The Senate voted down an amendment offered by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) to expand background checks for gun purchases at gun shows and online, in a vote of 54-46. The measure needed 60 votes to be included in the underlining bill. As Vice President Joe Biden called the finally tally, Tucson survivor Patricia Maisch yelled, “Shame on you!” Outside of chamber she said, “They have no soul.”
See Who Voted For and Against the Bill on ProPublica
Obama: "No Coherent Arguments for this. It came down to politics."
When the vote came down—54-46, not enough to replace the gun bill with the Manchin-Toomey compromise—an impromptu family of gun control activists was watching from the gallery. The activists looked glum but not surprised; they'd gone into the room aware that the votes weren't there. But before she left, a survivor of the 2011 Tucson killing spree named Patricia Maisch stood up and broke the rules of the Senate.
"Shame on you!" yelled Maisch.
Typically, when someone yells from the gallery, security hustles to bounce the heckler out of the room. Maisch wasn't elbowed out very quickly. Two years ago, she was one of the people who effectively shut down Jared Loughner's rampage. She saw him coming, she lay on the ground, and when Loughner fumbled his reload and was tackled, Maisch snatched away his extra magazine. And no one really ushered her out of the Hill today as she told reporters why she yelled.
"I could not stay still," she said, standing in a scrum of reporters. "They should be ashamed of themselves ... if it had been a yes vote, I wouldn't have said anything. It was spontaneous—but I was prepared to do that."
She gave her info and story a few times before one of the other activists started to usher her out. One reporter asked her what she thought of Sen. Jeff Flake's no vote on the amendment. "Sen. Flake?" she said. "I'm embarrassed. He's a flaky flake."
We may never get the comprehensive gun reform that Progressives want in this country, but it's not due to lack of trying on the part of Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Dianne Feinstein, D-California.
Warren gave a speech to the Consumer Federation of America in which she slammed the NRA for not allowing basic research on Gun violence so we can study just how far-reaching an epidemic it is.
“If as many people were dying of a mysterious disease as innocent bystanders are dying from firearms, a cure would be our top priority,” Warren said. “But we don’t even have good data on gun violence. Why? Because the NRA and the gun industry lobby made it their goal to prevent any serious effort to document the violence."
Feinstein had it out with Texas Tea Partier and NRA proponent Ted Cruz this week when he began lecturing her about the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX) The question that I would pose to the senior Senator from California is would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the Second Amendment in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment, namely, would she consider it constitutional for Congress to specify that the First Amendment shall apply only to the following books and shall not apply to the books that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?
Likewise, would she think that the Fourth Amendment's protection against searches and seizures could properly apply only to the following specified individuals and not to the individuals that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?
SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): Let me just make a couple of points in response. One, I'm not a sixth grader. Senator, I've been on this committee for 20 years. I was a mayor for nine years. I walked in, I saw people shot. I've looked at bodies that have been shot with these weapons. I've seen the bullets that implode. In Sandy Hook, youngsters were dismembered.
Look, there are other weapons. I'm not a lawyer, but after 20 years I've been up close and personal to the Constitution. I have great respect for it. This doesn't mean that weapons of war and the Heller decision clearly points out three exceptions, two of which are pertinent here.
You know, it's fine you want to lecture me on the Constitution. I appreciate it. Just know I've been here for a long time. I've passed on a number of bills. I've studied the Constitution myself. I am reasonably well educated, and I thank you for the lecture.
Incidentally, this does not prohibit — you use the word prohibit — it exempts 2,271 weapons. Isn’t that enough for the people in the United States? Do they need a bazooka?
Do they need other high-powered weapons that military people use to kill in close combat? I don’t think so. So I come from a different place then you do. I respect your views. I ask you to respect my views
FEINSTEIN: I just felt patronized. I felt he was somewhat arrogant about it. And, you know, when you've come from where I've come from and what you've seen, and when you found a dead body and you put your finger in bullet holes, you really realize the impact of weapons. And then as you go up the technical ladder with these weapons, and they become more sophisticated, and more the product of a battlefield, and you've got these huge clips or drums of 100 bullets out there that people can buy.
When you see these weapons becoming attractive to grievance killers, people who take them into schools, into theaters, into malls, you wonder, does America really need these weapons? My answer to that is no. And so it's based on my experience. And I think -- well, the bottom line is, we passed the bill out of committee by a vote of 10-8. The president has issued a very strong statement in support of it.
. . . BLITZER: Did you have a chance to speak to Senator Cruz after that public exchange?
FEINSTEIN: No, I needed to cool down.
BLITZER: Have you cooled down yet?
FEINSTEIN: I've cooled down.
BLITZER: So when you see him the next time, what will you say?
