Henry Waxman and Background Checks (Someone Should Check out His Background

Congressman Henry Waxman just sent out another missive on his campaign listserv. Waxman is already in high gear to keep his seat, one he which he barely won last year, mostly because Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney diminished the voter turnout for conservative voters.

His lastest release is unimpressive, to say the least. Instead of taking on the Republican leadership for "denying science" about "climate change", Waxman slammed United States Senators who had voted against the "background checks" legislation, a bipartisan effort from Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia).

Dear Friend,

Last month, a group of Senators voted to filibuster bipartisan legislation that would expand criminal and mental health background checks for gun purchasers. 

For the first time in years, if not ever, Waxman could not target Republicans as the prime instigators of inaction. A greater number of Democrats, in Red States who face reelection in 2014, voted against the measure. President Obama wanted to push a poison pill bill from the Democratically-controlled Senate onto the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, so that Obama could blame the Republicans up for election in 2014 for thwarting his agenda. His plan backfired, and Obama ended up shooting himself and his party in the foot.

The legislation would simply extend the same background checks currently require for sales at gun stores to online and gun show sales.  Although polls show
 that nearly 90% of Americans - and even a majority of NRA members - support
this modest, commonsense measure, the leadership of the NRA furiously fought
it and won the first round of the battle.

It's amazing that for all the emotional pandering and guilt-tripping from grieving interest groups and mainstream media stays, the real problem which made Sandy Hook Elementary School an "easy target" was the gun free zone provisions which prevented any armed personnel from protecting the school and the students

Fortunately, the harsh public backlash has caused a number of these Senators to rethink their votes, and the authors of the legislation believe they may now be able to get enough votes to defeat the filibuster and pass the bill.  We have an opportunity to strengthen gun control for the first time in nearly twenty years, and be must not lose this momentum.

In New Hampshire, where US Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire) voted against the legislation, a growing consensus of her constituents support her decision to vote against the bill. As for the Democratic senators who voted against the Toomey-Manchin package, they are facing heavy campaigning and attack ads from the left, which will certainly hurt their chances of reelection.

I will be working as hard as I can to get expanded background checks enacted and to close other gaping holes in our gun laws.  I am the cosponsor of H.R. 1506, which would prohibit individuals on the terrorist watch list from obtaining firearms in the U.S., and H.R. 138, which would outlaw the purchase of high-capacity ammunition clips, which allow shooters to fire off as many as 100 rounds without stopping to reload.

It is both laughable and lamentable that Congressman Henry Waxman is jumping on the gun control bad-wagon at this time, when the country faces a sixteen trillion dollar national debt, Los Angeles County is the unintended "home" for tens of thousands of homeless veterans, and the Brentwood VA, under Waxman's congressional jurisdiction, remains uninhabited and
uninhabitable.

You can count on me to do what I can to address one of the most pressing public safety challenges of our time and fight to protect our families and communities from gun violence.

Recent statistics demonstrate that gun crime has diminished considerably in the last twenty years, this per President Obama's own Justice Deparment . According to Pew Research , however, the majority of Americans are unaware of the drop in crime, as well as the higher rate of gun ownership among women, and support for handgun bans is also at an all-time low . First, Waxman claims that "climate change" is the crisis of the new century, then he wants to after more sweeping background checks. Perhaps voters should check out his legislative background, where they will find a long record of voting against tax cuts and ignoring the plight of homeless veterans, along with a blatant disregard for our nation's national debt.

Of course, his skewed priorities are understandable. After all, as Oversight Committee Chairman, he investigated steroid abuse in baseball (even though he had no working knowledge of the steroid laws) as well as the dangers of lead in toys. As Chairman of the Energy Committee, he did not know the details of his 900 page Cap and Trade Bill (or likely the last-minute three
hundred page amendment). As ranking member of the same, he showed little regret or remorse for the billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on green tech companies.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman

I hope that the voters in the 33rd Congressional District get sincerely tired of their Congressman pursuing inane issues while ignoring more pressing matters, like our country's byzantine tax code, or the damning damage inflicted by Obama-WaxmanCare. With unprecedented doctor shortages, higher premiums, higher taxes, and declining access, any candidate with a credible resume and a calculated campaign should be able to take down Waxman in 2014 (since a bad standard-bearer will not be depressing the conservative vote).