Hard to believe, but it turns out Jay Mohr’s Tuesday tweet rescinding the Second Amendment wasn’t enough to clinch victory for gun control advocates in Wednesday’s Senate vote on a measure to expand background checks on gun buyers.
So Paul McCartney on Wednesday became a late addition to crooner Tony Bennett’s drive to mobilize support for the checks.
That wasn’t enough either.
Faster than you can say “Hello, Goodbye” the Senate rejected the new background checks late Wednesday afternoon, in a 54-46 vote, six short of the 60 votes needed, for procedural reasons, to approve the provision, an amendment to a broader package of anti-gun proposals backed by President Obama.
“The former Beatle recorded a voice message that’s part of a text-to-call operation Wednesday for Bennett’s Voices Against Violence campaign,” reported the Associated Press. “McCartney and others are encouraging Americans to send a text, which will lead to the singer’s message and connect the caller to their local Senate office after providing their zip code.”
Other stars, present and dimmed, lending their voices to Mr. Bennett’s anti-gun chorus included Alec Baldwin, Gloria Estefan, Josh Groban and Juanes.
And don’t forget Jay Mohr. The actor, who had a tertiary supporting role in the Tom Cruise hit “Jerry Maguire” back in — has it really been almost two decades? — 1996, contributed his public renown and intellectual prestige to the gun prohibition cause on Tuesday. In a tweet the actor/comedian demanded the nullification, or tacit disregard — or something — of the Second Amendment as a protection against IEDs, like the improvised pressure cooker bomb that killed 3, mutilated scores more and sowed urban havoc at the Boston Marathon Tuesday.
Give Macca this much: He wasn’t doing it for the free publicity.
• Daniel Wattenberg can be reached at dwattenberg@washingtontimes.com.
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