FEINSTEIN: Yes. Yes. Well, I did say, look, I'm sorry. But, you know, this is one thing that I feel very passionately about. And I appreciate the lecture, but -- that's all I'm going to say.
After the murder of children in Newtown, Connecticut, the NRA is under-fire. And momentum from the progressive gun-control side is showing no signs of slowing. In fact, the more NRA leader Wayne LaPierre pushes his crazy apocalyptic fearmongering and hatred for President Obama, the more foolish and out-of-touch he seems. This only invigorates the Left, giving us hope that the NRA's power is waning, and LaPierre is losing the battle.
Please, proceed, Mr. LaPierre.
Last week in a Senate Hearing on gun control measures, LaPierre seemed to blame everything in society for mass shootings except guns. Then he pooh-pooh'd background checks:
My problem with background checks is you’re never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks. All the law-abiding people . . . you'll create an enormous federal bureaucracy, unfunded, hitting all the little people in the country who will have to go through it, pay the fees, pay the taxes. We don’t even prosecute anybody right now that goes through the system we have. So we're going to make all those law-abiding people go through the system, and then we aren't going to prosecute any of the bad guys if they do catch one. None of it makes any sense in the real world.
~ Wayne LaPierre of the NRA
Mr. LaPierre, that's the point! Criminals won't go to purchase the guns, because there will be a background check! We'll stop them from the original purchase. You missed that point completely! And I think it's basic. (applause in the room)
~ Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois
On Saturday there was the sad story of America's top military sniper, Chris Kyle, getting shot On a Gun Range in Texas. Yes, on a gun range, where everyone is probably a member of the NRA, everyone was armed and everyone is generally knowledgeable about guns. Another veteran suffering from PTSD shot Kyle and an acquaintance, and even though they were in a place built for the sole purpose of shooting at targets, the two men didn't have a chance to fire a single shot in return. There couldn't be a better example of how stupid it would be to "arm everybody," even teachers in schools. Because guess what? Plenty of armed people have died in the wars as well. Ask any soldier. Guns won't stop bullets.
On ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Progressive economist Paul Krugman tore into the NRA and LaPierre:
PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: But what really strikes me -- I don't know how this plays, you know, what will happen. What strikes me is we've actually gotten a glimpse into the mindset, though, of the pro-gun people and we've seen certainly Wayne LaPierre and some of these others. It's bizarre. They have this vision that we're living in a "Mad Max" movie and that nothing can be done about it, that America cannot manage unless everybody's prepared to shoot intruders, that -- the idea that we have a police forces that provides public safety is somehow totally impractical, despite the fact that, you know, that is, in fact, the way we live.
So I think that the terms of the debate have shifted. Now the craziness of the extreme pro-gun lobby has been revealed, and that has got to move the debate and got to move the legislation at least to some degree.
During the Super Bowl the snti-gun group Demand a Plan started by NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran an advertisement with a video clip of Wayne LaPierre from a few years back saying he favored universal background checks. It's very effective because at one time the NRA made sense and that's what society wants, so LaPierre and his minions are totally out-of-touch with mainstream America.
And the worst thing that happened to Mr. LaPierre was when he appeared on Fox News, usually a safe haven for gun-nuts. But not this time - it became his worst nightmare. Usually pro-conservative interviewer Chris Wallace raked the NRA spokesman over hot burning coals in a sudden fit of real journalism. Because basically LaPierre was lying about Obama "taking all our guns" - just absurd fearmongering. There is no universal ban on guns and there probably won't ever be. He also tried to pin all violence on "gangs" in Chicago and Washington D.C. when obviously the hometown Newtown shooter wasn't a gang member and neither was the man who shot Chris Kyle on the gun range. Guns are the key - not the class designation of the shooter.
WALLACE: The murder today, because one of the things that concerns people, it seems every day we talk about a shooting. Oftentimes, mass shooting.
LAPIERRE: Right.
WALLACE: Day after day after day. And the frustration is you don't think that the answering -- that limiting guns has anything to do with that. And I understand there is some things you think will work and we'll talk about that.
The murder yesterday of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, this was a man who wrote "American Sniper". This is a man credited with the largest number of confirmed kills of any American soldier ever. He and another man gunned down at a Texas gun range.
LAPIERRE: If you want to stop violence in this country, here's what you do, OK? First, if you want to protect or kids, you put armed security in schools. I'm not talking about arming teachers, I'm talking about police officers, and I'm talking about certified professional security people. There is not a parent that sends off their kid to school that wants those kids to be unprotected. Just in Atlanta this past week, armed security stopped a shooting in an Atlanta school. Stopped it, right? Stopped it.
Second --
WALLACE: Here's the problem -- but here's the problem, respectfully, sir. If you -- if you arm people at schools, a lot of these people aren't just motivated to kill people in schools, they want to kill people.
