Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman was one of the 46 senators who defied the will of over 84 percent of the people of his state by voting to kill expanded background checks for gun purchases.
Jerri Jackson, a mother from Springfield, Ohio whose son was killed in the Aurora massacre, has tried to set up a meeting with Portman since his vote against background checks. She notes that the killer in that shooting, James Holmes, had mental health issues that were flagged by university staff which may have blocked him from gun purchases under a background check system.
But Portman’s office has failed to set up a meeting with Jackson since then, saying that the senator did not have time. “I would like for him to at least sit down and talk to me,” she told the Associated Press. “To hear my story and hear the heartbreak of a mother who lost her son in the prime of his life. How guns have played a part in our lives, but it is what ended his life. We need to do something about it.”
Recall that since Portman’s vote against background checks, his approval rating has fallen by eighteen percent — as have the approval ratings of several other senators:
UPDATE: Recall that the NRA has spent $1.35 million keeping Portman in office since 2000.
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