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Progressives Praise Lewiston's Rep. Golden for Seeking Forgiveness, Backing Assault Weapon Ban
"It shouldn't have to take a tragedy in your own state to come around, but we welcome Rep. Golden in the fight to ban these weapons," said George Takei.
Oct 27, 2023
Progressives in Congress and on social media praised U.S. Rep. Jared Golden—one of the most conservative House Democrats—after he reversed course and embraced a ban on assault weapons following Wednesday night's mass shooting that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine.
"I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime," Golden said during a Thursday press conference, referring to the previous night's massacre at multiple locations. "The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown."
"For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress," said Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who has broken with his party to vote against gun control measures including universal background checks. "To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to the families who lost loved ones, and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings."
Numerous progressive U.S. lawmakers took to social media to thank Golden.
"This is so powerful from my colleague Rep. Golden. Thank you for your humility and for giving everything you have to this fight to ban assault rifles," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said on social media.
"My heart grieves for every lost life in your community and all those who are hurting and afraid," she added. "We must respond with action."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote: "I respect Rep. Golden for working to protect his community in the wake of tragedy and showing integrity by calling for an assault weapons ban."
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) asserted that "if more members of Congress had your courage, we could finally get these weapons of war off the streets and out of our communities."
Congresswoman Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said: "Jared Golden is facing a hard reelection campaign. He is making a choice that is the right thing to do for his district and for this country."
Gun control campaigner Fred Guttenberg—whose 14-year-old daughter Jamie Guttenberg was murdered in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida—said he is "truly thankful" that Golden "just apologized and called for an assault weapons ban."
"Honestly, though, I am sad and angry," he added. "Just imagine if he had before... Parkland or any other shooting. My message to any elected person is to support these measures before it happens in your community and before you need to apologize."
Actor and activist George Takei wrote that "one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, Jared Golden from Maine, has apologized for opposing a ban on assault weapons in the wake of the deadly shootings in his state."
"It shouldn't have to take a tragedy in your own state to come around, but we welcome Rep. Golden in the fight to ban these weapons," he added.
Maine's other House member, Rep. Chellie Pingree, told the Portland Press Herald Thursday that she has "always believed there was no good reason to own a military-style assault weapon."
Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine—for whom Golden once worked on the Senate Homeland Security Committee—dodged reporters who on Thursday asked if she would support an assault weapons ban.
"I think it is more important that we ban very high-capacity magazines," she said. "I think that would have more input and more effectiveness. Certainly, there's always more that can be done."
Maine's other U.S. senator, Independent Angus King, expressed his incredulity over the shooting, noting what he called a "deep and long history of safe gun use in the state."
Hours before the massacre—allegedly perpetrated by an Army reservist with a history of mental health issues who remains on the run—both Collins and King voted for an amendment that critics say will make it easier for U.S. veterans with mental illness to keep or get guns. The measure passed 53-45.
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One in Four US Senators Still Hold Fossil Fuel Investments Even as World Burns
Reporting reveals the households of at least 28 senators own a combined minimum of $3.7 million and as much as $12.6 million in fossil fuel assets.
Nov 05, 2021
As President Joe Biden aims to assure the world that the United States will fulfill its promise to slash its greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels by the end of the decade, a new report published Friday reveals that the members of the U.S. Senate who would have to pass climate legislation are heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry.
Sludgereports the households of at least 28 U.S. senators--in both the Democratic and Republican caucuses--hold a combined minimum of $3.7 million and as much as $12.6 million in fossil fuel investments.
\u201chttps://t.co/xq6EpTwJZM\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1636147411
According tothe report:
Of the 28 senators, at least 20 hold publicly traded stocks in companies like oil supermajor Chevron, pipeline giant Enterprise Products, or electric utility NextEra that belong to trade associations that are lobbying Congress against taking up strong legislation to curb polluting emissions.
Five senators are invested in energy funds built around oil and gas assets, and three own nonpublic stock in private fossil fuel companies. The investments, held by the senators, their spouse, jointly, or a dependent, are disclosed to the Senate Office of Public Records in very broad ranges and often buried in hundreds of pages of scanned paper forms, making a more precise count of their total value impossible.
At least half a dozen of the senators sit on environment- or climate-related committees. The household of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)--who has worked incessantly to destroy or dilute climate action in the Build Back Better Act and beyond--has received over $1 million in income from Enersystems, a coal brokerage firm the senator founded in the 1980s.
According to Sludge, Manchin "has stripped the Democrats' budget reconciliation bill of major climate programs that would have transitioned coal-fired plants like the one where the company, now run by his son, holds a prime fuel services contract," while the committee he chairs "also added more than $11.3 billion in funding to the bipartisan infrastructure bill that could benefit his family company's niche waste coal industry."
