Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) returned to Congress Monday evening to cast a vote on the debt-ceiling bill, seven months after she was shot in the head by a gunman in Tucson. Her colleagues cheered and hugged her; they should have turned their heads in shame.
In the months since the Tuscon shooter sprayed a crowd at a Giffords' constituent meet-and-greet with a Glock 19 semi-automatic handgun legally loaded with a high capacity ammo clip, Congress has done exactly nothing to prevent another massacre. House and Senate bills to ban the high-capacity clips used so lethally by the shooter have been condemned to a death by committee.
The federal assault weapons ban that made high-capacity clips illegal expired in 2004 and Congress has done nothing to reinstate it. Even the horror of a colleague gunned down has not been enough to get Congress to stand up to the gun lobby.
Something to keep in mind when you hear reassurances that there's ponies and silver linings in the debt-ceiling deal, or that the all it's flaws will be fixed later.
You are so right, they should have turned their heads in shame. Only they seem to have no shame -- do they leave theirs in the congressional cloakroom each morning?
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