Bob Casey Vegas response

[rellisonii]

Dear Mr. E

Thank you for taking the time to contact me about gun violence. I appreciate hearing from you.

Multiple-casualty shootings are devastating families and ravaging neighborhoods on an almost daily basis around this country. Gun violence in the United States has reached extreme levels, with approximately 33,000 Americans killed by firearms every year. Among that number in 2012 were the 20 small children, just six and seven years old, and six adults who were shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December of that year.

The Sandy Hook massacre affected me deeply. The shooter used a military-style assault weapon with magazines containing up to 30 rounds of ammunition. Realizing that he chose this weapon because he wanted to inflict the most damage in the shortest amount of time, that he would have tried to kill hundreds of children if he could have, led me to reevaluate how we approach gun violence as a Nation. After careful study, I decided to support legislation to close loopholes in the existing background check system, as well as legislation to institute a federal ban on military-style assault weapons and to restrict high-capacity magazines.

The Senate voted on several of these commonsense measures the spring after the Sandy Hook shooting. Shamefully, despite the scale of the tragedy at Sandy Hook, votes to expand background checks, ban military-style weapons and regulate large-capacity ammunition feeding devices all failed to gain enough support to pass.

In December 2015, after a year in which there were reportedly at least 355 mass shootings, nearly one every single day, the Senate again voted on gun safety measures. As it did in 2013, the Senate considered an amendment to improve the background check system. I voted in favor of this commonsense solution, but the amendment again failed. The Senate also voted on a piece of legislation I cosponsored that would close a loophole allowing known and suspected terrorists on the Terrorist Watchlist to purchase firearms. It is hard to see the logic in allowing suspected terrorists to acquire firearms, but 54 of my colleagues inexplicably voted this measure down as well.

The need to pass commonsense gun safety measures was tragically evident again on June 12, 2016, when a gunman with hate in his heart and claiming allegiance to ISIS walked into an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida, with a military-style rifle and a handgun. He killed 49 people and injured 53 others. Four Pennsylvanians, two injured and two killed, were among the victims of this brutal shooting, the worst in the history of the United States at that time.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, I prayed for the victims and their families. I still keep them in my thoughts. But, their trauma and grief deserve more than sympathy. Their loss demands that we take smart steps to control the crisis of gun violence in this country. That is why I introduced a piece of legislation called the Disarm Hate Act, which I reintroduced in the 115th Congress on June 8, 2017. This bill is simple: it would prohibit access to firearms to those convicted of violent misdemeanor hate crimes. If you have proven you will commit violent criminal acts based on bias against where someone comes from, how someone worships or whom someone loves, you should not have access to guns. It’s common sense.

It is also why I participated in a filibuster on the Senate floor on June 15, 2016, led by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Along with dozens of my colleagues, I went to the floor three times to demand that the Majority Leader schedule votes on commonsense gun safety measures. After the 15-hour filibuster, we were successful in getting votes on expanding background checks and closing the terrorist gun loophole. Yet again, unfortunately, both measures were defeated. While I was pleased to see these measures come up for a vote, I am in disbelief that so many of my colleagues refuse to take even the most simple and commonsense actions to combat the scourge of gun violence.

On October 1, 2017, we witnessed yet another mass shooting that would become the deadliest in our Nation’s history. A gunman, armed with multiple semi-automatic rifles, rained bullets over a country music concert in Las Vegas from his hotel window. The incident resulted in 59 deaths, including the gunman’s, and around 500 injuries. It was later determined that in the shooting he had used a “bump stock” device, a firearm accessory that can make a semi-automatic weapon fire at rates similar to those of a fully automatic weapon like a machine gun. In the wake of these reports, I joined Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and 28 of my colleagues in introducing the Automatic Gunfire Prevention Act, which would ban bump stock devices. This bill is a narrower version of the assault weapons ban I supported in 2013. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate majority will consider supporting this commonsense effort to prevent semi-automatic weapons from effectively being turned into fully automatic guns, which have been banned for most civilian use since the 1930s.

As we pray for the families and victims of this most recent tragedy, and as families across the country mourn their daughters, sons, parents and siblings whose lives are lost to the daily gun violence that pervades our streets, we must again commit ourselves to action. I refuse to accept that the best our Nation can do is simply enforce our current laws. It is not working. Too many families are devastated by gun violence, and too many others live in fear for their safety. We are a Nation of people who come together, roll up our sleeves and solve difficult problems. We can pass smart measures to reduce gun violence while fully respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. This problem is not going away, so we need to come together now. I will keep fighting to make our communities safe from gun violence.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.

For more information on this or other issues, I encourage you to visit my website, http://casey.senate.gov . I hope you will find this online office a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator

[Berks_Iraq_Vet]

Empty suit...and head. A domestic threat to liberty.

[Metz]

Sorry, couldn't finish reading. Threw up in the middle.

[theshadow]

I got the same reply, I responded asking:
So does this mean I can now stop paying taxes, since I have NO REPRESENTATION?

I've yet to hear back on that (won't hold my breath either).

[stainless]

Got the same in my morning email. Not shocking.

[God's Country]

Why torture yourself? You knew what the reply would be.

Even when I e-mailed Toomey a few years back and called him a back stabbing, piece of shit, democrat (literally) I received a letter that could have been from Casey.

They don't care. They laugh at us.

[Spirit of 76]

He is an enemy domestic to the liberty of all Americans.

Should be tried for perjury for falsely swearing out his solemn Oath of Office.

[Spirit of 76]

Sen. Casey (D-Enemy Domestic) must run in 2018, and he is going to have opposition.

State representatives Rick Saccone and Jim Christiana, as well as Congressman Lou Barletta, have announced.

See: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ace/611559001/

[middlefinger]

.

all these anti bills are dead. Ryan says he will not bring them to the floor.

bump stocks will be handled by the ATF

[Emptymag]

Any time you hear the term "gun violence", you know immediately that they do not stand with you, but firmly against you.