A Loaded Question, Part 2

After the Arizona shooting: coming together for gun control (The Christian Science Monitor)
As President Obama and other leaders try to pull the nation together in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting, Americans can also try to draw closer on a highly divisive issue related to the rampage: lack of Gun Controls in the United States. Debate on this topic has long been polarized. And after every recent massacre by someone who should not have had a gun, little changes in the nation’s Gun Laws. The gun lobby paints those who support reasonable gun restrictions as simply “antigun,”

The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords leaves members of Congress at a loss in more ways than one.
Barney Frank had left the floor of the House for a moment. Dozens of his fellow members were in the chamber saluting the work of their colleague Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the lives of six people who were killed when a gunman opened fire at one of her public meetings. I stopped Frank to ask him what he thought of the bill, soon to be introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., to ban the high-capacity magazines that the alleged shooter had used. "The Republicans are in power and have generally...

Karl Frisch: Arizona Aftermath: Real Second Amendment Remedies
Growing up, my father -- now retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department after 35 years of service -- frequently took me shooting and to just about every gun show within a 100-mile radius of our Southern California home. In fact, as I write this, several of the guns from his collection are on display at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Virginia. I may be a progressive but I have absolutely no problem with private Gun Ownership. If we are to learn anything from the horrible...

Rep. Charles Rangel: STANDING UP TO GUN VIOLENCE
The tragic massacre in Tucson, Arizona last week is a grim reminder of what can happen when political Rhetoric spirals out of control. Constant vitriol creates a climate that can turn volatile by the ease in which people have access to dangerous guns.  My constituents have a special understanding of this tragedy because of the amount of gun violence that has been in my district. In fact, far too many people across our great nation have attended funerals of family members, friends and other l...

Jim and Sarah Brady sound optimistic on Giffords
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (CNN) - Nearly 30 years after he was shot in the head during the attempted Assassination of President Ronald Reagan, former White House Press Secretary Jim Brady knows what U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is going through. "Been there. Know that," Jim Brady said. "Sounds like she's got a great Support Group that's right there with her and that means a lot," he said. Brady and his wife, Sarah, are keeping a close eye on Giffords' progress, noting the congresswoman's remarkab...

Dingell Wants Probe Into Gun Control Law
Rep. John Dingell, dean of the House, wants to investigate whether Gun Control laws targeting mentally unstable individuals are working in the wake of the Tucson shootings. “If what we understand is so that we have here is somebody who is mentally disturbed is having an easy time to get a gun and whose warnings of his behavior are not finding its way into the National Instant Check System, we’re having perhaps a serious problem that perhaps needs to be addressed,” the Michigan ...

Mark Olmsted: Recoil: A Sane Reaction to Guns
I'm going to say what a blogger can and a politician can't. Guns suck. Guns are bad. I hate guns. A national Gun Control strategy is the only hope to stave off our prodigious level of gun violence, but advocating such a policy is more politically dangerous than pushing for cuts in Social Security. That's because a startling majority of Americans like guns. They think guns are good. They would rather kill someone who was trying to break into their house then part with some replaceable property...

Remedies that go too far, Part II
The things we already fear and already desire more thoroughly to control are most vividly salient to us. We seize on those: guns, crazy people. Did Jared Lee Loughner shoot government officials with a gun? Ban guns within 1,000 feet of government officials! Was Jared Lee Loughner detectably crazy? Make involuntary commitment easier! Did Jared Lee Loughner buy a gun while detectably crazy? Tighten background-screening requirements! Did Jared Lee Loughner's gun sport an extended magazine? Ban exte...

David Frum Blames AZ Shooting on Reefer Madness
Jared Lee Loughner is accused of shooting 20 people in Tucson, Arizona. The former Bush Speechwriter who coined the term “Axis of Evil” claims a link between Jared Lee Loughner, schizophrenia and pot-smoking. Forget guns, “The Tucson shooting should remind us why we regulate Marijuana.” Much of our culture’s historic intolerance for marijuana grew out of Racism and the quack science used to justify it. Frum acknowledges in his blog post that “The connection b...

Loughner could have been committed under Arizona law
Tucson Mass Shooting suspect Jared Loughner's recent history of instability — including five disruptions at his community college and bizarre rants on YouTube videos — probably would have been sufficient to commit him to a psychiatric facility, even against his will, experts said. Arizona makes it easier than most states to commit mentally ill people to psychiatric care, even against their will. But that doesn't mean that everyone gets the help they need. "The state laws are some of ...

Need to Know, January 14, 2011: Gun control, Haiti and high-speed rail
In the wake of the shooting in Arizona this week, we revisit our story about Gun Rights Activists and examine the current state of Gun Laws in the U.S. In an essay, co-host Jon Meacham, a gun owner, takes legislators  of both parties to task for their reluctance to ban assault weapons. To mark the first anniversary of Haiti’s devastating Earthquake, we present a report from The New York Times about two badly injured Children who were brought to the U.S. for treatment and recovery. We ...

Ever the Gun-Grabber, Lautenberg Lies About Failed Gun Law in CNN Op-Ed
It seems all I have done the past several days is "correct" obvious attempts by the leftist media/political machine to create false narratives about the gun and magazines used by Jared Lee Loughner in his deadly assault last Saturday, and when I haven't been dealing with that, I've been dealing with pundits and politicians lying about the failed 1994 "assault weapons ban" that expired in 2004. To hear them tell it, the ban kept blood from flowing in the streets and ended threats of gun violenc...

