for Begich and Pryor—the two Senators who stumbled into office thanks to the achievements of their fathers or the troubles of other men—they were both defeated last night. The NRA supported Pryor’s challenger and stayed neutral in Begich’s race. In the end even opposing the wishes of 90% of Americans, and ignoring a common sense restriction on gun ownership, and refusing to do anything to help prevent more innocent children from being slaughtered, and choosing fear over common sense, weren’t enough to save their jobs.All they have left is a legacy of spinelessness, the refusal to put a cause above themselves, and the unmistakable fact that they helped make this country a more dangerous place to live.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Be smart and like my Facebook page, Brett Baker Writes.
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