"Thoughts and Prayers"? What About NRA Donations? Gun Control?

Caption: A self-proclaimed Duck Dynasty aficianado. When I met him, I'd hoped he was a fan of ZZ Top.

Another day, another mass school shooting. Seventeen children and adults are dead in Broward County, Florida, and Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old, was arrested. His adoptive mother, 67, had just died around Thanksgiving 2017. He moved in with the family of a friend and brought his AR-15 with him. The gun was locked up, but he had the key. He was known to be troubled and angry. He was expelled from school and posted disturbing Instagram photos of an arsenal of guns on his bed and a bloody frog. He bragged about shooting animals.

"All he talked about was guns," one of his fellow students said.

So many signals, yet he still had possession of an AR-15; he was still able to buy more rounds of ammunition. He was a known threat but nothing was done other than expelling him from school. Students knew that if anyone shot up the school it would be him. Several students are critically injured and barely clinging to life.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called it "A terrible day you pray never comes." No action, no thoughts about gun control. Marco Rubio has accepted $3,303,355 in contributions from the National Rifle Association (NRA). Click here for some of the furious and outraged tweets on his hypocrisy: "You chose money over dead kids" was one tweet.

Our own Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is one of the top 10 recipients of NRA money also. She's raked in $3,134,273 from the NRA so far. Rep. David Young (R-3rd Dist., IA) is one of the top House recipients of NRA funds. He's received $707,662 so far.

Pres. Donald Trump has done his part. Possibly in return for the NRA's thoughtful bankrolling of his 2016 presidential campaign to the tune of $30.3 million, in February 2017 Trump rolled back an Obama-era rule and made it easier for mentally ill people such as those on Social Security disability for mental illness to get access to guns. As he laments the dangers of the mentally ill, the hypocrisy of his actions has not gone unnoticed. Now, as a result of Trump's actions, a person on Social Security disability for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder with Major Clinical Depression can go out and buy a weapon. What a good idea (sarcasm).

Trump is right about one thing. Signals were missed before the latest school shooting. Everyone knew Nikolas Cruz was trouble. But Trump said nothing about gun control, and he's personally made it easier for very stressed, mentally ill people to get access to semi-automatic weapons.

As for the hypocrites like Senators Marco Rubio, Joni Ernst, and Rep. David Young? We have to vote them out of office for being hypocrites and accessories to murder before more of our children are lost. All of the top recipients of NRA dollars in the U.S. Senate and House are Republicans. Ninety-five of the top 100 Congresspersons in the House receiving NRA donations are Republicans. Only a few Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WVa.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and a few Democratic Congresspersons get NRA funds, but they're way down on the NRA's funding list.

I also suggest giving money to gun control advocates like

https://everytown.org/

because we need a gun control political action committee (PAC) as rich or richer than the NRA, which is buying votes in Congress to continue the out-of-control massacres made just too easy by Congress and the president giving access to anyone and everyone who wants an assault weapon.