Today, the gun lobby-owned Teapublicans in the US Senate filibustered a bill calling for expanded background checks. As a result, the bill failed on a vote of 54-46. It needed 60 votes to break the filibuster of rootin’, tootin’, shootin’ Teapublicans.

So the Teapublican senators would rather allow criminals and the mentally ill easy access to guns than risk angering the NRA and gun manufacturers!

These are the very same senators who were outraged (outraged, I say!) that the ATFE allowed a few guns to slip across the border in an attempt to get at the leaders of Mexican drug cartels who were using Arizona’s lax gun laws to purchase them through straw buyers. They were outraged by that, yet they’re seemingly unconcerned that thousands of felons and criminally insane will be allowed to continue to purchase military-style guns and ammunition through gun shows, the Internet and person-to-person sales without so much as a background check!

How many more mass murders will it take for our nation to take gun safety seriously? How many more drive-by shootings? How many more innocent children and young adults will have to die?

Nearly 90 percent of Americans are in favor of expanded background checks, including a majority of NRA members. It would seem that the only Americans against such sensible measures are criminals, NRA leaders, gun manufacturers and Teapublican politicians. (And it’s increasingly difficult to tell these groups apart!)