And, forgive me, and, if it's -- school is too tough, they'll go to a movie theater. Like James Holmes. They'll go to a shopping center. They'll go to a gun range and kill Chris Kyle.
WALLACE: All right. You oppose gun control as a form of government tyranny. But in the Senate hearings, this week, you offered a different reason for it. Let's take a look.
LAPIERRE: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAPIERRE: What people all over the country fear today, is being abandoned by their government. If a tornado hits, if a hurricane hits, if a riot occurs, that they're going to be out there alone, and the only way they will protect themselves, in the cold, in the dark, when they are vulnerable, is with a firearm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Do you really think that that is a more serious threat, marauding bands of Americans during a hurricane or a tornado, do you think that's a more serious threat to the average American than the steady drum beat of gun violence and sometimes mass gun violence?
~~~~~~~~~~
WALLACE: A couple of weeks ago, the NRA started running an ad that created a great deal of controversy. Here's a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Are the president's kids more important than yours? Why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Mr. LaPierre, do you regret putting up that ad?
LAPIERRE: The point of ad was this -- it wasn't picking on the president's kids. The president not --
WALLACE: It mentions them.
LAPIERRE: The president's kids are safe and we are thankful for it. The point of that ad --
WALLACE: They also face a threat that most children do not face.
LAPIERRE: Tell that to people in Newtown. Tell that to people --
WALLACE: Do you really think the president's children are the same kind of target as every school child in America? That's ridiculous and you know it, sir.
LAPIERRE: You know, unfortunately, I think there are parents all over the school that think -- all over the country that think their kids are entitled to the same amount of protection when they go to school, and they want --
WALLACE: So, they should have Secret Service?
LAPIERRE: No, but what they should have is police officers or certified armed security in those schools to keep people safe. If something happens, the police -- despite all the good intentions, is 15 to 20 minutes. It's too long. It's not going to help those kids.
Certified armed security in schools, just like --
WALLACE: But that's not going to protect them in the shopping mall, in the movie theater, on the streets.
LAPIERRE: Which is why we need to do everything else I'm talking about. Let's enforce the federal gun laws which we did not do now against gangs with guns, felons with guns -- my gosh, in the shadow of where we are sitting now, gangs are out there in Washington, D.C. You can buy drugs. You can buy guns. They are trafficking in 13-year-old girls --
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: I understand there are lots of problems out there and this isn't going to solve all of them.
But you can't say, that -- first of all, the gangs don't commit the mass murders, Adam Lanza wasn't a member of a gang. James Holmes was not a member of the gang.
You talk -- one of the points of the ads that I want to ask you about, is you made it a class argument, the rich and elites.
LAPIERRE: Sure.
WALLACE: They have bodyguards. They have security.
LAPIERRE: Sure. And Mayor Bloomberg has it. Mayor Bloomberg has bodyguards.
WALLACE: I'll tell you who else has security. You do.
LAPIERRE: Sometimes. Yes.
WALLACE: And, you have security. Today you have security.
LAPIERRE: Yes, and you talk about hypocrisy right out in the open, we have had all kinds of threats on me, OK?
WALLACE: Does that make you an elite -- an out of touch elite because you have security?
LAPIERRE: I don't deny anybody the right to security when they need it. What I'm saying, it is ridiculous, Chris, for all the elites and all the powerful and privilege, the titans of industry, to send their kids to school where there's arm security. They have access to semi-automatic technology. They have access --
WALLACE: First of all, I don't know anybody who has -- I don't know anybody elites who sends their kids -- my children went to the same school that the Obama children went to, many years ago, and there were no armed security there.
LAPIERRE: A third of the schools in the country already have armed security.
WALLACE: I understand that, but the idea of an elite class, it's just nonsense, sir.
In a powerful and poignant moment, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords opened the Senate Hearing on Gun Control with a simple but powerful message. Accompanied by her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, the pair made passionate pleas for the government to do something to stem gun violence. Giffords was shot through the head by Jared Loughner and suffered brain damage.
The Tuscon shooter was an admitted drug user. He was rejected from the U.S. Army because of his drug use. He was clearly mentally ill. And when he purchased that gun in November, his plan was to assassinate my wife and commit mass murder at that Safeway in Tucson. He was a criminal. Because of his drug use, and because of what he was planning on doing. But because of these gaps in the mental health system, in this case, those 121,000 records, I admit did not include a record on him. But it could have.
And if it did, he would have failed that background check. he would have likely gone to a gun show, or a private seller, and avoided that background check. But if we close that gun show loophole, if we require private sellers to complete a background check, and we get those 121,000 records and others into the systems, we will prevent gun crime. That is an absolute truth. It would have happened in Tucson. My wife would not have been sitting here today if we had stronger background checks.
