In case you missed it, last week the Republican-controlled Senate voted not to ban sales of guns to people on the terror watchlist. The fact that fourteen innocent people had just been killed in San Bernardino, California in what appears to be a terrorist-related attack had no effect on the senators. Their attention was on the gun lobby that didn’t want the ban to pass.

Under current federal law, there is no basis to automatically prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives because the individual appears on the terrorist watchlist.

As I point out in my book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America,the gun lobby also controls our representatives. Since the 2000 election cycle, the National Rifle Association (NRA), the firearms industry, and the Gun Owners of America have contributed a combined $81 million to congressional and presidential election campaigns to defeat gun control measures, according to federal disclosures and a Center for Responsive Politics analysis done for the Center for Public Integrity.

Such opposition to gun control by government representatives occurs despite the fact that over 11,000 people were killed by gun violence in the United States in 2011, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Moreover, 92 percent of Americans support universal background checks for all gun purchases, based on a July 2014 Quinnipiac University poll.

 We need to break the gun lobby’s grip on our government. Check out my website, breakingbigmoneysgrip.com, for how you can help.