AZ aftermath: Seattle Times v. P-I v. conservatives and gun rights

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...

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...

Did Democrats Give Up in Gun Control Debate?
As The Times’ Dalia Sussman noted yesterday, Americans have generally become more protective of Gun Ownership rights in recent years. There are some exception to the rule — for instance, according to the General Social Survey, which has been conducted intermittently since 1972, the percentage of Americans who think that permits should be required before a gun can be obtained has gradually risen (from 72 percent in 1972 to 79 percent in 2008). Background Checks for gun owners are over...

Gun Controls Golden Opportunity
As a result of Saturday’s tragedy in Tucson there have been renewed calls for tighter Gun Control laws across the nation. Arizona is one of the most gun-friendly states in the union, causing some on the left to conclude that if the Grand Canyon State had tighter controls on Gun Ownership, six lives would have been saved and Representative Gabrielle Giffords wouldn’t be lying in a Hospital bed. There’s more here than just the usual sort of Monday morning quarterbacking that occu...

Louisville lawmaker working to ban guns from state Capitol
Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11)- The Arizona shootings have sparked a debate over Gun Control in the country and if guns should be allowed in State Capitols. Currently in Kentucky, guns are permitted, but two lawmakers in Louisville want that to change. State Representative Darryl Owens called last Saturday's shooting, killing six people and injured others including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, frightening, tragic and unnecessary. It is also why he has contacted House Speaker Greg Stumbo, to ban...

Louisville lawmaker working to ban guns from state Capitol
Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11)- The Arizona shootings have sparked a debate over Gun Control in the country and if guns should be allowed in State Capitols. Currently in Kentucky, guns are permitted, but two lawmakers in Louisville want that to change. State Representative Darryl Owens called last Saturday's shooting, killing six people and injured others including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, frightening, tragic and unnecessary. It is also why he has contacted House Speaker Greg Stumbo, to ban...

Boehner rejects new gun regulation
Image by Getty Images via @daylife The Hill: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is rejecting gun-control Legislation offered by the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in response to the weekend shootings of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others in Arizona. Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) announced plans Tuesday to introduce Legislation prohibiting people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of members of Congress. ...How are you going to enforce a moving 1,000 feet exclusion zone again...

Lets Have A Rational Conversation About Guns
In the wake of the Tucson carnage, there has been considerable discussion here and elsewhere about Gun Possession and carry laws. Some have speculated that private Gun Possession would have reduced the death and injury toll in Tucson. Others have speculated that the toll would have increased with the presence of additional guns. What both sides have in common is that they are speculating. As a backdrop for this discussion, let’s begin with a thumbnail look at the current state of gun law and ...

The Great American Craziness
I do not believe that Sarah Palin and her blather about "reloading" or Sharron Angle, she of "Second Amendment solutions," have anything to do with the gunning down of innocents in Arizona. You can’t blame a third of a huge nation, who love simplistic hyperbole, for the actions of one crazy person in Tucson. What bothers me is people, sane and insane, with guns, better ones, another manifestation of technological revolution. What bothers me is the cowardice of national ...

WORDS DON'T KILL PEOPLE; BULLETS DO (Richard Reeves)
Los Angeles --- I do not believe that Sarah Palin and her blather about "reloading" or Sharron Angle, she of "Second Amendment solutions," have anything to do with the gunning down of innocents in Arizona. You can't blame a third of a huge nation, who love simplistic hyperbole, for the actions of one crazy person in Tucson. What bothers me is people, sane and insane, with guns, better ones, another manifestation of technological revolution. What bothers me is the cowardice ...

This conversation is a set-up
Harsanyi: My only contribution to the crumbling discourse, it seems, is believing in the tenets of classical Liberalism. That, in and of itself, is a Sin. This leaves the person with two choices: revise your viewpoint or shut up. Which, of course, is the point. The always-civil Jacob Weisberg of Slate was more forceful in this regard, claiming that, “At the core of the Far Right’s culpability is its ongoing attack on the legitimacy of U.S. government . . . .” Which, as you kn...

Sarah Palin blames journalists for inciting hatred after shooting
Right-wing US politician Sarah Palin has posted a nearly eight-minute video on her Facebook page condemning those who blame fierce political campaigning for the Tucson massacre. Mrs Palin has been criticised for an online campaign map that targeted the district of shot congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with the cross hairs of a gun sight. In the video the 2008 Republican vice Presidential Candidate said vigorous debates are a cherished tradition. But she said after the election, both sides find...

Arizona shootings won't isolate lawmakers, John Boehner tells House
The House of Representatives on Wednesday memorialized the 19 Victims of the weekend Shooting Spree in Tucson as the nation prepared for a day of mourning capped by a Speech by President Obama in Arizona. "We are called here to mourn an unspeakable act of violence," Speaker John Boehner said as the House began its debate over a resolution honoring the six slain and 13 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in critical condition after Saturday's attack outside a Supermarket in T...