On Monday, Joe Biden promised us 19 Executive Orders on Guns.
Today President Obama surprised us by signing 23 of them on stage after his press conference surrounded by children who had written letters to him after the Newtown/Sandy Hook Massacre. He said the actions will take place immediately, plus told Congress he expects them to work on several more pieces of legislation such as an all-out ban on assault rifles.
He stressed responsibility, but also the fact that the children and parents of Newtown, Aurora, and other communities have a Constitutional Right not to live in fear of future attacks. So the 2nd Amendment rights of NRA members do not come before the safety of children. Obama stood up for Newtown, and for all of us, against a group that would rather see him dead and he knows it.
This is ground-breaking and earth shaking, and GOP heads are exploding right now.
I am so proud of my President and Vice President! Bravo!
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
First of all, some of us learned an important fact yesterday from Wayne LaPierre himself: the NRA has 4 million members. That seems like an overwhelming number until you realize that President Obama won 63 million votes.
The United States has over 300 million people. So NRA membership constitutes a mere fraction of our population.
We can stop the NRA in its tracks. We can make our elected officials realize that the NRA is not a "majority" of Americans, no matter what they propaganda machines spews out. It's true that there are more gun owners than NRA members, but I'd like to believe that many responsible gun owners, hunters and sportsmen mainly, are rejecting some of the rhetoric, and that's why they don't join.
Still, what we learned is that the vast majority of Americans are NOT members of the NRA. So why are we so scared of them? Answer: We shouldn't be, even if they have more guns. We shouldn't be intimidated into silence. Obama won the popular vote by over 2 million votes - and most of those folks are NOT NRA members.
In 1995, the New York Times published a letter from President George Bush stating he was leaving the NRA because Wayne LaPierre called federal agents "Jack-Booted Thugs" implying they were Nazis. I never thought I would admire George Bush for much, but this letter expresses the kind of righteous anger that more Republicans should feel towards the NRA. Well-done, Mr. President!
To the National Rifle Association: May 3, 1995
Dear Mr. Washington,
I was outraged when, even in the wake of the Oklahoma City tragedy, Mr. Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of N.R.A., defended his attack on federal agents as "jack-booted thugs." To attack Secret Service agents or A.T.F. people or any government law enforcement people as "wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms" wanting to "attack law abiding citizens" is a vicious slander on good people.
Al Whicher, who served on my [ United States Secret Service ] detail when I was Vice President and President, was killed in Oklahoma City. He was no Nazi. He was a kind man, a loving parent, a man dedicated to serving his country -- and serve it well he did.
In 1993, I attended the wake for A.T.F. agent Steve Willis, another dedicated officer who did his duty. I can assure you that this honorable man, killed by weird cultists, was no Nazi.
John Magaw, who used to head the U.S.S.S. and now heads A.T.F., is one of the most principled, decent men I have ever known. He would be the last to condone the kind of illegal behavior your ugly letter charges. The same is true for the F.B.I.'s able Director Louis Freeh. I appointed Mr. Freeh to the Federal Bench. His integrity and honor are beyond question.
Both John Magaw and Judge Freeh were in office when I was President. They both now serve in the current administration. They both have badges. Neither of them would ever give the government's "go ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law abiding citizens." (Your words)
I am a gun owner and an avid hunter. Over the years I have agreed with most of N.R.A.'s objectives, particularly your educational and training efforts, and your fundamental stance in favor of owning guns.
However, your broadside against Federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to country. It indirectly slanders a wide array of government law enforcement officials, who are out there, day and night, laying their lives on the line for all of us.
You have not repudiated Mr. LaPierre's unwarranted attack. Therefore, I resign as a Life Member of N.R.A., said resignation to be effective upon your receipt of this letter. Please remove my name from your membership list.
Sincerely, [ signed ] George Bush
I hope he speaks out on Newtown someday. I would urge he and his brother Jeb, if they want to repair their family legacy, this would be the perfect place to start.
Here's a good idea I saw on Twitter today:
I propose that the NRA have a picture of every child killed put in every gun shop #NRA
— King of Hennepin (@KingofHennepin) December 22, 2012
If that was a Petition on Whitehouse.gov, I would sign it, and many other people too.
A federal excise tax on guns could change the social landscape. It would work like this: Everyone who can pass a background check to own a firearm would be entitled to purchase one weapon, tax-free. This would leave our right to own a weapon for self-defense unencumbered and would therefore be constitutional under the Second Amendment. After that, the government would levy an excise tax on each additional weapon owned. The amount of the tax would increase as the number of weapons owned increased. The tax wouldn’t stop anyone from legally owning as many guns as they like, but it would make the choice to accumulate personal arsenals – like the one owned by Nancy Lanza in Sandy Hook –much more expensive, and therefore less prevalent.
