In his State of the Union address, President Obama issued a very moving appeal to get Congress to vote on certain measures of Gun Control. Calling out the names of different victims of gun violence, and raising his voice over the thunderous applause from the very same members of congress he was appealing to, the President said,
“Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote.
“The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote.”
Well Congress has now answered the President, and its decision is that the President was wrong. Hadiya’s parents, Gabby Giffords, the families of Newtown, the families of Aurora, the families of Oak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg – Congress is saying that these families don’t deserve a vote.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid on Tuesday declared politically dead the effort to ban military-style assault weapons, a setback for President Obama and gun-control advocates who are pushing the Senate to move quickly on bills to limit gun violence.
Reid (D-Nev.) is preparing to move ahead with debate on a series of gun-control proposals when the Senate returns from a two-week Easter recess in early April. Although he has vowed to hold votes on measures introduced after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December, Reid told reporters Tuesday that the proposed assault-weapons ban isn’t holding up against Senate rules that require at least 60 votes to end debate and move to final passage.
The proposed ban, “using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes. That’s not 60,” Reid said.Still up for consideration are three other bills approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee: bipartisan legislation to make gun trafficking a federal crime, a bipartisan measure to expand a Justice Department grant program that provides funding for school security, and a Democratic proposal to expand the nation’s gun background check program.
This is a threat from the NRA, but based on the last election in Chicago Illinois, where one of their A+ members lost to Democratic State Representative Robin Kelly who was for gun control, it seems that this threat from the NRA amounts to just that – an empty threat. But don’t tell that to the NRA, they swear they still have the political pull they had ten or even twenty years ago.
Speaking at a rally of about 7,000 people protesting New York gun laws in Albany, Keene promised that the NRA would “soon have five million members” because of a surge of interest after lawmakers passed laws in response to the shooting of 20 elementary school children in Connecticut.
“Because of the fact that we, as believers in the Second Amendment, are willing to do something that most people in this country are not willing to do, which is not just to stand up for our rights, but to support those people who stand with us and work to get rid of those in public office who do not,” the NRA president told the crowd.
I watched as Wayne LaPierre of the NRA rushed to the microphone to once again, try to defend the rights of the Sandy Hook shooter, the rights of the Colorado movie theater shooter, the rights of shooter who used his semi-automatic gun to put a bullet in the head of Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords. And I couldn’t help but feeling sorry for Mr. LaPierre – a man who, with this new speech, confirmed that the NRA’s back is up against the wall, and LaPierre was feeling the pressure from his bosses – the gun manufactures.
LaPierre felt the need to focus on one sentence from the President’s inaugural speech. As he stood at the podium, his eyes darting all around the room filled with his supporters, LaPierre repeated this line from the President;
We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name calling as reasoned debate. We must act! We must act knowing that out work will be imperfect. We must act knowing that today’s victories will be only impartial. And that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence, to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
LaPierre focused on the first part of that statement, we cannot mistake absolutism for principle. He explained his interpretation of what he thought the President meant. “Barack Obama is saying, that the only principal way to make children safe is to make lawful citizens less safe and violent criminals more safe. That’s what it amounts to,” he said. He got a giggle and scattered applauds from his supporters with the line that “criminals couldn’t care less about Barack Obama’s so-called principles. That’s why they’re called criminals.”
LaPierre then attacked some of the common sense Executive Actions taken by the President last Tuesday. Executive Actions that a majority of NRA members agree with. He continued;
Forcing law-abiding people to fork over excessive fees to exercise their rights. Forcing parents to fill out forms to leave a family heirloom to a loved one. Standing in line filling out a bunch of bureaucratic paperwork, just so a grandfather could give a grandson a Christmas gift.
LaPierre then went back to his same old scare tactic, that “there’s only two reasons for a federal list on gun owners, to tax them, or to take them.” To this line, LaPierre got more scattered applauds from his supporters.
The rest of his speech centered on his assertion and the NRA’s favorite method to keep NRA members in check, that the President was coming to take the guns. He warned the President against “attacking clearly defined absolutes, in favor of his principles.”
The NRA waited a little over 24 hours before tossing LaPierre out in front of the cameras to double down on their scare campaign. They looked at the President’s second inauguration and felt what a majority of Americans felt, that times are changing and changing for the better. Wayne LaPierre and the gun manufacturers felt their grip on the American people slipping, their scare hold on the Second Amendment slowly evaporating. And whipping up another hysteria that the government was coming for your guns has always been a marvelous way to boost their membership and sell more guns.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christieblasted the National Rifle Association for an ad that pointed out President Barack Obama’s daughters have armed protection, calling it “reprehensible” and saying elected officials’ kids should be off-limits.
