NY Dems slam McConnell for inaction on gun control
Reaction to the mass killings in El Paso and Dayton was swift among elected officials representing the MidHudson Valley and New York state.
U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado said Americans “continue to die from horrific gun violence, and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on H.R. 8, a bipartisan universal background checks bill.”
Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, said universal background checks of gun purchasers are supported by more than 90 percent of Americans, and “while not a cureall that would’ve stopped every shooting, it provides an urgently needed step towards improved gun safety amid the gun violence epidemic — a public health crisis — in the U.S.”
To not come together and take “this basic step in the face of so much loss of life is to reveal that our system is morally bankrupt,” Delgado said.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “step up and do your damn job.”
“You can’t just keep tweeting about this, Leader McConnell,” Delgado, DCold Spring, said in reference to the Kentucky Republican. “We (the House) passed gun safety legislation, and you’re the one blocking it. If you don’t have enough backbone to step up and keep Americans safe, who do you even serve?”
McConnell said on Sunday that he was “sickened” by the mass murders.
“We stand with law enforcement as they continue working to keep Americans safe and bring justice,” he said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the nation is “under attack from within, and continuing to ignore what is happening around us will only lead to more bloodshed and more tragedy — all of it preventable.”
Cuomo, a Democrat, called for “this insanity to stop” and accused those unwilling to do anything about it of being complicit.
“I am sick of the excuses,” he said.
New York enacted some of the nation’s strictest guncontrol laws after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in neighboring Connecticut.
“We are standing up for sensible gun-safety laws to keep our families and children safe,” Cuomo said. “... Washington must do the same.”
The senior member of the Hudson Valley’s House delegation, Westchester County
Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey, said, “Prayers from politicians can’t bring back the victims or heal the families in El Paso and Dayton. They deserve action and a commitment to bringing these mass killings to an end.”
Lowey said such mass killings “aren’t happening in other industrialized nations around the world” and that she’s “furious and outraged that the Senate, led by Republican
Mitch McConnell, doesn’t find it necessary to bring common-sense gun violence prevention legislation to the Senate floor to help end these senseless killings.”
Lowey also said racism and hate, suspected as the motive in the El Paso killings, “are being fueled by the president” and that “we cannot let our country continue to devolve into a hub of fear and hatred.”