~More at Link~
Representative Steve Israel D-NY wants to stop the new high-tech threat of "printable guns" made on a 3D Printer, via Mother Jones:
On December 7th, the New York Democrat announced plans to introduce a bill to reauthorize the Undetectable Firearms Act, which prohibits the sale, transport, and manufacture of weapons that can’t be spotted by a metal detector. Set to expire next year, the law was originally passed in 1988 to stop the anticipated-but-never-realized spread of plastic weapons. This time, Israel has set his sights on something decidedly more sci-fi: "Remember 'Replicators' on #Star Trek?," he tweeted earlier this month. "Now gun parts can be replicated with 3-D printers. Introducing [a] bill to stop so-called 'wiki-weapons.'"
3-D printers, which "print" objects out of plastic by using digital blueprints, have exploded among DIYers over the last few years, fueled by the rise of companies like MakerBot. Thingiverse, an online library of blueprints hosted by MakerBot, holds tens of thousands of blueprints—for everything from engagement rings to glasses frames.
"It is just a matter of time before these three-dimensional printers will be able to replicate an entire gun," Israel said. "And that firearm will be able to be brought through this security line, through the metal detector, and because there will be no metal to be detected, firearms will be brought on planes without anyone's knowledge."
California Senator Dianne Feinstein says the NRA is trying to distract us from reality. More guns in schools wouldn't stop a shooter, since we know it didn't stop the Columbine killers:
The NRA’s blanket call to arm our schools is really nothing more than a distraction. It’s a delay tactic,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said at a press conference Friday. “It’s a distraction from the availability of military style assault weapons…It is a distraction from the prevalence of large ammunition feeding devices that allow shooters to expel 20, 30, 60, 100 and even more bullets. And it’s a distraction from how easy it is to purchase weapons at gun shows, with no background checks at all.”
. . . She read from a police report on the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, detailing the unsuccessful attempts of two armed officers to derail one of the shooters, Eric Harris:
FEINSTEIN: Jefferson Country Sheriffs Deputy Neil Gardner, the school’s Community Resource Officer, seeing Harris walking with his gun, kneeled over the top of his car and fired four shots. He was 60 yards from the gunman. Harris spun hard to the right and Gardner momentarily thought he had hit him. Seconds later, Harris began shooting again at the Deputy. After the exchange of gunfire, Harris ran back into the building. Gardner was able to get on the police radio and call for assistance from another Sheriffs unit. ‘Shots in the building, I need someone in the south lot with me.’ Later, another officer shot back at Harris as the student shot out a window. Again, according to the Sheriffs transcript. Harris, leaning out of a broken window, on the set of double doors into the school began shooting a rifle. Jefferson County Deputy Paul Smoker fires three rounds at him and the gunman disappears from the window. Smoker continues to hear gunfire from inside the building as more students flee from the school.
And last night MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell called out NRA President Wayne LaPierre, who spoke just after the moment of silence for the victims in Newtown, Connecticut - great montage of yesterday's events at the beginning of this also:
Many people thought that the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut might bring the National Rifle Association to its senses and it would be ready to work with Joe Biden on his Task Force to make the world a safer place for children while protecting gun ownership and the Second Amendment.
Boy, are we stupid. After a week of internet silence, the NRA instead put their spokesman Wayne LaPierre up front to rant, rave and lecture us on how shootings are caused by the lamestream godless media and video games such as Mortal Kombat - really old games, like 20 years old - and the only way to protect children is to have NRA Guardsmen posted in every school of the nation.
The message here was clear, blame everything but guns. Why bother considering that violent video games are played in all corners of the world, yet somehow it’s only the US with its lax gun laws where tragedies like this happen with this frequency? Video games are an easy target, almost as easy as the NRA itself which is doing everything it can to act like they’re the solution to the problem, not one of the primary causes.
The press conference went from standard stump speech to truly bizarre when the NRA’s big idea to help protect children in school turned out to be a national program to enlist an army of volunteers to patrol the corridors of high schools, junior high and elementary schools, keeping the kids safe from potential shooters. A direct quote from LaPierre: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
He is literally suggesting that retired police and military members patrol schools with guns. The program would be nationwide, and schools could opt out of it, but that would be up to the faculty and the parents. You know, those freedom-haters who who WANT their children to be at risk.
It’s the transformation of our country into a police state, pure and simple, or at least a very broad first step.
President Obama spoke today about creating a task force headed by Joe Biden to figure out ways to stop gun violence.
Of course the President has the best of intentions, but with Congress out of session for the holidays, and the President's Inauguration early next year, the timeline for working out a plan will take until at least the end of January. Many are worried that it will take too long to get legislation going, or that the will of the people will dry up at the grassroots level, allowing the NRA to usurp the message after their press conference on Friday of this week.
