Raising gun control after Arizona | Amanda Marcotte

Ron Paul: Gun control push after Tucson massacre is despicable
Stumble This! 'Guns and violence are a fact of life,' Texas Rep. insists Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul assailed as "nonsensical" the recent attempts at stiffening Gun Control laws in the aftermath of the shooting rampage in Arizona that killed six and thirteen injured In an op-ed for The Hill published Monday, Paul sharply denounced the violence in Tucson last Saturday, but said that "some have attempted to use this tragedy to discredit philosophical adversaries or score political points. Thi...

Post-Tucson Poll: Little Support for Gun Control
CNN reports: Americans feel sadness, anger and shock in the wake of the tragic events in Tucson, Arizona, according to a new National Poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates there’s plenty of blame to go around over the shootings, but two-thirds of the public is pessimistic that the government or society can prevent something like this from happening again. View full results (pdf) A total of 19 people were shot January 8 at the “Congress on Yo...

CNN Poll: No change on gun law opinions after Arizona shootings
Washington (CNN) - Americans' overall attitudes toward Gun Laws have not budged an inch in the wake of the shootings in Arizona, according to a new National Poll. But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates that majority of the public favors restrictions on semi-automatic guns and high-capacity ammunition clips, as well as Background Checks and limits on the number of guns that can be purchased. The poll indicates that the two sides of the gun debate are evenly b...

Arizona shooting hasn't changed views on gun control
A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that Americans aren't any more likely to support stricter Gun Control laws in the wake of the Arizona shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In the latest poll, 28% of those surveyed said that they would support stricter Gun Laws as a result of the attack, while 69% had no change in opinion regarding the nation's Gun Control measures. Still, although the shooting did not change minds, a full majority of Americans blamed lax Gun Control either a g...

Adam Winkler: MLK and his Guns
One issue on everyone's mind this Martin Luther King Jr. day is Gun Control. King's calls for resolving our differences through peaceful nonviolence are especially poignant after Jared Loughner gunned down six people and wounded several others in Tucson. Amid the clamor for new Gun Laws, its appropriate to remember King's complicated history with guns. Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid- 1950s, as the Civil Rights movement heated up, King kept Firearms...

Rallies in Richmond target gun laws from both sides
With Michael Sluss of The Roanoke Times RICHMOND It's one of the most heated debates of our time: Would fewer guns equal fewer killings, or is it just the opposite? In the shadow of the recent shootings in Arizona, the argument is as contentious as ever. Both sides came to the capital Monday to air their starkly different views to lawmakers. The face-off, however, was more subdued than in years past. Each camp staged its own rally and kept largely to its own. The irony of dueling over guns on M...

Palin defends use of 'blood libel'
WASHINGTON - Prominent U.S. Republican Sarah Palin Monday defended her reference to “blood Libel“ that aroused Controversy last week when she used the term to condemn criticism linking her fiery Rhetoric to the Arizona shootings. “Blood libel obviously means being falsely accused of having blood on your hands. In this case, that’s exactly what was going on,” Palin told Fox News in her first interview since the Controversy erupted over her remarks. “Just two da...

A WAVE OF MURDERS in a state the Brady Campaign calls safe because of strict gun laws. Safe? I d
A WAVE OF MurderS in a state the Brady Campaign calls safe because of strict Gun Laws. “Safe?” I do not think this word means what you think it means. But this kind of — all-too-common — pattern is probably why U.S. attitudes on Gun Control haven’t gotten any more favorable since the Tucson shooting. ...

A Week of Media Malpractice Comes to an Unhappy End
Actually a bit more than a week, but the title to this post is actually the subtitle to an excellent piece by John Hayward over at Human Events regarding the hideous behavior of the LSM in its “coverage” of the Tucson shootings including the threat made this weekend by Eric Fuller. I have a snippet here but please do read the whole thing. A week of Media Malpractice comes to an unhappy end. The media created its “Climate of Hate” narrative out of nothing. They didn’...

Drugs and Guns
Chuck Schumer proposes that when prospective Military recruits admit drug use in interviews — as Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner did — they should be reported to the FBI and entered into the database of people who are forbidden to buy guns. As Schumer points out, it is already illegal to sell a gun to a drug user or addict; this policy, therefore, would make existing law more effective. However, there are several reasons to be concerned. The first is that Americans have a Second Am...

Poll: Americans unchanged on gun control after Arizona shooting
Americans do not think any government action can stop future incidents like the recent shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) a CNN/Opinion Research found. The poll, released Monday, found that 66 percent of Americans think shootings like the Arizona shooting, which wounded thirteen and killed six, cannot be avoided by any kind of government policy. Thirty-three of those polled say that government can do something to reduce the possibility of a future shooting. The poll also found Ame...

CNN Poll: Blame game in Arizona shootings
Washington (CNN) - Americans feel sadness, anger and shock in the wake of the tragic events in Tucson, Arizona, according to a new National Poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates there's plenty of blame to go around over the shootings, but two-thirds of the public is pessimistic that the government or society can prevent something like this from happening again. A total of 19 people were shot January 8 at the "Congress on Your Corner" event at a Tucson sup...

Poll vaulting
Spin Doctor There is a new post at Salon by Justin Idiot that is spun so hard it will make you dizzy. Here’s the headline: Poll: 35% blame Palin for Tucson shooting This is how the article begins: This new CNN poll on the Tucson Mass Shooting seems like bad news for Sarah Palin: QUESTION: Overall, how much do you blame each of the following for the shooting in Arizona — a great deal, a moderate amount, not much, or not at all? When you get to the third option you see this: A map ...