“I think any of us who are public figures, you see that kind of ad and you cringe,” he said during a news conference at which he announced a task force on guns and mental health.
Christie, a potential 2016 presidential contender, is the most prominent Republican to voice displeasure with the ad.
The spot calls Obama an “elitist hypocrite” for being skeptical of having armed guards at schools even though his daughters get Secret Service protection.
We are talking about the NRA here. These are the same folks who, one week after 20 children were gunned down in Newtown Connecticut, came out and said, the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.
Nothing is off-limits for the group of crazies who runs this organization, so when they released this new ad today, I was taken aback. But I soon realized who was responsible for putting out something so low.
Well, two things he shouldn’t do – 1. Go to Disneyland, and 2. visit any more future Pacquiao fights. But that’s just my list. Margaret Carlson from Bloomberg makes her own suggestion:
My suggestion is to take on Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association. LaPierre says he represents beleaguered gun owners, but his massive war chest comes from the gun industry (which has provided him with almost $40 million in recent years), not necessarily from NRA members.
What Romney first needs to do is quash the NRA’s unhinged crusade to put armed security guards and out-of-work police officers at every school. LaPierre announced this last week after the unspeakable massacre of 20 small children, and some of the teachers who tried to save them, in a small town in Connecticut. The deranged gunman, wielding a military-type assault weapon, also killed his mother and himself.
Then Romney can lead the campaign for the assault-weapon ban, which is being readied for the new Congress and is much tougher than the one that lapsed in 2004. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney embraced gun control, signing an assault- weapons ban. He could stiffen the resolve of lawmakers whose fear of the NRA is greater than their grief for dead 6-year- olds. That’s a battle Romney could be proud of fighting — even if, shudder to think, he loses.
But then again this is Mitt Romney we’re talking about, and Republican couldn’t wait to usher him off to Never Never land after the November elections were over. It is highly unlikely that any Republican in Congress will be moved to do the right thing simply because of Mitt Romney is behind it.
This man was one of the “4 million members” of the NRA who has had enough of being played like a pawn to put more money into the pockets of gun manufactures. Following the shooting in Newtown Connecticut and the call from the NRA to put more guns on the streets, this man set up his camera and proceeded to…
NBC’s David Gregory may have violated D.C.’s gun laws by brandishing a 30-round magazine on his show, Meet The Press Sunday, and now the matter is “under investigation” by the police. The round was purportedly for an AR-15 or other similar assault rifle.
According to D.C. gun laws, even possessing such a magazine would be a violation. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier told Breitbart, “Yes, we are investigating the incident to determine if the magazine was in fact real.”
Gregory displayed the magazine during a contentious interview with NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre. D.C. police have a “Zero Tolerance” policy on gun law violations.
The law in question is D.C. Official Code 7-2506.01, titled “DC High Capacity Ammunition Magazines.” It reads:
(b) No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. For the purposes of this subsection, the term large capacity ammunition feeding device means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The term large capacity ammunition feeding device shall not include an attached tubular device designed to accept, and capable of operating only with, .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.
Besides Rush Limbaugh, this other guy is a total basket case.
He is the same one who said that bringing more guns on school grounds would reduce the amount of kids murdered. He is also the same guy who said today on Meet The Press that reducing the amount of clips in a gun would do nothing to reduce the amount of damage presently done by high-capacity clips.
By now you’ve all heard about the insanity that took place yesterday on a podium and then transmitted nationwide, possibly worldwide for all to behold. You watched in utter amazement as the NRA’s CEO called for more guns in schools to stop school children from being murdered. And you’ve shared your feelings on this issue with those close to you and even on social media with people you haven’t even met.
It’s understandable. You’re shocked. You simply cannot believe or accept the fact that in one incident, twenty innocent lives between the ages of six and seven were violently slaughtered, and you looked for solutions. The NRA promised that solution would come at that podium and when you listened to what they had to say, you walked away more bewildered and angered than ever before.
Well have no fear, you are not alone.
Please allow me to suggest this video. It is sure to bring you some level of comfort knowing that there are still some sensible, levelheaded people out there, and it is sure to give you hope for the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC’s The Last Word, says all the things you wanted to say or all the things you’ve probably said, but he does it in a more… dramatic way.
