Two weeks ago Arizona Senator Jeff Flake (R) sent a letter to Caren Teves, whose son was killed in the Aurora, Colorado Dark Knight theater shooting last summer, which read “background checks is something we agree on.” And as you probably know by now, Flake ultimately sided against expanded backgrounds in the Senate.
Here’s the letter.
Jeff Flake is not the first senator from Arizona to dishonor the Teves family nor is it even the first time Flake has done so.
As you may recall, Senator John McCain landed in hot water in February of this year after telling Caren Teves that she needed some “straight talk” and that an assault weapons ban “will not pass the Congress of the United States.”
Similarly, Senator Flake, along with John McCain, originally responded to the Teves family with an impersonal, cold letter that didn’t specifically address the theater shooting.
Neither of the letters even addressed the Colorado massacre. In fact, they brought up an entirely different shooting, the schoolhouse killings in Newtown, Conn., and mentioned each senator’s ongoing support of the Second Amendment. It was like Alex Teves’ death hadn’t gotten through to the senators or their staffs.
It should be clear by now the Senator Jeff Flake’s written words are less valuable than toilet paper and that the grievances of the families of shooting victims is not something that weighs very heavily on his mind. At least not enough to follow up on any of the vague condolences he dispenses.