Recipocity Amendment Results

Well, the big vote on almost nation-wide concealed carry failed. Still it was a close vote. Snowflakes live-blogged it. It was a close vote. It needed 60 to pass and won the support of 58 Senators, many of whom are Democrats. We’ve come a long way to get this far and may do better in the future. The Senate has a handy-dandy chart showing who voted for what.

I was struck by one thing in the chart: Senators from what I would call pro-gun states who didn’t vote for this amendment.

I didn’t include certain states in my list—none of the Great Lakes states including Ohio and Illinois. While there are a lot of gun owners up there, I personally don’t associate them with support of concealed carry or some gun rights. That is idiosyncratic and someone may argue with my choices (for instance, someone else’s list might have dumped the New England states). Still, it’s my opinion and without further ado here is my list:

Florida: Nelson (D)
Indiana: Lugar (R)
Iowa: Harkin (D)
Missouri: McCaskill (D)
New Hampshire: Shaheen (D)
New Mexico: Bingaman (D)
Oregon: Merkley (D) and Wyden (D)
Pennsylvania: Specter (D sort of)
Vermont: Leahy (D) and Sanders (I)
Washington: Cantwell (D) and Murray (D)
West Virginia: Rockefeller (D)

So, these senators do not represent the beliefs and traditions of their states’ citizens. It’s called a ballot box people. Use it in 2010 or whenever their term is up.