Americans Split on Stricter Gun Control Laws, Continuing a Longtime Trend

The answer to gun violence is always more guns
In the wake of the Tucson shootings, U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, introduced a piece of Legislation that would bar possession of a firearm within 1,000 feet of a member of Congress. It’s really a silly, even dangerous idea. With all that is going on, why on earth would members of Congress want to deny themselves the sense of security and safety that comes from knowing that at any time, they could be within easy reach of a heavily armed constituent? It’s absurd...

The Problem With the Militarization of Rhetoric
Washington—The slaughter in Tucson hasn’t shaken us out of bad political habits. Instead of promoting a sober conversation about the dangers of violent political talk, it has reinforced divisions between left and right. Even responsible Conservatives have dismissed any suggestion that Saturday’s attack is reason enough to condemn the threats of violence that have become standard to the discourse at the extremes of their side of politics. More importantly: We have not focused a...

How Violent Talk Blocks Sane Gun Laws
The slaughter in Tucson hasn’t shaken us out of bad political habits. Instead of promoting a sober conversation about the dangers of violent political talk, it has reinforced divisions between left and right. Even responsible Conservatives have dismissed any suggestion that Saturday’s attack is reason enough to condemn the threats of violence that have become standard to the discourse at the extremes of their side of politics. More importantly: We have not focused at all on how the...

How Violent Talk Blocks Sane Gun Laws
WASHINGTON — The slaughter in Tucson hasn’t shaken us out of bad political habits. Instead of promoting a sober conversation about the dangers of violent political talk, it has reinforced divisions between left and right. Even responsible Conservatives have dismissed any suggestion that Saturday’s attack is reason enough to condemn the threats of violence that have become standard to the discourse at the extremes of their side of politics. More importantly: We have not focus...

Why Gun Control (Still) Won't Work
It has been a dismal decade for Gun Control advocates. They lost the federal so-called assault weapons ban when it expired in 2004. The Supreme Court made history by proclaiming an individual right to own Firearms for self-defense. A Democratic president came into office vowing not to take away anyone's guns. So it's no surprise that anti-gun forces would take the Mass Shooting in Tucson as a rare opportunity to reverse their fortunes. It's also no surprise that their proposals are models of fut...

Would stricter gun control help?
As the country recovers from the shooting rampage in Arizona on January 8th, 2011, we all wonder about our safety and the safety of our elected officials. Some blame the "dont retreat, reload" Tea Party culture. Some are questioning the lenient Gun Laws in Arizona. Here in Massachusetts, the Gun Control laws are extremely stringent. According to former Boston police lieutenant Thomas Nolan, Arizona gun law has no waiting period, and does not require licensing or registration ...

Third gun control bill proposed since Tucson shootings
Stumble This! High-profile gun violence has historically renewed legislative interest in the cause of Gun Control, and the shootings of twenty people in Tucson, Arizona is no exception -- only this time, the measures face steeper hurdles than before. Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, is the third congressman to propose a gun control bill in the wake of the Murders on Saturday. (The other two are also New Yorkers.) His bill seeks to accomplish a goal other gun control advocates have ...

The Tucson shootings: The blame game
SARAH PALIN once urged her supporters not to retreat but to reload. In the run-up to last year’s mid-terms her website carried a map of vulnerable Democrat-held seats, each marked with the cross-hairs of a gun-sight. Sharron Angle, a Republican Candidate in that election, once said that the Federal Government needed “second-amendment remedies”—the second being the one about the right to bear arms. Right-wing radio and television hosts routinely indulge in the language of ...

Ex-girlfriend says Tucson shooting suspect changed
(01-13) 05:03 PST Tucson, Ariz. (AP) -- An ex-girlfriend of the suspect in Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson says he was a lot different than when they dated six years ago when both were in High School. Kelsey Hawkes was interviewed Thursday on CBS'"The Early Show" about Jared Loughner, whom she hasn't spoken to in five years. Hawkes says he was caring, sweet and kind when they went out, and she remembers his parents as being great. She says she never saw any violent tendencies in Loughner. H...

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,”

Media Point Fingers at a Favorite Enemy -- The Second Amendment
It was inevitable. After spending several days following the Tucson massacre working to curtail the 1st Amendment, the left and the media are now targeting the 2nd. As always, they have help from either those legitimately concerned for their safety or others trying to scavenge political points from the dead and wounded. Following the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is planning to push a bill “to ban the carrying of any firearm within 1,000 feet of what he describe...

Obama offers comfort after Tucson shootings
(01-13) 04:00 PST Tucson -- President Obama comforted a community suffused with grief and summoned the nation to recommit to a more civil public discourse as he delivered a eulogy Wednesday evening urging Americans to talk with each other "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Evoking memories of the six killed on Saturday, Obama seized upon the Mass Shooting at Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Supermarket meet-and-greet to tackle the subject of the nation's harsh political dialogue...

The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords: The tears of Tucson
AMERICA, Barack Obama eloquently declared this week, has been shaken from its routine, and forced to look inward. And so it has: in response to the attempted Assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, a congresswoman from Arizona, Congress cancelled all its scheduled business for the week, including a vote to Repeal the president’s health-care reforms, and instead passed a resolution of sympathy for the Victims. Mr Obama, along with several cabinet members and congressmen, flew to the scene of t...

