"Demanding More Than Prayers, Resistance Groups Take on 'Unrepentant' NRA", Pray and Act to Support Gun Laws that Protect People

My Comment: Prayer leads us to action for justice, equality and non-violence. Now is the time for all of us to be prophets of non-violence in our country. Each of us has a voice and we can make a difference by supporting sensible gun laws that keep guns out of hands of mentally ill and criminals with background checks and banning automatic weapons that kill hundreds in minutes. It is time to stand up and be counted because we love our neighbors. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

"There's one reason why Congress consistently fails to take real action on gun violence: the National Rifle Association."

Jake Johnson, staff writer

 www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/03/demanding-more-prayers-resistance-groups-take-unrepentant-nra

Following the massacre of more than 50 concertgoers by an assault rifle-wielding gunman late Sunday in Las Vegas, advocacy groups that played a central role in defeating the GOP's deadly Obamacare repeal efforts turned their attention to taking on the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) and its many allies in Congress, arguing that they have helped enable the gun violence that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.

"Finally breaking the NRA's chokehold on Congress will require massive grassroots pressure on our elected officials." 
—CREDO Action"Congress has caved to the NRA after every mass shooting this decade, from Sandy Hook to San Bernardino, from Umpqua Community College in Oregon to the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, and so many more," Democracy for America said on Monday in a call for volunteers to run for office against NRA-backed members of Congress. "Republican elected officials offer their thoughts and prayers. They lower flags to half-staff. But they will never act to stop gun violence and mass shootings, because they're in league with the NRA."

"The NRA is unrepentant," the group added, concluding that the only way to eliminate the organization's pernicious influence is to "defeat them at the ballot box."

Following its well-known "public relations playbook," the NRA went into hiding after the Vegas massacre—but its money continues to flood the coffers of America's elected representatives.

According to a Washington Post analysis, the NRA has donated more than $3.5 million to current members of Congress. Forty-nine out of 100 U.S. senators and 258 of 435 members of the House have received cash from the NRA, the Post added.

And as Rafi Schwartz of Splinter News noted, many of these NRA-funded politicians took to social media Monday to offer their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims of the Vegas massacre, but were predictably silent on the need for serious changes to U.S. gun laws.