OPINION: Tom MacArthur fights for the NRA, not for us.

ABOVE: Derived from Lorie Shaull on Flickr (license)

A letter to the editor by Geoff Ginter of Pine Beach, NJ

It’s been over a month since the shooting in Parkland, Florida that robbed seventeen people of their lives, and ripped apart the psyches of hundreds more. It’s been more than five months since the Las Vegas, Nevada shooting that massacred 58 people and injured 851 more. All for the crime of wanting to enjoy a concert. And it’s been more than five years since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that ended the lives of twenty-eight people including twenty children. We can almost recite them all by name: Sutherland Springs, University of Texas, The Orlando Nightclub shooting, Virginia Tech, Columbine. The list is seemingly without end. There’s so many. A list of shame. As a nation, we have no more “thoughts and prayers” to give. We gave at the office. It’s all we gave. Enough, already. We have a problem and it must be dealt with. And U.S. Rep Tom MacArthur has shown that he’s not interested in solving it.

He’s had years to come up with a plan to solve it. Be it the ‘simple plan’ so many wish it were, or the complicated plan to fix the complicated problem that it is. Yet, despite all the time he’s been in office, and all of the tragedies so many have endured in that time, you won’t find a bill with his name on it suggesting, say, background checks on all gun sales. You won’t find a bill with his name on it suggesting waiting periods of any length for any gun purchase. How about a ban on bump stocks? Nope. No bill with his name on it that even discusses guns in any way. Unless…

…unless you count his love of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity act, HR 38. Tom MacArthur would subject New Jersey to the lowest common denominator for gun safety. He would put our lives at risk and our children’s lives. He would put us all at the mercy of other states that have precious little in the way of gun safety laws. Oh, yes. For that, he cares a great deal.

But, it’s not like there are no bills in congress for him to co-sponsor, if he really didn’t want to stick his neck out and do something on his own. But that would probably mean partnering with a democrat. On the issue of guns. The NRA would eat him alive because that’s not what they pay him to do. But, instead of taking a principled stand to save lives, he’s decorated a chair and says ‘no’. He won’t do anything himself, and he won’t support any efforts from others.

Yes. I’m swooning over the leadership.

Not to mention his efforts to gut Medicaid and Medicare, both with his disastrous ‘MacArthur Amendment’ for the AHCA health care debacle, which luckily failed,  but also in this latest GOP Tax plan, which unfortunately succeeded. If MacArthur agrees that Mental Health is an issue involved in mass shootings, then why is he doing all he can to defund existing programs that would help with exactly that?

Clearly, Tom has a plan. For himself and for those who have a similar bank account. This will not do. In 2018, vote for Andy Kim. Vote for a return to democracy, where congressional seats aren’t bought by oligarchs and decorated by millionaires looking for a good gig.

Vote for the return of your voice in the House of Representatives. It’s your house. We need a servant. Not a master. Vote Andy Kim in November.

From Lorie Shaull on Flickr (license)

Editor’s note: The opinions in this letter are the author’s only.

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