The eloquent cartoon shows a bubba-type gun-lover wearing a NRA (National Rifle Association) baseball cap. He is triumphantly waving fearsome automatic weapon in one hand, and the other hand has grabbed the testicles of a lawmaker representing the US Congress. The caption reads: "...and keep a firm grip on your weapon at all times."
It was this reality that senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat was referring to when yet another gun control measure sponsored by him failed on Senate floor on Monday. "I'm mortified by today's vote but I'm not surprised by it," fumed the lawmaker, whose state saw the Newtown massacre. "The NRA has a vicelike grip on this place."
It's not the first time, he's not the only one, and it's not the only measure. America is in the throes of gun love. Nowhere is partisan politics and collapse of consensus more evident than in the gun control debate in the US Congress, where Democrats and Republicans just can't agree on measures to curb the menace that takes far more American lives than terrorism or war.
On Monday, every proposal submitted by both Democrats and Republicans was shot down -either because it went too far or didn't go far enough. That included proposals which would have prevented those on the no-fly list, or those who had been diagnosed as mentally ill, from buying guns. Some Democratic lawmakers were so angry that they likened the development to Senate Republicans selling guns to Islamic State (IS).
Given that the vote came in the cusp of a fierce election battle, including for control of the Congress, the voting was partisan to a great extent, but also factored in re-election dynamics.
So senator Mark Kirk, a vulnerable Republican from Illinois, voted with the Democrats. On the other side, senator Heidi Heitkamp, a shaky Democrat from the gun-loving state of North Dakota, voted with Republicans. New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte voted both ways, leading Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid to compare her position to doing yoga on the Senate floor.
More proposals are due on the Senate floor on Tuesday, but most of them remain half-measures that barely address the bloodshed arising from Newtown, San Bernardino, Orlando and scores of other carnages that have ravaged American life.
"What am I going to tell 49 grieving families?" Florida Democrat senator Bill Nelson, asked after the votes, referring to the Orlando massacre. "I am going to tell them the NRA won again."
Since Orlando, a gun store has sold over 30,000 AR-15 assault rifles online
A gun store in the United States has sold more than 30,000 AR-15 assault rifles in a week on its website. Hunter's Warehouse, based in Bellevue, Pennsylvania, claims that since the killing of 49 people in the Orlando nightclub shooting, the AR-15 has been very popular among buyers. A semi-automatic version of the military's M-16 assault rifle, the AR-15 was used in the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, San Bernadino Inland Regional Centre and Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The owner of Hunter's Warehouse, Tom Engle, told Fox Business: "In particular the AR-15 has been selling very, very well. Shootings don't push up gun sales. It's when the government starts talking about banning particular guns and up go gun sales."