Other Democratic senators whose households are heavily invested in fossil fuels include:
- John Hickenlooper (Col.) holds up to $1 million in investments in Chevron and other polluters;
- Tom Carper (Del.) owns as much as $274,000 in Chevron and Duke Energy shares;
- Gary Peters (Mich.) has up to $355,000 in NextEra, DTE Energy, and Pacific Gas & Electric stock in his portfolio; and
- The wife of Angus King--a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats--owns up to $50,000 worth of NextEra shares.
Earlier this year, Common Dreams reported that six Democratic senators--Manchin, Chris Coons (Del.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Jon Tester (Mont.)--have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in combined campaign contributions from fossil fuel corporations, some of which have touted their purported support for climate action, over the past decade.
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Caving to NRA and Pro-Gun Democrats, Biden Withdraws ATF Nominee
"The White House's decision—and choice—to not put up a fight to confirm David Chipman to head the ATF is a significant failure that undermines the promises President Biden made while running for office."
Sep 09, 2021
Gun control advocates expressed outrage Thursday after the White House withdrew its nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives--a move critics said offered the latest illustration of the gun lobby's grip on lawmakers from both major political parties.
The Republican Party was unified in its opposition to David Chipman, a former special agent at ATF and senior policy advisor at Giffords, the gun control advocacy group founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, but it was ultimately three centrist members of the Democratic caucus who reportedly stood in the way of the nomination.
"It is hugely disappointing and unconscionable that 50 members of the U.S. Senate as well as at least one senator who caucuses with the president's party would deny President Biden his choice to lead the ATF."
--Kris Brown, Brady
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Angus King (I-Maine) reportedly faced pressure from pro-gun lobbyists in their home states, with King telling the White House in recent weeks that he would not support Chipman, according to the New York Times.
The White House needed the entire Democratic caucus to support the nominee to secure Chipman's confirmation.
Advocates who were hoping the bureau charged with regulating the gun industry would have its first Senate-confirmed director in six years expressed anger over the withdrawal.
"We have weak people serving in the Senate such as Sen. Angus King, who chose to listen to 'regulated industry,'" said Fred Guttenberg, a strong Biden supporter whose daughter was killed in the Parkland, Florida school shooting in 2018. "Sadly the White House failed to put up a fight on this."
\u201cShame on @SenAngusKing & @JoeManchinWV for choosing to side with the gun lobby. The reason why there has been only one Senate-confirmed ATF director in the last 15 years is because the gun industry profits when gun laws are not enforced. David Chipman should have been confirmed.\u201d— Newtown Action Alliance (@Newtown Action Alliance) 1631205813
"The White House's decision--and choice--to not put up a fight to confirm David Chipman to head the ATF is a significant failure that undermines the promises President Biden made while running for office," said Igor Volsky of Guns Down America. "We need Biden's leadership to address this crisis--and we need it now."
Chipman, who is a gun owner, has expressed support for universal background checks for gun purchasers, a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons like those that have been used in numerous mass shootings in recent years, and limits on high-capacity magazines.
At a 2019 congressional hearing, Chipman told lawmakers the federal government, in developing gun control legislation, must find a balance between "the rights of individuals and the rights of all Americans, and a human right not to get shot."
"Our nation's current gun violence crisis has made two things very clear: one, it is far too easy for violent people to get their hands on violent weapons," he added. "Two, the American people overwhelmingly want Congress to act now to make their communities safer."
A majority of Americans believe gun laws should be more strict, including 86% who support universal background checks and about 60% who support an assault weapon ban, according to Gallup.
Nearly 370 people were killed in mass shootings in the U.S. in the first half of 2021. Newsweekreported in March that the AR-15, the popular semi-automatic rifle that the NRA has marketed as "America's rifle," had been used in 26% of the 80 most recent mass shootings in the United States.
Amid the rising death toll of gun violence, the powerful gun lobby has successfully de-fanged the ATF, lobbying in the early 2000s to ensure the agency director needed to be confirmed by the Senate and then blocking all but one nominee ever put forward by the White House. The NRA has also pressured Congress to cut the ATF's budget and impose restrictions on how it regulates the gun industry. The organization celebrated its "huge victory" as Chipman's nomination was withdrawn.
On Thursday, the White House focused on the Republican Party's opposition to Chipman's nomination.
"He would have been an exemplary Director of the ATF and would have redoubled its efforts to crack down on illegal firearms traffickers and help keep our communities safe from gun violence," Biden said in a statement. "Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress have made clear that they intend to use gun crime as a political talking point instead of taking serious steps to address it."
Advocates, however, made clear their deep disappointment with the president's own party.
"It is hugely disappointing and unconscionable that 50 members of the U.S. Senate as well as at least one senator who caucuses with the president's party would deny President Biden his choice to lead the ATF," Kris Brown, president of the gun control group Brady, said in a statement. "It is immoral and indefensible that the only agency with regulatory oversight over the gun industry has been permitted to persist for so many years without leadership, because of the outsized influence the gun industry has."
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