Strollers abandoned, parents hiding children in dumpsters, flags covered in blood. Over July 4 holiday weekend, more than 220 were gunned down & killed in the US.
This heartbreaking carnage is unique to America - but we can end it if we turn our anger into action. Here’s how (🧵)
Uvalde, Pulse, & Sandy Hook all used assault weapons. Any gun that can shoot dozens of people in
less than a minute should not be available for civilian use.
The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban worked, & we’ve got to reinstate it by passing @RepCicilline and @SenFeinstein’s bill. 1/
If 50% of all of the guns in the United States disappeared overnight, we would still have more guns per capita than ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
We solve this by passing the Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act introduced by @RepDonaldPayne. 2/
Right now, the law makes the gun industry exempt from being sued in most cases. This is outrageous.
We need to crack down on reckless gun dealers/manufacturers by passing @RepAdamSchiff’s Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act to repeal their liability shield. 3/
We also need to pass @DickDurbin and @RepBarbaraLee’s Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act to allow FBI and ATF to collect, preserve, and disclose gun records and tracing data necessary to properly investigate and prevent gun violence to make our communities safer. 4/
Over half of all partner homicides are committed with guns.
That means we’ve got to pass the No Guns for Abusers Act by @RepSwalwell, authorizing DOJ to make grants for state & local governments to remove firearms from individuals who are charged with or convicted of DV. 5/
After Buffalo and Uvalde, the House passed the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, a lifesaving 🚩law supported by >70% of Americans to temporarily remove access to firearms for those deemed a danger to themselves or others by a federal court. The Senate MUST pass it. 6/
The Senate MUST pass the House-passed Bipartisan Background Checks Act & the Enhanced Background Checks Act (supported by 90% of Americans) to establish universal background checks + increase the time a federal firearms licensee must wait while a background check is conducted. 7/
In Illinois, guns trafficked across state lines comprise two-thirds of the total number of illegally possessed crime guns. Illinois is not alone in this. 8/ wqad.com/article/news/c…
To stop the flow of crime guns into IL, we must pass my Gun Trafficker Detection Act to require gun owners to report their lost/stolen gun within 48 hours, along with @RepKelly’s House-passed bill to make gun trafficking & straw purchasing stand-alone federal criminal offenses.9/
Aside from being A) necessary to save lives from the gun violence epidemic & B) supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans, what these actions have in common is that they will not become law with the filibuster in place. The Senate must #EndTheFilibuster to save lives.10/
But before we #EndTheFillibuster, we can pass @RepDonBeyer’s Assault Weapon Excise Act *designed to bypass the filibuster with 50 votes* to would impose a 1000% excise tax on the manufacturer, importer or producer of assault weapons & high capacity magazines. 11/
After Uvalde, I read the names of the 665 children 11-years-old & younger killed by guns so far this year, unable to even make it through the first page. Today that number is 846.
How many lives will it take before 50 US Senators have the courage to act?
Today is a sad day for any American concerned about protecting the sanctity of our democracy and preserving the rights of women to make their own health care decisions. 1/
On January 6th, after watching a mob storm the United States Capitol, a majority of the House Republican Conference tried to finish the job. 2/
Mike Johnson didn’t just vote to overturn the results of a free and fair election. He was the chief architect of the legal framework that his colleagues said empowered them to do so. 3/
In September, I asked the CEOs of @JPMorgan and @WellsFargo why they were sponsors of the State Financial Officers Foundation (@SFOF_States) — an organization that is driving financial risk and spreading misinformation about JPM and Wells Fargo.
THREAD 🧵1/
SFOF may have a neutral-sounding name, but the work they've done over the last year is harmful, and it's bizarre that big banks would be complicit in boycotting climate-related financial risk management that harms their business models. 2/
The CEOs of JPMorgan and Wells Fargo told me in an @FSCDems hearing they would likely withdraw their sponsorship if I could show that SFOF was spreading misinformation about their companies/preventing the free allocation of capital. 3/
🚨BREAKING: @SenDuckworth and I just introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure ALL education professionals have access to family and medical leave.
#COVID19 has made even clearer what we already knew: workers need access to family and medical leave to keep themselves, their families, and our communities safe.
Janitorial staff
Social workers
Paraeducators
Clerical support professionals
Maintenance workers
Foodservice employees
Bus drivers
Work every day to support our nation’s students. They ALL deserve access to family and medical leave.
This is fantastic. As #HotFERCSummer taught us, using humor (such as my terrible dad jokes) to get more folks talking about the #ClimateCrisis can make a real difference. Comedians, cable news hosts, & yes - Members of Congress - should do much more of it. nytimes.com/2021/09/15/art…
Have you ever wondered why it is that two-thirds of Americans think government should do more to #ActOnClimate and over 90% of Americans support background checks, yet we’ve made virtually zero progress on either issue?
So what is ALEC anyway? I’ll let @iamjohnoliver explain it to you and then I’ll pick off where the folks at @LastWeekTonight left off back in 2014.
@IamJohnOliver’s description of @ALEC_States as a conservative bill mill responsible for every disastrous anti-climate law you could imagine was true then and it’s true now.
But 6 years later, ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption isn't just as shady as it sounds, it’s even shadier.
After reading, in full, the House Intelligence Report, House Judiciary Report, the Articles of Impeachment, and hearing from constituents, I have decided to take the solemn step to vote to impeach the President for abusing the powers of his office for his own personal gain.
My career as a scientist and businessman has taught me that facts must be the basis for any decision. Those facts have led me to this decision.
The facts are clear: President Trump withheld military aid to an ally, pressured a foreign government to interfere in our elections, and then systematically obstructed Congress’ ability to learn the truth of his actions.