Newtown neighbors asked a tough question Tuesday night: what’s next for the gun control debate?
Citizen groups created after the Sandy Hook School shooting have tried to maintain a voice in the national conversation. They held a forum Tuesday night to plan their next move.
Some say the U.S. Senate’s defeat of legislation to expand background checks on the sale of firearms means the country, or at least the country’s politicians, aren’t ready for action. But those in Newtown won’t accept that.
“To pass the Brady Bill that we did in 1994 … that took six or seven votes on the floor,” said Colin Goddard, a survivor of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. “It took three different congresses to pass, it took three different presidents to pass, so it takes some time.”
Members of the Newtown Action Alliance have described their mission as a marathon, not a sprint. But U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the pace has picked up since e the Senate vote.
“The leadership of the Senate has pledged as recently as (Tuesday) that this bill will be brought back and we’ll have another vote,” Blumenthal said.
Members of the Newtown Action Alliance are calling on citizens to pressure the 45 Senators who voted against the background checks bill into changing their minds. Dave Eckert, founder of the organization, said lawmakers “who care more about their NRA ratings than they do about the safety of their neighborhoods back home will be out of a job soon enough.”