Michael Steele was once the Chairman for the RNC, and after hearing what the NRA had to say in today’s press conference, Michael Steele said, “I don’t even know where to begin. As a supporter of the Second Amendment and a supporter of the NRA, even though I’m not a member of the NRA, I just found it very haunting and very disturbing that we are a country now that are talking about arming our teachers and principals in classrooms. What does that say about us?
“The idea that the message, the top line message coming out of this press conference is, ‘lets put a gun in the hands of our teachers in the classrooms,’ I do not think that’s where rank and file NRA members expected this to go to.”
Steele was a guest on MSNBC Live, and his disgust with what the NRA had to say in their press conference was apparent.
Wayne Lapierre, the CEO and Exec. VP of the NRA began his press conference by expressing his and his organization’s sorrow over what happened in Newtown Connecticut, where twenty children and six teachers were killed by a crazed gunman. After spending about five seconds acknowledging the horror of the shooting, Lapierre began pointing the fingers of blame at everyone else, while calling for even more guns… in our schools.
Lapierre blamed the media, the entertainment industry, the media, the politicians and the media. He even showed a video of a game where someone with a gun is shown shooting kids at their school. “It’s called Kindergarten Killers” Lapierre said, failing to see the obvious fact that even in the game, the player was using a gun.
“As parents, we do everything we can to keep our children safe. It’s now time for us to assume responsibility for our schools.” Laierre went on,”the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Trying to make his case for more guns on our streets, Lapierre points out that the President is protected by Secret Service with guns, and that the military uses guns to protect this nation. He then asked, “why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect the President of our country or the police, but bad when it’s used to protect our children in our schools?”
The NRA’s solution to stopping these of mass murders in the United States is putting more guns in the hands of the average civilian. Lapierre even mentions the name of the Sandy Hook shooter, saying, “what if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary school last Friday, he could have been confronted by qualified armed security. Would you at least admit it’s possible that twenty six little kids, that twenty six innocent lives might have been spared that day?”
But this is an old argument from the NRA.
“It is old news,” says John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence. In his appearance on News Nation, Mr. Rosenthal points out that “there were two armed guards at Columbine High School. They were outgunned by the shooters with assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips.” Rosenthal continued, “the FBI was even outgunned at Waco by David Koresh with a Tennessee made Barrett 50 caliber assault rifle that he blew up a tank with an killed police officers.”
Mr. Rosenthal concluded that Congress should “find their backbone, stand up the the dangerous NRA policies and enact an assault weapons ban and a background check for all gun sales.”
It seems that the NRA is foolishly choosing to disregard this fact: that the U.S.,accounts for 5% of the world’s population, but owns 50% of the world’s guns. With this knowledge, calling for more guns seem pointless.
On Tuesday, Republican Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder, a member of the Obama Administration, resign. “So, Mr. Attorney General, it’s more with sorrow than anger that I would say you leave me with no alternative but to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” Cornyn said.
The Republican Senator is calling on Mr. Holder to resign because of a program that started in 2007 under the Bush Administration called The Fast an Furious. The object of the program was to allow traceable guns to be smuggled into Mexico with the intention of pinpointing their locations and capturing some very bad people associated with the drug cartels . Unfortunately, an American Border Patrol Agant Brian Terry, was killed in December 2010 by a criminal using one of these guns and now Mr. Holder is in the hot seat.
Cornyn continued;
“You still resist coming clean about what you knew and when you knew it with regard to Operation Fast and Furious,” Cornyn charged. “You won’t cooperate with a legitimate congressional investigation, and you won’t hold anyone, including yourself, accountable. Your department blocks states from implementing attempts to combat voter fraud. In short, you’ve violated the public trust, in my view, by failing and refusing to perform the duties of your office.”
“So, Mr. Attorney General, it’s more with sorrow than anger that I would say you leave me with no alternative but to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” Cornyn said.
Calling Cornyn’s performance a political stunt, Holder replied that he is not resigning;
“With all due respect, senator, there is so much that’s factually wrong with the premises that you started your statement with, it’s almost breathtaking in its inaccuracy, but I will simply leave it at that.”
“… I don’t have any intention of resigning. I heard the White House press officer say yesterday that the President has absolute confidence in me. I don’t have any reason to believe that that, in fact, is not the case.”
And in reference to the documents Republicans are demanding, reports claim that Tuesday’s appearance marked the ninth time [Holder] has testified before Congress on Operation Fast and Furious. Holder said he was the one who ended “the misguided tactics” in that operation and who tapped an inspector general to investigate any wrongdoing. His staff has also provided Congress with more than 7,600 documents, in 46 separate installments, relating to the issue.
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