But I don't think so - not this time. Things are happening all over the country that are fundamentally different in a way we've never seen before and people are taking action - Check it out:
"A lot of people said they don't want the guns around the house now," said state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa as he announced the result of the program held Friday and Saturday at two Camden churches.
The state brought in 1,137 guns, surpassing the previous record of 700 weapons from a 2009 Essex County event. Among them were scores of rifles, shotguns and pistols, sawed-off shotguns, a century-old antique weapon, a rifle used for hunting elephants and five fully automatic weapons. Some 90 percent were in working condition. Many were illegal weapons under state laws; some were so-called community guns stashed around neighborhood. Nearly all are to be destroyed.
. . . The state had $110,000 in cash to give to those who turned in guns, along with $6,000 in gift cards left over from a previous program.
"At 2 o'clock," he said, "we were out of money."
Stephen Barton, one of the 58 movie-goers injured during the mass shooting in Aurora that claimed the lives of 12 people, appears in a new non-partisan PSA asking voters to demand a plan from both President Obama and his GOP rival Mitt Romney to curb gun violence.
"I was lucky," Barton, who was struck by 25 shotgun pellets, says as he sits inside an empty movie theater. "In the next four years, 48,000 Americans won't be so lucky because they'll be murdered with guns in the next president's term — enough to fill over 200 theaters."
The push for a "plan" is backed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 725 mayors called who have set up an online petition that has received over 250,000 signatures to date.
The Danbury Gun & Knife Show scheduled for Jan. 5-6 has been canceled. The show’s promoter, Big Al’s Silver Bullet Productions, announced the cancellation on its website, as did Mayor Mark Boughton on Twitter.
The show was to include ”Premium Knives, Firearms, Gun Accessories, Ammo, Tactical Clothing, Hard-to-Find Items, Tactical Gear and more!”
A call to Big Al’s was picked up Tuesday afternoon by a person who responded, “No comment,” when asked why the gun show was canceled.
“Dropped her (his daughter) off yesterday, saw the children, came to work prepared to display our firearms, and the first one I display is a Bushmaster AR-15," James said. "I said to myself, 'that’s it; I just can’t hang this on my wall.' ”
James said he is still a firm believer in the Second Amamendment. He’ll continue to carry a firearm, and he will have them in his home, but he can no longer fathom the possibility of a gun he sells end up in the wrong hands.
“It would have been devastating," he said. "I think of that scenario every day."
James and his daughter have tacked up green and white ribbons in place of the guns to honor the victims of the Connecticut shooting.
James said he’s not sure what he’s going to do with all of the guns, and since gun sales were such a large part of his business, he will have to make some changes in order to keep the store open.
Calling the deadly assault "tragic and devastating," private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said Tuesday that it will sell its 95% stake in Freedom Group Inc., which makes the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that police said was used in the attack.
The massacre was a "watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level," Cerberus said.
. . . The California State Teachers' Retirement System said Monday that it would review its holdings in Cerberus in early January because of its link with Bushmaster. Through its investment in Cerberus, CalSTRS owns 2.4% of Freedom Group.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., the largest U.S. sporting-goods chain, suspended sales of modern sporting rifles nationwide in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, as the massacre’s victims are mourned.
Sales of all guns have been stopped at its store closest to the shooting, the Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.
. . . “We are extremely saddened by the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week,” the company said in the statement. Dick’s is removing the guns “out of respect for the victims and their families.”
The last thing I want to say is I'm really, really lucky, because I'm going to get on an eight-hour bus ride, and I'm going to arrive in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and I'm going to walk into my house, and I'm going to walk upstairs, and I'm going to walk into two pink rooms with a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old laying in that pink room, with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room," he said, concluding his remarks in the wake of a 65-55 loss at No. 7 Ohio State.
"And I'm going to give them the biggest hug and the biggest kiss I've ever given them. And there's 20 families in Newtown, Conn., that are walking into a pink room with a bunch of teddy bears with nobody laying in those beds. And it's tragic."
. . . "I know this microphone's powerful right now, because we're playing the (seventh)-best team in the country," he said. "I'm not going to have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life."
"I don't know what needs to be done. I'm not smart enough to know what needs to be done, OK?" he said. "I know this country's got issues. Is it a gun issue? Is it a mental illness issue? Or is it a society that has lost the fact, the understanding, that decent human values are important?"
Kelsey called on political leaders to get past petty differences and accomplish something.
"I didn't vote for President Obama. But you know what? He's my president now. He's my leader. I need him to step up," he said. "Mr. (John) Boehner, the Speaker of the House ... OK, he needs to step up."
"Parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches — everybody needs to step up. This has to be a time for change," he said. "And I'm going to be an agent of change with the 13 young men I get to coach every day and the two little girls that I get to raise. But hopefully things start changing, because it's really, really disappointing."
