Thread by @DempseyTwo

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on Gun violence. With the smell of gun powder still wafting in the air over spas in Atlanta and the produce section of a grocery store, watch the hearing to see which senators protect people and which protect the guns.🧵👇🏻

Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) gavels us in.

Announced last week, judiciary would have a hearing on gun violence, that same day a string of shootings occurred in Atlanta. 8 dead. Last night preparing, another shooting in Boulder. 10 dead. Including an officer.

We have a pandemic called coronavirus, another epidemic called ‘guns’. 29 mass shootings occurred this month. Moments of silence need moments of action. Real caring. We are senate leaders, what are we doing other than reflecting and praying?

109 die in shootings every week. 200 injured by guns. Each number is a person. This is Disproportionately effecting people of color.

Me: Durbin gets it.

Durbin shows a video that says in 2017 more people died from gun violence than from car crashes. Think about that.

2/3 of gun deaths were suicides.

Me: this is how the Republicans make it a ‘mental health’ issue.

Powerful video.

Durbin continues, we are numb to the numbers. He wants the hearing to open a conversation about ‘constitutional common sense gun laws’. Good luck. Ted Cruz, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, a Josh Hawley and practically the entire sedition caucus sits on Judiciary.

Durbin says we can’t solve this with prosecutions after funerals. We need prevention before shooting.👏🏻👏🏻

He says we need to (this is the part that would become law):
- Set a goal to reduce number of deaths.
- Collect and study data
- identify cause and risk factors
- Apply intervention and risk strategies to make the numbers come down.

Nowhere in this list of things Durbin outlines is going to ‘Take your guns’. If Republicans are against this proposal, they are against simply learning why this is such a problem. They don’t want to study and make a decision based on facts. Sound familiar? Pandemic much?

Durbin compares guns to opioids. He says they both have a legitimate use and are legal products, they actually did something to try to stop the opioid crisis. Why not do something to try to stop gun violence?

Durbin also mentions gun show loophole and background check loopholes. These are areas for common sense reform.
#HR8FixesThat

congress.gov/bill/117th-con…

Witnesses for today:
Dr. Selwyn Rogers Trauma doc from University of Chicago.
Brouley
Spagnola
I will misspell these names all day and I apologize in advance.

Ranking member Chuck Grassley (F-IA) this m%#$&f**er right here...(deep breath) begins by telling us we have seen people destroy others businesses over the summer! He is blaming George Floyd protests. This is racist both sidesing but then again,expected from disinfo caucus.

https://twitter.com/wisewinston/status/1291910713607434243

Yesterday 10 people were killed. The only one the Republicans care about is the officer because it helps to push their narrative. Grassley wants to ensure ‘fully funded police’ again this is not prevention it is response. He uses ‘defund the police’ as his means to justify this.

‘Defund the police’ is the ambiguity Republicans love to exploit. They remove the context and beat pragmatic people over the head with it. They know what the phrase means but they use it to fuel their gaslighting. Political ‘I’m not touching you’ with an outstretched finger.

I don’t know if I can do this today. Seriously, these Republicans are giving me ptsd. Forgive me for letting my person views get into the way of the hearing. I’ll try to do better.

Grassley(F-IA) cont. He introduced a bill that would train officers and schools on how to recognize people displaying signs of crisis. (The gun in their hand may be a useful sign don’t you think?)

Perhaps we could call social workers instead of cops Chuck? Ever think of that?

He says Stoneman Douglas school shooter exhibited 42 warning signs before shooting his classmates.

What were those warning signs? Why weren’t these signs picked up by police/soldiers in tactical gear in armored transport vehicles?🤔

Maybe you funded the wrong things huh?

Grassley is cosponsor of a bill that would deny someone who is not legally eligible under the law to buy a gun. This is a start. People who shouldn’t have guns, should t have guns. I couldn’t buy alcohol before I turned 21. Makes sense.

