Greed

Wednesday’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that has left at least 17 kids dead is a good time to remember how hollow and vacuous many of our elected officials’ “thoughts and prayers” sentiments are. While the NRA and the Republican Party spend the next many hours discussing mental illness and how the real issue is the mental illness that they are completely unwilling to tackle regardless of how many people die, let’s remember that meaningful gun safety laws could be enacted right now. Those laws haven’t been created because the NRA owns the Republican Party. A few months ago the New York Times put together a list of the senators and congressmen and women who receive the most financial funding from the NRA. Here’s the list with each Republican:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) $7,740,521

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) $6,986,620

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) $4,551,146

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) $4,418,012

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) $3,879,064

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FLA) $3,303,355

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) $3,124,273

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) $3,061,941

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) $2,896,732

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) $2,861,047

Rep. French Hill (R-AR) $1,089,477

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) $800,544

Rep. David Young (R-IA) $707,662

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) $385,731

Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) $344,630

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) $245,720

Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) $221,736

Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) $201,398

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) $158,111

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) $137,232