His voice rising, and with his eyes welling, he finished by saying, "I'm proud to grow up American. I'm proud to say I'm part of the greatest country ever. And that's got to stay that way. And it'll stay that way if we change.
"But we've got to change."
Discovery Channel has cancelled "Ted Nugent's Gun Country," as well as a show called "American Guns." This is good news at least. I think it's poetic justice (or merely dang good justice) that Ted Nugent is one of the first gun nuts to be affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook, especially after some of the things he said about Obama during the election (see Here, Here, as well as what he said about Bob Costas just a few weeks ago ).
Here is Nugent's latest tweet about the Newtown Massacre and gun control - seriously, being cancelled couldn't happen to a nicer guy. With any luck he'll start threatening people again and this time perhaps the FBI or CIA will take him to jail.
300million American guns were not misused again this week-leave us the hell alone
— Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) December 18, 2012
Breitbart touted Nugent's show in October with some colorful language - you could call it "gun porn" - that seems even more crass and inappropriate now. They aren't ashamed, of course, but they should be.
Ted Nugent's Gun Country premieres on October 10 on Discovery Channel. Coupled with the recent release of a full line of Ted Nugent Ammunition, it puts Uncle Ted right where he likes to be -- with guns in his hands and targets down range.
His Discovery Channel show is literally going to be a celebration of life with guns. His wife and children will all be featured with various firearms, reflecting what Nugent says is a "very serious, very sincere relationship all of them share with firearms." His show will cover hunting and shooting for recreation, and will also shine the spotlight on new firearms and firearm products.
The message Nugent wants to get out is that these aren't things he and his family are doing just because the cameras are rolling. Rather, these represent "the natural, every day activities the Nugent family undertakes with guns."
But that's all over now. Buh-Bye, Crazy Uncle Ted....
“American Guns," came under intense scrutiny in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting at a Connecticut grade school, with people flooding the show’s Facebook page calling for its cancelation.
“I know you all have to make money but would Discovery Channel PLEASE consider ceasing to broadcast the show in the U.K.? Sadly your program makes buying/owning guns seem fun, glamorous, even normal,” wrote one. Another tweeted, “Dear Discovery Channel: it’s not appropriate showing the program American Guns now!” Another weighed in: “With Discovery shows like 'Sons of Guns', 'American Guns', 'Ted Nugent's Gun Country' etc it's not surprising how guns r seen as acceptable.”
It seems the critics may have been heard.
American Guns is no more.
Discovery Channel confirmed today that the reality show about a Colorado family in the gun business will not be back for a third season. The show's second-season finale had aired Sept. 5.
"American Guns concluded earlier this year," the network said in a statement. "Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show."
. . .While Discovery has described Ted Nugent's Gun Country as a "one-hour special," Nugent claimed that Discovery "want[s] to do it as a regular feature." Nugent has also said the show would help him advance his view in the "culture war."
The episode of Ted Nugent's Gun Country that aired in October showed Nugent shooting a scimitar-horned oryx, an animal extinct in the wild, and using a .50-caliber Browning armor-piercing machine gun to blow holes in a steel door used by a team of "preppers" to protect their armory.
The Discovery Channel confirmed to Raw Story on Tuesday that firearms enthusiast Ted Nugent will also not be returning to the channel in any form or fashion.
Speaking to Raw Story in remarks specified as “not for attribution,” a spokesperson admitted that “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country” didn’t do very well when it aired in October, even with fellow firearms fashionistas. Nielsen Ratings placed the viewership at about 864,000 people in all. But the network’s decision is not just about the numbers.
After Friday’s devastating massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the spokesperson said that Nugent would definitely not be returning to the Discovery Channel.
The NRA had been silent since last Friday (it's now Tuesday - so five days) but today finally made a statement about the Sandy Hook/Newtown Connecticut shooting. Just what it all means is unclea, but they are having a press conference on Friday, probably to change the subject to mental illness, which has been the talking point on TV and Twitter all day from the right.
Ironically, this Friday, December 21, is the day many believe the world is going to end. Dare we hope that they will announce the "end" of the NRA. Naaah - that's just a dream.
"The National Rifle Association of America is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters – and we were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown.
"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting.
"The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.
"The NRA is planning to hold a major news conference in the Washington, DC area on Friday, December 21.
"Details will be released to the media at the appropriate time."