Will Tucson Tragedy Shift Gun Control Debate?
Roanoke Firearms store owner John Markell holds a Glock 19 Handgun, the model used in both the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the recent shootings in Tucson, Ariz. Sales of the handgun surged after both events. In the wake of the tragic shooting in Tucson Saturday, pundits have spent countless hours debating the role of Sarah Palin in the story - despite the fact that there is no evidence that alleged shooter Jared Lee Loughner is a Palin supporter or had ever seen or heard her Rhetoric. What ...

Arizona shooting: The claim that more guns means less crime is just silly
I walked into a drugstore in Phoenix the night after the Tucson shooting and saw toy guns for sale. They were a garish red plastic, with bright orange tips, and bore the notice that it’s strictly illegal to paint the guns in any way to resemble real ones. Yet here, as Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik declared after the shooting, just about anyone can buy and carry a gun almost anywhere at any time. So why bother with toys? Sheriff Dupnik is the one politician (sheriffs are elected) who...

Palin says efforts to lay blame 'reprehensible'
Sarah Palin spoke out on the Arizona shootings Wednesday, calling the events "tragic" and sharply chastising those who have suggested charged Rhetoric from her and others on the right may have motivated the killings. "Like many, I've spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion b...

'Blood libel'
'BLOOD Libel'.... If the goal of Sarah Palin's Speechwriters was to get lots of attention, it worked. Her use of the phrase "blood libel" this morning has sparked quite a bit of discussion. In context, the half-term Governor, speaking by way of a pre-recorded video because she can't handle interviews, argued that "Journalists and pundits" had manufactured "a blood libel," which in turn may "incite ... hatred and violence." Palin was a little vague as to what, exactly, constituted "blood libel,...

Lawmakers push to exempt Kentucky-made guns from federal regulations
FRANKFORT — Lawmakers are pushing three identical bills to exempt Kentucky-made guns and ammunition from federal Background Checks, dealer licenses and other national regulations if the items remain in the state. The effort comes as a recent report shows Kentucky is one of the nation’s biggest exporters of guns that cross state lines — legally or illegally — and end up at crime scenes in other states, often in cities with tight Gun Ownership restrictions. At the same time...

Congress readies new gun-control bills after Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Congressional advocates of Gun Control are preparing Legislation to renew a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines of the sort suspected used in last Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona shooting: How safe are members of Congress? Such a ban was in effect between 1994 and 2004 as part of a ban on assault weapons, which also expired. Since then, clips such as those allegedly used by suspect Jared Loughner, which contained more than 30 rounds, have been available for purc...

Who Killed the Assault Weapons Ban?
Wed Jan. 12, 2011 3:43 AM PST If the Federal Assault Weapons Ban had been renewed in 2004, there's a good chance that its restriction on high-capacity gun magazines would have prevented the Tuscon shooter from killing so many people. So who's to blame for allowing this common sense law to lapse? Certainly not the American public. During the 2004 debate on renewing the ban, the Annenberg Election Survey at the University of Pennsylvania released a poll showing that 68 percent of the public&mdash...;

How Many Bullets Do You Need?
“High Capacity Magazines ... When ten rounds isn’t enough,” the Internet site offers. When, exactly, would that be? Enough for what? Jared Lee Loughner arrived at a Tucson Safeway on Saturday morning with a Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol outfitted with an oversized magazine that police say allowed him to get off 31 shots before he had to stop. The pause for reloading gave 61-year-old Patricia Maisch the chance to grab the new magazine from Loughner. Guns don’t kill peop...

Why Did The Democrats Abandon Gun Control?
Nate Silver studies the evolution of the debate. He makes several insightful points: It may ... be that Gun Control has became less a priority for the Democratic Party’s key stakeholders. On one hand, major cities — where Democratic voters and Donors have long been concentrated — became much safer during the decade of the 2000s, and so gun violence would have seemed a less immediate threat to an Upper East Side liberal in 2008 than it would have in 1988. On the other hand, Gun Control fi

Why Did Democrats Give Up on Gun Control?
Nate Silver: "It may be that Gun Control has became less a priority for the Democratic Party's key stakeholders. On one hand, major cities -- where Democratic voters and Donors have long been concentrated -- became much safer during the decade of the 2000s, and so gun violence would have seemed a less immediate threat to an Upper East Side liberal in 2008 than it would have in 1988." "On the other hand, Gun Control fits somewhat awkwardly into the constellation of political issues. On issues li...

Gun Laws Around The World (PHOTOS): How Weapon Ownership Restrictions Vary
Democractic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition after Saturday's grisly shootings in Arizona, which left six people dead. Though friends, family and supporters remain hopeful for Giffords' recovery, the attack has reportedly launched yet another debate on national Gun Control among U.S. lawmakers. Whether or not stricter laws could've somehow curbed alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner's access to Firearms may unfortunately never be known. But just how does Legislation...

Gun-law arguments heat up after Arizona shooting
TUCSON, Ariz. | Jared Lee Loughner had trouble with the law, was rejected by The Army because of a history of drug use and was considered so mentally unstable that he was banned from his college campus, where officials considered him a threat to other Students and faculty. But the 22-year-old had no trouble buying the Glock semiautomatic pistol that authorities say he used in the Tucson rampage Saturday that left six dead and 14 injured, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Mr. Loughner...