Letter to the Editor - Money and Politics

Columbus Dispatch
June 19, 2013

Defending his vote against universal background checks for gun purchases, Senator Rob Portman is quoted in today’s Dispatch, (6/19, page A15), saying “We want to do things that are actually going to help.”

The obvious question is: “Help who?”

According to the organization ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ Senator Portman received $1,314,279 in campaign donations from the gun manufacturers.  Certainly his vote helped them.

When I called his offices in Columbus and in D.C. to ask if the Mayors’ accusation was accurate, I was given a non-answer.

In the six months since the tragedy in Newtown, Congress has done nothing while “more people have died at the hand of a gun than we have lost in Afghanistan and Iraq” as V.P. Biden said.

Perhaps, if the rest of us all chipped in, he might do something that would actually help us.

Dave Girves