Kirsten Gillibrand Tells Voters Their Lives Depend on Electing Democrats

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told voters that their “lives depend” on electing Democrats in the upcoming the Midterm elections in the wake of the mass shooting that claimed 21 lives in Uvalde, Texas earlier this week.

Speaking at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Gillibrand implored voters to “fight in this election like your life depends on it, because it truly does.” She claimed that the aftermath of Tuesday’s shooting at Robb Elementary School was a moment of “rage and fury,” which had to be channelled into the next election to seek restrictions on the use of firearms by defeating Republican candidates.

“It is crippling to be infuriated by the lack of action,” Gillibrand said, “by people who hold all the power.” She did not specify who these people were but pointed back to the Capitol — where both chambers of Congress have Democratic majorities. She further added that National Rifle Association, the leading pro-gun group in America, wanted to give weapons to “anyone, at any time, for any reason.” Her comments came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, pulled from a floor vote two bills that would restrict gun access.

Gillibrand suggested that the Uvalde shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos, used a “military-style weapon…designed to kill large numbers of people quickly, in a moment of war” in the assault on Robb Elementary School, which killed 19 students and two teachers.

Police have not confirmed the weapon that Ramos used, and conflicting reports have emerged suggesting that he may have used either a handgun, a semi-automatic rifle, or both. The United States military largely uses fully automatic assault rifles, which were not used by the shooter and not are available to civilians. “Nobody should be allowed to buy military-style weapons in the civilian world,” she added.

Gillibrand’s remarks are sharp departure from her formerly strong pro-gun positions. As a Representative for New York’s 20th Congressional District, which covers the upstate counties of Albany and Schenectady, Gillibrand had an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association and, in 2008, signed an amicus brief led by then-Vice President Dick Cheney supporting the defendants in District of Columbia v. Heller. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that possession of a firearm unconnected with militia use is a constitutionally protected right, which gun restriction groups have lamented. During her re-election campaign later that year, NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox said, “We are pleased to endorse this friend of freedom and fully support her reelection.”

The rally was organized by Moms Demand Action, a pro-gun restrictions group founded after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, and Students Demand Action, an equivalent group comprising young people. Gillibrand was joined by several Senate Democratic colleagues, including Alex Padilla (Calif.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.)

Gillibrand’s remarks come at a time when she is facing criticism for inaction in the Senate. Comments by a former staffer to the New York Post in January suggested that she had become “invisible” in the chamber, a point echoed by Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “She has done very little to cement that incumbency and the electorate is angry, and she has done nothing to address the issues that matter.” He added, “AOC can beat Kirsten Gillibrand.”

In the 116th Congress, Gillibrand missed 15 percent of all Senate votes. By contrast, New York’s senior senator, Chuck Schumer, missed fewer than 1 percent of them. In the 2020 presidential election, Gillibrand dropped out with fewer than 2 percent of support, and nearly failed to qualify for Democratic primary debates.

Meanwhile, a study by the non-partisan Center for Effective Lawmaking, jointly run by Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, ranked Gillibrand as one of the least effective Democrats in the chamber, with a score of 0.339 — a full 50 percent below the benchmark rating of 0.887, with no bills she introduced becoming law. Her action on gun legislation, meanwhile, was rated as 0.000 by the study.