Rep. Peter King would surround himself with 72-acre Constitution-free zone

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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. Peter King To Propose Law Making It A Crime To Come Within 1000 Feet Of Federal Officials With A Gun
As Democratic and Republican members rush to line up with new bills to restrict Speech or guns after the Tucson massacre, Rep. Peter King once again will not be outdone in criminalizing conduct. He is reportedly planning to introduce a bill that would make it illegal to knowingly carry a gun within 1,000 feet of the President, Vice President, Members of Congress or judges of the Federal Judiciary. This, of course, raises the problem with politicians being mobile. In states allowing concealed wea...

For those about to Glock (fire!), we do not salute you
Two truisms about America: 1) There's no such thing as bad publicity and 2) There are second acts in American life... ...especially if your name is Glock: After a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8, Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers. Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters...

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...

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...

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,”

Robert Creamer: Do Americans Have the Right to Bear Weapons of Mass Destruction?
The massacre and Assassination attempt in Tucson have reignited the ongoing battle over what limitations should be placed on our rights to Bear Arms. Let's assume for a moment - though there are many Constitutional scholars who disagree -- that the majority of the Supreme Court is correct in its view that the Constitution does in fact confer on Americans a right to bear arms that is similar in scope to our right to free Speech and assembly. What does it actually mean, that we have a right to b...

Rep. Louie Gohmert Drafting Bill To Let Congress Carry Guns In U.S. Capitol & D.C.
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) recently signaled his intention to submit a piece of Legislation that would make exceptions to a number of Firearms laws by allowing members of Congress to carry guns in D.C. and even into the Capitol building, including the chamber floors. "There is a rash of Legislation further infringing on Second Amendment rights that has been unwisely proffered in the wake of events in Tucson," Gohmert told The Hill in a statement. "If members of Congress wishes to carry a wea...

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, WED SEE PEOPLE BUYING GUNS RIGHT AND LEFT. And they were right
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED REPUBLICAN, WE’D SEE PEOPLE BUYING GUNS RIGHT AND LEFT. And they were right! “Liberal TN congressman to get carry permit: After Saturday’s shootings in Tucson, Ariz., U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said that he plans to apply for a permit to carry a Handgun.” Related: Left Gives Up On Gun Issue, Moves On To Mental Health. “It is fair to say that many liberals have become unenthusiastic about pursuing the gun issue. Yes, there are still ad...

Gibbs Noncommittal On Post-Shooting Gun Control Measures
WASHINGTON -- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, briefing reporters for the first time since the Tucson shootings, was noncommittal when asked about the two pieces of gun-control Legislation proposed by lawmakers in the wake of the shootings. Instead, he reaffirmed the president's support for the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, and pledged to give any piece of Legislation -- whether it be a ban on high-capacity clips, or restrictions on how close a firearm can be carried to ...

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...

Arizona Shootings Unlikely to Change Gun Culture
Now is the time for mourning the Victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, but it’s not the time for new gun-control laws aimed at preventing such tragedies in the future. That’s the political consensus in the wake of the attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords at a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway Supermarket. A deranged gunman killed six of Giffords’ constituents, including a Federal Judge and a 9-year-old girl, with a Glock 19 ...

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...

Peter King Unlikely to Get His Gun-Free Bubbles
Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Republican congressman Peter King's proposed Legislation creating 1,000-foot no-gun zones around congressmen and other high-ranking federal officials doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Speaker John Boehner is flatly against it, and gun-control advocates don't expect any gun-control Legislation to be able to get through this Congress, much less one that, despite King's good intentions, would seemingly be impossible to implement. [Hill] ...

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...

Poll: 53% Of Americans Say Critics Of Political Rhetoric Are Exploiting Tucson Tragedy
A couple of days ago CBS released a poll indicating that just 32% of Americans felt the Tucson shooter Jarred Loughner was motivated by politics. Overall, 57% felt that there was no connection between the shooting and politics, something even a plurality of 49% of Democrats agreed with. Now Gallup has findings that are similar, indicating that 53% feel those suggesting the Tucson tragedy was about political Rhetoric are just exploiting the tragedy. Also, a full 72% feel that stricter Gun Control...

New at Reason: Steve Chapman on Gun Control and the Tucson Shootings
Gun Control has faltered politically mainly because it hasn’t worked. And as Steve Chapman explains, it’s hard to imagine how stricter gun control laws could have had any discernible value in averting tragedies like last Saturday’s shooting in Tucson. View this article. ...

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...

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...