During a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) tried his best to suggest that Democrats were trying to push through radical gun safety laws in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
But Jordan was repeatedly fact-checked and shut down by Democrats on the committee, which was debating the Protecting Our Kids Act.
Jordan began his fact-free harangue with this:
“No one wants another tragedy, no one wants this to happen again. That’s why it’s regretful that Democrats have rushed to a markup today in what seems more like political theater than a real attempt at public safety or finding solutions. The Democrats never once reached out to us to seeking out before the legislation we are considering today. Protecting children is not a Republican or Democrat issue.”
The Ohio Republican also claimed that House Democrats had already passed gun control measures that he said were too radical to ever get a hearing in the Senate:
“Those bills are radical attempts to legislate away Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The Senate has not taken up the legislation, just like it won’t take up this bill. What we’re doing is designed to appeal to Democratic primary voters.”
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) laid some knowledge on Jordan, noting that guns were the largest cause of death for children and that since Columbine back in 1999, a staggering 311,00 students have been exposed to gun violence:
“Tell the parents who lost children, tell the family members who saw loved ones slaughtered that we are rushing. The real question is why has it taken us so long, and there is one reason: We don’t have Republican colleagues in the fight with us. We passed two bills to strengthen criminal background checks. Our ranking member described those as radical attempts to take away the Second Amendment. That is a bill supported by 90 percent of the American people. Common sense, as well as closing the Charleston loophole. Enough with these bogus arguments about the Second Amendment. This is about fulfilling our responsibility to keep our constituents safe from gun violence.”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) also lit into Jordan:
“The Democrats are not rushing anything. The public is demanding we take action because they have seen what happened in Uvalde, Texas, they have seen what happened in Buffalo, they have seen what happened in Tulsa. It is happening all too often. It is deadly. Assault weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004, it was constitutionally permissible. It wasn’t until 2008 and the Heller decision, when Justice [Antonin] Scalia said that people had a right based on the Second Amendment to protect their homes with reasonable weapons and said that that was not something that would prohibit government from having more restrictive laws on people with mental health problems or people who have criminal backgrounds or other possible changes in the law.”
Jim Jordan is one of the reasons there is no sensible gun control in this country. He’s nothing but a career politician who’s in the pocket of the gun lobby.
