Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords had some harsh words for members of the Senate that voted against legislation to expand background checks on firearms sales.
Giffords, who survived being shot in the head at a rally near Tucson, Arizona in 2011, accused the Senators that voted against the bill of "cowardice," suggesting that their votes were based on fear of the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby.
The Senate voted 54 to 46 in favor of the compromise background check bill introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Pat Toomey, R-Penn., falling short of the 60 votes needed for approval. The vote largely came down along party lines, with most Republican Senators voting against the bill.
The proposal would have extended the existing background check system to gun shows and online sales but exempts temporary transfers and some private sales between friends and neighbors.
The bill also explicitly banned the government from creating a national firearms registry and imposed serious criminal penalties on anyone who misuses or illegally retains firearms records.
"On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms," Giffords wrote in an op-ed piece for the New York Times.
She added, "A bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count."
Giffords accused the Senators of ignoring polls showing overwhelming support for expanding background checks due to political fear of missing out on money from special interests like the NRA.
"Speaking is physically difficult for me," Giffords wrote. "But my feelings are clear: I'm furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe."
She added, "We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on."
Giffords urged Americans to keep pressuring lawmakers on the issue, arguing that the Senators that voted against the bill failed to do their job and should face the consequences.
"Our democracy's history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful," Giffords wrote. "On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list."
"If we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities' interests ahead of the gun lobby's," she added. "To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way."
Earlier this year, Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly established Americans For Responsible Solutions, an organization aimed at countering the influence of the gun lobby and promoting ways to prevent gun violence.
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