DR. DALE ARCHER: It's the Mental Illness
An undated photograph of Jared Lee Loughner released by the Pima County Sheriff's Office. By all accounts Jared Loughner’s early school years were relatively normal. He played in the band, had friends and a girlfriend; pretty much a regular guy.  Then sometime midway through High School things started to fall apart. He alienated friends, became more of a loner, started smoking pot and talked about weird ideas. He quit in his senior year, tried to enlist and was rejected by The Army an...

Gun control? Civility? My Predictions
Nothing will happen. I anticipate we will see reduced restrictions on Gun Control actually, as the NRA and its allies push back against the Tucson tragedy. That means no laws requiring gun registration, closing private sale and gun show Loopholes, reinstating the ban on extended clips, eliminating open carry laws, better Background Checks, etc. That's just not the way gun proponents roll, regardless of the tragedy. After all Columbine had no effect, nor did the Virginia Tech shooter. Why shoul...

'This is my genocide school'...
Jared Lee Loughner (both photos, above) was booted from Pima Community College in September when he made an Internet video denouncing the suburban school as a death camp. If people had spoken up sooner, could they have prevented Jared Loughner from allegedly shooting people in Tucson? Mass Shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner descended into madness with bizarre outbursts about baby Suicide Bombers, numerology and a YouTube rant about mass killings at his community college, newly released re...

Parents of suspect..
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Besides the families of Victims from Saturday's Mass Shooting in Tucson, the parents of suspect Jared Loughner are also getting support -- even from strangers. People have been dropping off cards and flowers at the home of Randy and Amy Loughner Wednesday. One of them was nurse Lisa Campbell, who lives about three miles away and doesn't know the couple. She brought by a card and flowers. Campbell said in the card were her name and Phone Number -- in case they wanted someone...

Report: Loughner Used Hallucinogenic Drugs
The Daily Beast reports: Arizona shooter Jared Loughner used Salvia, the Hallucinogenic drug, according to a High School friend of his. Obviously, Loughner was troubled. But did Salvia have anything to do with it? Currently, there’s very little scientific information about the drug’s effects—thanks, in part, to Salvia’s relative safety. “So far the Federal Government has not funded any studies, because it’s not seen as relevant until someone dies of an Overdose,

Gun Control and the Tucson Shootings
As we’ve witnessed over the past five days the left has pulled out all the stops to gain political advantage from the tragic shootings in Tucson. We’ve endured the spectacle of the leftist punditocracy shrilly blaming opinions opposed to the Obama Administration for the actions of an obviously schizophrenic young man who has been described by his friends as a Left Wing doper who was disengaged from current politics. We’ve seen the addled superannuated “sheriff” la...

NY GOP Congressman joins Lautenberg in fight for gun control
In the wake of Saturday's senseless shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ8) and several others, which claimed the lives of six innocent individuals; conversation has heightened in various areas. Political vitriol has certainly be at the forefront with liberals and Conservatives slinging mud at each other in nothing more than finger pointing. Elected officials have weighed in and most have tried to watch what they say in order to pay proper respect during this time of mourning. Both ...

MSNBC Ed Schultz Has (Live TV) Proctology Moment
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz desperately needs a proctologist because he just inserted his own head up his own rear - and on national television, no less. It must hurt even worse considering Schultz began his broadcast by having so much fun using the Tucson tragedy to bash Conservatives.  First off, he began by smearing the armed services.  The cause of the horror at Tucson was because of “the crisis of under treated Mental Illness among our Veterans and other mentally ill Amer...

New poll shows Americans still not buying media spin on Tucson shootings
The last poll from CBS that showed Americans rejecting the “extreme Rhetoric” blame game was taken in the first couple of days after the shooting.  This Gallup Poll for USA Today was conducted on Tuesday, with plenty of time for the media’s “magical thinking,” as Allahpundit put it, to mold Public Opinion.  It’s still no sale: Most Americans reject the idea that inflammatory political language by Conservatives should be part of the debate about the forces ...

Bloomberg Businessweek: How the Austrian Glock Became America's Gun
Bloomberg Businessweek has a fascinating look at how Glock Firearms came to dominate the U.S. Law Enforcement market -- and why they are so deadly in the hands of psychopaths: The Gun Control debate has vanished from American politics.... Since Loughner's attack, liberal pundits, Gun Control advocates, and congressional backbenchers have been talking about instituting new controls. The voices that count, however, including President Barack Obama and the congressional leaders in both parties, ha...

What These Guys Said
First off, C-Span has the whole Tucson memorial posted. So I could re-watch the first part, especially the Blessing ceremony, which according to the C-Span timer lasted almost exactly eight minutes—well short of “rambling on forever” in terms of the average sermon, I believe. For those of you who wondered about the content, or context, a short anthropological note from someone who grew up amid a deeply hierarchal religious organization (the Irish-American Roman Catholic Churc...

Using The Giffords Shooting To Destroy Free Speech
Now it is clear that Jared Loughner was stalking Gabrielle Giffords for years, long before Sarah Palin and her supposed “target” electoral map. Now it is clear that Loughner’s classmates were afraid of him months ago. One teacher wrote last summer: “Hopefully he will be out of class very soon, and not come back with an automatic weapon.” A Student wrote: “He frightened the daylights out of me. I kept saying to people, ‘I’m afraid he’s going ...