He also wants to reintroduce the ‘preserve the second amendment act.’ This bill ensures that records are uploaded to gun databases in a timely and consistent manner. But the name of the bill suggests something else entirely. It’s a campaign slogan, it won’t curb gun violence.

The bill also allows for study (bipartisan agreement on study👍🏻) and alerts police if someone attempting to buy a gun is a suspected terrorist.

Me: it is crazy these things don’t already exist.

Blumenthal Judiciary Subcommittee chairman (D-CT)
This horror is predictable. Fig leaves, thought and prayers offered from the other side can’t save 24,000 people killed every year, 26 Blacks killed everyday. Thoughts and prayers are not enough and it’s all we’ve heard from R’s.

There is no mystery to what needs to be done. CT has strong gun laws, but guns don’t respect state boundaries. This feels different. Biden shares the passion to fix this. Majority leader has promised a vote on common sense laws.

NRA is bankrupt financially and morally, we have to do something while they are on their heels.

Me: Blumenthal gets it.

Says without a gun, the guy in Atlanta is just a racist and a misogynist. But with a gun bought that day, he became a monster and a mass murder. We need background checks. Protect domestic violence victims, safe storage standards.

Cruz (F-Cancun) mentions all the places he went after shootings. Says he’s been to too damn many of these. He agrees there is time to do something. Says every time this happens we get together to do nothing.

He blames dems for wanting to take guns from law abiding citizens.

They never said that. He is lying again. Cruz says we need to go after the murderers. You see Raphael, they are not murderers until they murder someone. You’re thinking of Minority Report. He wants to lock up mentally ill. Whoever gave him that mullet haircut is a candidate.

He defends his right to pray. He says he wants Grassley-Cruz bill (putting mentally ill in jail) but funny Grassley didn’t even recommend this. Cruz brings up the filibuster. Blames democrats for filibustering a shite bill says don’t do it again.

Cruz read green eggs and ham on the Senate floor as a means of filibuster.

Feinstein (D-CA) hey, do you guys remember there was an assault weapons ban? Since it expired, 183% increase in massacres, 239% increase in massacre deaths.

Weird how when there was an assault weapons ban these numbers were down?🤔

These things are just not going to stop. I’ve been listening for a quarter of a century and it just doesn’t stop. What are we going to do about it? She is begging the members of this committee. These are her last acts in the Senate.

Kennedy (F-LA) also wants to do something about but wants to keep this in perspective...
It’s tragic, but we have a lot of drunk drivers. We ought to combat that too. The answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers.

Not enough bat shit crazy for you? Ok...Kennedy then continues on to bring up ‘the Muslims’. You know, they blow up buildings and that. He says we need to keep this in mind.

He is useless to America, but useful for Russia. I say that because he was on this trip👇🏻

https://twitter.com/dempseytwo/status/1308815083968122882

Sen Kennedy must not remember the last building blown up was blown up by a white guy in Tennessee on Christmas. Or the time before that a white guy blew up a church, or the time before that a white guy blew up a building in Oklahoma, or the time before that, a white guy blew...

The remote witness audio is not great. Robin Brule looks sad. She has lost a loved one. I can’t listen to her because the audio is so bad. I’ll return for questions to the witnesses.

You know what...this is a waste of time. Please watch this hearing for yourself and form your own opinion. For me, just going through the opening statements is enough to show me that one side is protecting people, the other is protecting guns.

We can’t move forward as a nation because there is literally one political party with a gun to the head of democracy.
If we must end the filibuster for that gun to be put down, then we must end it. We can no longer be held at gunpoint by those who would overthrow the government.

https://twitter.com/DempseyTwo/status/1346890455041126402

There is an intransigence that has permeated the Republican Party. They are not working with us, they are working against us. This is untenable. End the filibuster, end the violence. This hearing isn’t going to get better. Hawley or Lee will likely make it worse.
I’m out.
END