Too Many
Bob Herbert asks how many deaths by guns are enough.We’ve allowed the Extremists to carry the day when it comes to guns in the United States, and it’s the dead and the wounded and their families who have had to pay the awful price. The idea of having large numbers of College Students packing heat in their classrooms and at their parties and sporting events, or at the local pub or frat house or gymnasium, or wherever, is too stupid for words. [...] Approximately 100,000 shootings oc...

RPOF selects lobbyist as leader
"The Republican Party of Florida on Saturday elected a new chairman -- former legislator and Lobbyist David Bitner -- after one of the nastiest contests the party has ever seen."Capping a tumultuous period for the GOP in America's biggest Battleground state, the election came months after the ouster and subsequent arrest of former state party chairman Jim Greer on charges of stealing party funds. "The problems of the past are behind us,'' declared Gov. Rick Scott, who was officially neutral, al...

Moran writes to constituents about King and guns
In a newsletter sent out to constituents, Congressman James P. Moran (VA-08) reflected on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the recent shooting at Tucson, Arizona. “Today we honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and his efforts to end Discrimination and fight for equal treatment under the law. Through his vision and leadership, our country made great strides in Civil Rights,” begins the letter. “He led peaceful demonstrations, showing the nation that a ...

Shooting Prompts Congress To Rethink Gun Clip Ban
Some of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' colleagues are saying it's high time to debate the reinstatement of a ban on the kind of large-capacity bullet magazines used in the shooting that wounded her and killed six others last weekend in Arizona. Dozens of House members from both parties took turns praising Giffords during a day of tributes last week for the Victims of the Tucson shootings. California Democrat Jane Harman used her time at the podium to suggest Congress actually do something. "We should ...

Both sides of the gun debate make their case at state Capitol
Opposing groups rally at Capitol Square in Richmond during Martin Luther King Day, anti-gun and pro-gun supporters. Video by Chris I. Young (more) In the aftermath of a Mass Shooting in Arizona, and on a day off work designed to commemorate the life of an assassinated civil-rights leader, both sides of the gun debate converged on Richmond on Monday to prod state lawmakers for legislative reform. Armed, pro-gun advocates pressed their case for less Regulation of Firearms in the state by assertin...

Ex-Black Panther, Current Politician Bobby Rush Uses MLK, Giffords to Call for Gun Control
Rush’s office published a blog post on The Hill’s Congressional blog section for January 16. It isn’t likely that Rush himself wrote the thing, of course, but it is published under his name and carries his imprimatur, so it doesn’t matter who wrote it. What matters is that Rush is using MLK for cover for a gun grab. What matters is that he, like so many other left-wingers, is using Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting to serve his political agenda. The Rush piece started ou...

Rallies in Richmond target gun laws
By Joanne Kimberlin and Michael Sluss RICHMOND It's one of the most heated debates of our time: Would fewer guns equal fewer killings, or is it just the opposite? In the shadow of the recent shootings in Arizona, the argument is as contentious as ever. Both sides came to the capital Monday to air their starkly different views to lawmakers. The face-off, however, was more subdued than in years past. Each camp staged its own rally and kept largely to its own. The irony of dueling over guns on Mart...

Poll: 69% Say Az. Shooting Has Not Changed Their Opinion on Gun Control
*18 Have the shootings in Arizona made you more likely to support stricter Gun Control laws, less likely to support stricted Gun Control laws or has your opinion on Gun Control not changed as a result of the Arizona shooting? CNN poll Politico Most Americans have not changed their views on Gun Control following the shooting nine days ago in Tucson, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll out Monday. Sixty-nine percent of those polled said the shooting that left six dead and injured 13, includi...

Response to shooting: Looser gun laws?
Less than 10 days after the Mass Shooting in Tucson that killed six and left a congresswoman in critical condition, the briefly revived Gun Control conversation -- such as it was -- already appears to be over.  That fact is striking in itself, and it's in line with what I described last week as a moribund Gun Control movement. But even more striking is that, in the wake of the mass shooting, Arizona State Legislators are preparing to push new laws that would actually make it easier to ...

False "equivalency" claims first victim: 63-year-old shooting victim arrested for mumbled threat
On Friday, on Democracy Now! Amy interviewed Eric Fuller, a 63-year old disabled Veteran who was one of the wounded survivors of the attempted Assassination of Gabrielle Giffords. Shot once in the knee and once in the back (with shrapnel), Fuller was obviously not in a forgiving mood, just because Loughner's crazy rightwing views were not precisely the same as everyone else's crazy rightwing views: ERIC FULLER: Once she walked up to me, she said, "I'll answer your questions, but you have to w...

Coburn: Mentally Ill Should Not Be Able to Acquire Guns
Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) thinks the U.S. needs to implement harsher measures to ensure that the mentally ill are unable to buy or own guns. “I’m willing to work with Senator [Chuck] Schumer [D., N.Y]. and anybody else that wants to make sure people who are mentally ill cannot get and use a gun,” said Coburn on Sunday’s Meet the Press, calling Jared Loughner’s access to a gun a “real problem.” But he also defended current Gun Laws, arguing that stricte...

Poll: Little support for gun control
Most Americans have not changed their views on Gun Control following the shooting nine days ago in Tucson, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll out Monday. Sixty-nine percent of those polled said the shooting that left six dead and injured 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), has not changed their opinion on gun control. Twenty-eight percent said the shooting has made them “more likely” to support stricter controls on the sale of Firearms, while 3 percent were &ldqu...;