Rep. Peter King would surround himself with 72-acre Constitution-free zone
As Los Angeles Gun Rights Examiner John Longenecker has already discussed, Congressman Peter King (R-NY) has come up with a . . . novel approach to protecting, well . . . . himself, from the kind of sick, deranged lunatic who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and so many others in Tucson Saturday.  According to Politico, he wants to forbid Firearms carried by Private Citizens within 1,000 feet of himself and other "important figures" (who would include Congressmen Russ Carnahan and Will...

Rep. Brodeur files Doc, dont ask gun bill
TALLAHASSEE — Doctors and other medical providers would be barred from asking patients - or the parents of child patients - if they have guns in their home under a measure that promises a major showdown between powerful lobbying groups. The National Rifle Association’s top Florida Lobbyist and a Florida Medical Association member both say the issue is among the top priorities for the session, with the groups holding diametrically opposed positions on what doctors and thei...

You can pay me now.
You may recall I was betting that the response to the Assassination attempt in Arizonastan would be to arm the citizens to the teeth even more? Slate tells us… So Arizona’s response—the most likely legislative response—is going to be expanded Gun Rights. Heller told me on Monday that the Arizona Citizens Defense League has drafted Legislation that would allow the state to train members of Congress and their staffs in Firearms, and give them access to firearms they could c...

Being Wyatt Earp
Being Wyatt Earp by digby Wow. I had heard there were other people with guns at the Tucson massacre, but I didn't know about this: "I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready," he explained on Fox And Friends. "I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this." Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. "And th...

GOP leaders quash Republicans effort to ban guns within 1,000 feet of lawmakers
Stumble This! The top two Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected Gun Control Legislation soon after it was announced by a senior GOP congressman, effectively dooming its hopes for consideration. The bill, unveiled by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on Tuesday, would have banned people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of elected officials in Congress. It had the support of New York City mayor and outspoken gun-control advocate Michael Bloomberg. His announcement came days after the trag...

Gun Owners of America Fights To Preserve The Next Jared Lee Loughner's Right To Purchase Firearms
If any consensus has emerged about the tragic shootings in Tucson last weekend, it is that Jared Lee Loughner, or anyone with a similar history of dangerous Mental Illness, should not have been able to purchase a gun. But that consensus would have to exclude the right-wing gun Lobbyist organization Gun Owners of America (GOA), which continues to fight any measure aimed at preventing the dangerously mentally ill from purchasing Firearms. Since the Gun Control Act of 1968, there have been legal m...

N.C. gun laws might prevent a shooting like that in Tucson, group says
Gun control advocates say North Carolina’s limits on gun purchases reduce the likelihood of the type of rampage that erupted Saturday in Tucson, Ariz., but they are concerned that those laws may be eased by the new Republican-led General Assembly. “We have a lot of fears that in the next two years there will be attempts to weaken these Gun Laws,” Roxane Kolar, Executive Director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said Tuesday. In North Carolina, anyone seeking to purcha...

John Rosenthal: Congress-Wake Up and Smell the Gunfire
Gun violence in America results in over 30,000 deaths a year; more than 80 deaths and 200 gun related injuries everyday. In the wake of the latest Mass Shooting in Tucson Arizona, where a mentally unstable 22-year-old gunman bought a semi-automatic pistol and large capacity ammunition clip at a gun store and killed 6 and wounded 14, including a Congresswomen and Federal Judge, members of Congress say they're "shocked". That such a tragedy could happen to one of their own "just doing her job a...

Ackeman proposes gun-control bill to close 'firesale loophole'
Rep. Gary Ackerman is the third New Yorker to propose gun-control Legislation in the wake of the Mass Shooting in Arizona. Ackerman said his bill would close the “fire sale Loophole,” which allows gun dealers with revoked licenses to legally sell weapons as their personal collections. They don't need to run an FBI Background Check on the buyer, which would be mandatory at a regular firearm Dealership. Ackerman is one of a handful of members of Congress talking about Gun Control, ...

Is Jared Loughner Jewish?
A report stating accused Congressional shooter Jared Loughner is Jewish through matriarchal descent has become a hotly-debated issue, following earlier rumors that the Saturday morning shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had an anti-Semitic slant. In an exclusive interview with Mother Jones, long-time Loughner friend Bryce Tierney told the blog the alleged lone gunman’s mother, Amy Totman Loughner, is Jewish. Through Jewish Matriarchal Law, as explained in Deut. 7:3-4 of the Penta...

More on Loughner and Violent Rhetoric
First up, a friend of mine from Olympia, Zoltan Grossman, has a really good analytical look at Loughner over on Znet and shares his thoughts on where Loughner fits on the political spectrum. When Zoltan speaks, I listen. Real Fascists in Our Midst Cliff notes: Zoltan finds lots of connections between Loughner's ramblings and the thinking behind the Posse Comitatus and Sovereign Citizen movements. The grammar and brainwashing stuff that Loughner rambles about is also present in David Wynn's writi...

Why there's no more debate on gun control
FORTUNE -- The tragic shooting on Saturday of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and 19 others has renewed a national conversation about whether our Gun Laws need tightening. But the chatter for the most part has so far ignored a curious fact: in Congress, the arena where any new restrictions would be decided, the debate effectively ended years ago. Even over the last two years, when Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress, Gun Rights advocates led by the National Rifle Associati...

Stricter gun laws need to be put into effect
Flowers and balloons left at the sight of the shooting in Arizona.      Following the horrific incident in Tucson, Ariz. over the weekend, it really got me thinking about stricter Gun Laws and even a complete ban. Six people were killed on Saturday after the gun man, who is identified as 22-year-old Jared Loughner, went on a rampage outside a Supermarket. Among the dead is a nine-year-old girl.      It seems all too easy to purchase a gun: go to a store, ...