Week In Review 2-14-2020

On February 14, 2018, it was a sunny morning, like any other in Parkland, Florida. As the day began, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Students were getting ready for school. Teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were reviewing lesson plans.

 

Then at 2:21 pm the shooting began. When it was over the nation would mourn another 17 people killed in a school. Life was forever changed in Parkland. Maybe now the country was ready for change too.

 

The Parkland students quickly grabbed our attention and stirred our emotion with a call to action. They were ready to get the results that the older generations failed to accomplish -- meaningful gun safety legislation. 

 

Today, two years later on the anniversary of the school shooting, we are still struggling to end gun violence in this country. The U.S. continues to have the most deaths from gun violence of any developing country. There were more mass shootings than days in 2019. We have seen 2,375 mass shootings since Sandy Hook.

With the Democrats firmly in control of the House following the 2018 midterm election, the new Congress quickly acted on gun violence prevention legislation.  The House overwhelmingly passed a historic bill to ensure that all firearm sales are subject to background checks. Before it even arrived on Sen. Mitch McConnell's desk, he declared the bill dead.

The House continues to work on gun violence prevention, introducing and passing bills. Senate Democrats have also taken up this fight in their chamber. But as long as the GOP is control, there will never be action.

The nation's attention is currently focused on the presidential race. But we can't lose sight of the importance of keeping the House blue and flipping the Senate.We only need to win 4 Senate seats to take the gavel from McConnell.

If we don't do this, then even if Trump is defeated, Congress will still be stymied. 

It's not just about the White House, but the House and Senate too. Elections matter.