Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley is “pissed” about the nation’s unwillingness to pass gun control, he told supporters in an email Friday.
O’Malley, who is looking to galvanize the left in order to mount a credible primary challenge to frontrunner Hillary Clinton, looked to build his email list with an “I’m pissed” subject line and boasted about his poor grades from the gun-rights lobby.
“I proudly hold an F rating from the (National Rifle Association), and when I worked to pass gun control in Maryland, the NRA threatened me with legal action, but I never backed down,” O’Malley said in the email. “What we did in Maryland should be the first step of what we do as a nation.”
The former Maryland governor called for a national assault weapons ban, stricter background checks and fingerprint requirements that could reduce straw-buying.
After the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in late 2012, President Barack Obama spent the first months of his second term pushing for a package of gun-control legislation, but Republicans, backed by the NRA, successfully thwarted those bills on Capitol Hill. Few Democrats or gun-control advocates are hopeful that much will change after a white gunman killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina this week.
“I’m pissed that we’re actually asking ourselves the horrific question of, what will it take? How many senseless acts of violence in our streets or tragedies in our communities will it take to get our nation to stop caving to special interests like the NRA when people are dying?” O’Malley asked supporters.