Senator to Parkland teens: Kavanaugh 'is your worst nightmare' on guns

On Tuesday morning, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a press conference to speak out against Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) had a direct message to the Parkland teens who survived February’s gun massacre.

“Here is a memo to the Parkland students,” Blumenthal said. “If you care about common sense gun violence protection, Judge Kavanaugh is your worst nightmare.”

Since the shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, several student survivors have organized marches, protests, and voter registration drives to demand gun control legislation and challenge NRA-backed politicians who have blocked such measures.

“If you want background checks, or bans on assault weapons, or any of the other common sense, sensible measures that we have in Connecticut or California or New York, Judge Kavanaugh will strike them down,” Blumenthal said. “That’s in his record, that’s indisputable. He is the worst nightmare of advocates of common sense, sensible measures to stop the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”

Blumenthal further warned that if Kavanaugh is confirmed, “You can say goodbye to the measures in New York and Connecticut and California that help save lives.”

He concluded by stating firmly that he is “a no on this nominee.”

Blumenthal went on to urge others to vote no as well, and pointed out that Kavanaugh will be in a position to rule in Trump’s favor on any issues — from the Mueller investigation to Trump’s finances — that might make their way before the Supreme Court.

Blumenthal represents the state of Connecticut, where the tragic Sandy Hook gun massacre claimed 26 lives, including 20 children, so his kinship with the Parkland students is strong.

And Blumenthal is correct about the danger Kavanaugh represents to the movement to end gun violence that the Parkland kids started. In 2011, Kavanaugh cast a dissenting vote in an appeals court decision that upheld an assault weapons ban in Washington, D.C.

“In my judgment, both D.C.’s ban on semi-automatic rifles and its gun registration requirement are unconstitutional,” Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent.

Chris Murphy, the other Democratic senator from Connecticut, called Kavanaugh “a true Second Amendment radical.” He said Kavanaugh’s belief that such bans are unconstitutional “a position way out of the judicial mainstream, far to the right of even late Justice Scalia.”

Blumenthal’s emotional plea to the Parkland activists is a sobering reminder that the list of reasons to fight Trump’s nominee is long, and those reasons are all important.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.