'Shame on You!' Shouted Mother to Congress After Failed Gun Control Vote
Two women were thrown out of the Capitol on Wednesday for shouting "shame on you" in response to Senate's refusal to expand background checks on guns. They called the group of senators an "embarrassment to this country."
"We are sick and tired of the death in this country and these legislators stand up there and think it's a bunch of numbers. There's been 187,000 Americans killed since Virginia Tech," Lori Haas of Richmond, Va. told CNN reporters.
Haas is especially passionate about increasing gun safety laws because her daughter was one of the 17 victims who was injured at Virginia Tech in 2007; 32 others were killed.
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"Shame on you!" Haas and a second woman shouted in the Senate chamber after lawmakers defeated a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks on gun sales. Vice President Joe Biden, who was presiding in the Senate, called for order and the women were expelled from the Capitol.
"Why did you scream at the lawmakers?" reporters asked the second woman, Patricia Maisch of Tucson, Ariz.
"Because they are an embarrassment to this country that they don't have any compassion or care for people who have been taken brutally from their families," she responded according to CNN.
While being dismissed from the Capitol, the women found plenty of support online.
"How many…?" one user asked on the CNN blog. "How many does it take?"
"If 22 first-graders (and 6 brave teachers) being mutilated by an AR-15 didn't do it. If the deaths of 3,492 Americans since Newtown didn't do it, just HOW [many] Americans have to die needlessly to get the attention of the filibustering Republicans in the Senate?" the user continued.
A second blogger also offered support.
"Thanks ladies for saying what so many of us feel! It's not just about mass shootings, but about how easy it is to get a deadly weapon in our nation! It's also about the epidemic of gun violence, that these congress people apparently feel it's the price we have to pay to protect the holy 2nd amendment!" the blogger wrote.
