Two years after the Tucson shooting that left her with a bullet in her chest, former congressional aide Pam Simon is furious at the lack of Congressional action. "I'm outraged that it's been two years and Congress has done absolutely nothing to make any changes in the gun violence in our country," she said on PoliticsNation.
She described the Newtown school shootings as an "unmitigated tragedy" but takes some comfort in the post-shooting public debate about gun violence. "The important thing is, we cannot let this conversation drop," she said. "Finally, at last, people are beginning to talk about this."
Simon is pleased that Vice President Biden, who's leading a task force in the wake of the Newtown shooting, will meet will NRA leaders this week. "Until we start coming together we're never going to find a solution," she said. "I believe that this time, perhaps, we have the momentum. Certainly, I know that the average citizen behind it."
Biden's task force is already looking at a handful of measures to pursuing, including universal background checks, a weapons tracking database, and strengthened mental health checks. Simon says those ideas are "so common sense, you can't figure out why we didn't do it before." She is especially interested in universal background checks, pointing out that "there's many more steps you have to go through to own and license a car than a gun."
"Let's just start with having every gun go through a background check. Compare that to getting on a plane," Simon asks. "Would you get on a plane where half the people had not gone through the metal detector? No, of course not."
You can join Pam Simon and other activists pushing Congress to take action at demandaplan.org