White House Petition seeking Gun Legislation now has over 109,000 signatures: Sign the Petition Here
Statement by the Medical Examiner: Victims ranged from 3 - 11 wounds apiece - everybody hit more than once - no sign of a struggle - It was one rifle used - lots of bullets - "the bullets are designed in a fashion that the energy is deposited in the tissue, so the bullet stays in" - "devastating injuries" - question from reporter: random or precision shooting? answer: "Both? Very difficult question to answer." Adult wounds similar to those of the children. Shooter and mother will be examined in the morning (Sunday, Dec. 16)
Piers Morgan on CNN refuting some NRA NUT who thinks we need "more guns in schools." OMG Source
Joining the program remotely from Ann Arbor, MI, the Attorney for the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners made his case:
"If we could suddenly make all guns disappear, I'd have a different position," he stated. "The simple facts are, guns exist. They are essentially 1800's technology...they're easy to make, they're not going anywhere, they last several human lifetimes with minimal maintenance. So since guns exist, and we know for a fact that the only way to stop an evil person, like the person you were discussing earlier in the show, is to shoot him..."
At this point, Morgan jumped back in, presenting a different angle:
"This is exactly the argument that I have been hearing ever since I joined CNN," he noted. "The argument I keep hearing is well if everybody else was armed, it wouldn't happen. It's a load of total hogwash!"
Siding with the host, Jerrold Nadler added some statistics to the argument:
"The proof of the pudding, is that in every other industrialized country in the world, other than the United States, they have reasonable gun control laws," said the New York Congressman. "They have 100 people a year, not 9,000 or 10,000 a year, killed by guns."
Upon engaging in heated discourse with John Lott, who was attempting to make a case for less legislation, Morgan remained insistent with his stance:
"There are nearly 12,000 murders a year from guns in this country. When are you guys going to focus on that, and stop telling me the answer is more guns. It is not the answer!" he exclaimed to his guest. "How many more kids have to die, before you guys say, 'we want less guns, not more.'"
"I'm upset, because I worry that the gun control laws that you're pushing, have killed people," said Lott, the author of "More Guns, Less Crime."
The man behind "Piers Morgan Tonight" saw things differently:
"Oh what a load of nonsense," he grumbled. "I'm so frustrated, I'm so furious, that these kids, have been blown away again, with legally acquired weapons. Some boy, who's got problems, takes his mother's three weapons – including this ridiculous assault rifle – and goes in a school and kills these kids, and you guys on the gun lobby still want to tell me the answer is more guns. It is madness!"
There are really no words for what happened to the children of Newtown, Connecticut today. Kindergarten students were slaughtered at school. Five-year-old kids are bright, curious, trusting, imaginative, sensitive, and above all, innocent. But someone walked into their normally safe school here at Christmastime and took away their right to live. Someone armed with an assault rifle he shouldn't have had, bent on some unknown mission that was all in his head.
A tragedy, people say, unpreventable. This guy must have been an "isolated nutcase" and no amount of mental health screening would have caught him. We are helpless in the face of the gun lobby, especially in red states. Blah Blah Blah. You know we can't protect everyone 24-7, especially children trapped in school buildings. It must be the parents' or teachers' fault (the shooter killed both his parents, and his mother was a teacher). It must be the principal's fault (the principal was shot). Remember Columbine? That was just as isolated an incident, and the shooters were just bad seeds, and all of this really means nothing, and should change nothing - according to the Tea Party and the NRA.
Innocents dying in vain is the new patriotism that protects the Second Amendment.
In the days to come, we will hear a lot of shoulda-woulda-coulda, and Republicans in thrall to the National Rifle Association with spread their usual manure like filth over the graves of these little innocent babies. They will moan and weep about how "terrible" it would be for politicians to take any action at all, that it would be an invasion of gun owner rights to request any type of new restrictions even on assault weapons, which can't be used for hunting any creature except other humans. It's a right to own one for "sport" you know.
That's right - assault weapon shooting is a sport to these cretins, and we better not get in their way, by God, or they will just buy more guns and join militias and burn crosses and send their goons to threaten politicians. It's been that way for years and we have rolled over and accepted things like spineless wonders.
But today I think something changed. The right for these small trusting innocent children to live should trump the right to bear arms everywhere. What militia did this shooter represent? There shouldn't be a constant open season on children and unarmed people. Enough. State Legislatures shouldn't be passing laws to carry handguns in day cares, schools, and libraries. ENOUGH. These children and their families were free citizens, too. They deserved to live, and not be shot down like animations in some redneck game. Enough!!!!!!!
Newtown, Conn., became Everytown, America, on this grim Friday. By mid-afternoon, the scale of the horror became clear: Twenty children had been slain, plus six of their protectors. The crime took another sick turn with news that the killer was the son of one of the teachers, who died separately in her home. This appeared Friday night to be a matricide that evolved into mass murder.
All this happened during the holiday season, as people around the country prepared for a big shopping weekend, or got ready for relatives coming to town or kids coming home from college. This is family time, a season of joy. Light the candles, decorate the tree.
