Republican NRA supporters in the US Senate shot dead today a proposal to toughen background checks for proud Second Amendment murderers who want to buy a bazooka in order to better massacre America’s children.

Former US Congressman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head at a townhall meeting, is not pleased.

This is a snippet of a much longer op ed she wrote in the NYT – read it.

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them…. I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences. People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.

Giffords is spot-on about getting in their faces and yelling at them. It is the only thing, other than money, that works with these people. And liberals don’t do it, at least not nearly as much as conservatives do. Gun nuts are happy to yell. Hell, they use the fact that everyone thinks they’re crazy to their advantage. “Don’t clamp down too far on guns or who knows what the NRA supporters will do!”

There’s a reason everyone worried that the Boston Marathon bombing was done by some anti-government gun nut. And there’s a reason why so much of the political violence over the years has been created by religious rights nuts – whether it’s shooting abortion doctors or bashings gays – while I can only think of one case case of violence from a gay rights supporter, and he didn’t even kill anyone. Look at the domestic terrorists we’ve had over the years, and how many were for liberal causes and how many conservative? Their side is crazier, and louder, and more violent prone than ours, and they’re happy to use it to full advantage.

Now, I’m not suggesting we embrace their violence. I am, however, suggesting that we embrace their tone of voice. Get in your elected officials’ faces and yell at them. It’s why the Teabaggers were so effective scaring the bejesus out of Democrats in 2009 at all those townhall meetings, and it’s why Republicans were so effective scaring Florida election officials, and ultimately the Supreme Court, in 2000.

Republicans aren’t afraid to unleash their inner-crazy. It’s time Democrats did the same.

Here’s some of our previous coverage on the background check issue: