We all want the same thing: to feel safe at school, at church, at the grocery store, and in our own homes. So it should be simple. But it isn't, because the people we send to Washington keep choosing the gun lobby over our kids.

The numbers are not close. Every day, 125 Americans are killed with guns, and more than 200 are shot and wounded. A child or adolescent is killed with a gun in this country every 2 hours and 48 minutes. Compared to every other wealthy nation on earth, the United States is an outlier — and not because Americans are more violent, but because we make it easy to get a gun and hard to pass a law about it.

Here's the part they don't want you to remember: you can support the Second Amendment and support common-sense gun safety at the same time. Most gun owners do. But the six Republicans below don't. They've blocked bipartisan safety laws, taken the gun lobby's money, and handed out thoughts and prayers while the funerals piled up. Here's their record.

Cindy Hyde-Smith — blocked gun safety while kids were dying

Mississippi has the highest firearm mortality rate and the highest murder rate in the entire country. You'd think that would make a senator from Mississippi want to act. Cindy Hyde-Smith did the opposite. In 2022, after a string of mass shootings, she voted against even advancing bipartisan gun safety legislation — not against the final bill, against letting the Senate debate it at all.

This is a pattern. She earned the grim distinction of being profiled as "the senator who blocked gun control while students lay dying at Saugus High School." Mississippi leads the nation in gun deaths, and its senior senator's answer has been to make sure nothing changes.

Dan Sullivan — "sickened" by mass shootings, then votes no every time

Alaska has the highest violent crime rate in the country and is near the top for murder and firearm deaths. Dan Sullivan knows this. After a weekend of mass shootings, he told reporters he was "sickened" by the bloodshed.

And then he voted no — again. When PBS asked every senator what action should be taken on guns, Sullivan's record was the same as always: nothing that the NRA, which endorsed him, wouldn't approve. Being "sickened" doesn't stop a single bullet. Votes do, and Sullivan keeps casting his the wrong way.

Rick Crawford — wants to make it easier to get a gun

Arkansas is one of the worst states in the country for violent crime, murder, and firearm deaths — and all six Arkansans in Congress have taken NRA money. Rick Crawford isn't just blocking gun safety; he's pushing the other direction. He put out a statement opposing any ban on semi-automatic firearms and insists the answer to gun violence is just to "enforce current gun laws" — the standard line for doing nothing new.

So every time there's another mass shooting, Crawford offers the same meaningless thoughts and prayers, then goes right back to work trying to expand gun access in a state that already buries some of the most gun victims in America.

Pat Harrigan — the congressman who sells the guns

Most of the people on this list vote for the gun industry. Pat Harrigan is the gun industry. He co-owns firearms companies ZRODelta, UnBrandedAR, and US Optics — businesses that manufacture and sell handguns, rifles, and shooting accessories. So when he opposes every gun safety measure and works to expand gun rights, he isn't just serving a lobby. He's protecting his own bottom line.

North Carolina loses about 1,800 people to gun violence every year — a rate 27% higher than the national average. The man his district sent to Congress profits from the products doing the killing, and votes accordingly. That's not a conflict of interest he's hiding — it's his résumé.

Derrick Van Orden — NRA-endorsed, and brought a loaded gun to the airport

Derrick Van Orden is NRA-endorsed and has reliably opposed bipartisan gun safety laws. He's also the cautionary tale for why those laws exist. In 2021, Van Orden was caught with a loaded 9mm handgun in his carry-on bag at the Cedar Rapids airport — one round in the chamber, full magazine. He pleaded guilty, was fined, put on probation, and ordered by the court to take a firearm safety course.

Wisconsin loses about 735 people to gun violence every year. The man representing its 3rd District couldn't safely get himself through a security line — but he'll fight any law that asks anyone else to be more careful.

Greg Murphy — an "A" from the NRA

Greg Murphy carries an A rating from the NRA — the gun lobby's seal of approval, earned by opposing gun safety measures and actively working to expand gun rights. Like his fellow North Carolinian Harrigan, Murphy represents a state that buries roughly 1,800 people a year to gun violence, and his answer is to make guns easier to get, not harder to misuse.

The pattern

Look at these six together and the excuse falls apart. It isn't that gun safety is impossible — it's that they won't do it. A senator from the deadliest gun state in the nation blocks debate. A senator says he's "sickened" and votes no anyway. A congressman literally sells the guns. Another forgot his loaded pistol at the airport and still fights the rules. This isn't six bad apples. It's the party's position on guns, and they're proud of it.

The good news is simple: every one of these seats is up to us. In 2026, we get to decide whether the people writing our gun laws answer to the NRA or to the families burying their kids. We deserve better — and we can vote for it.