Restricting freedom after Tucson shooting will galvanize gun owners

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...

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
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...

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 ...

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,”

Ed Schultz Set Straight On Gun Rights By Tucson Shooting Hero
Joe Zamudio was one of the bystanders who helped subdue Tucson shooter Jarred Loughren. He’s also a concealed carry permit holder, and when MSNBC blowhard Ed Schultz started railing about Gun Control in response to this story Zamudio took him to ask....

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...

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 ...

Guns and Lefty Columnists
On the main site today, I have some tips for liberal columnists who want to write about guns. Unfortunately, it came too late to head off this disaster by the Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne — who seems to think that passing a law against bringing guns near government officials will stop crazed assassins, and who manages to warp the “preventing tyranny” rationale for Gun Ownership (that guns could be used as a last resort against oppression was one reason behind the Second...

What Obama said after the Tucson massacre about "human understanding" and the "old assumptions" we ought to challenge.
Following the advice in the Shaker hymn that followed the President's Speech last night, I kept it simple. I highlighted the passage in the Speech about how we should take "a good dose of humility" and not "use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another." But I'm not a Shaker, and I'm a little wary when the Most Powerful man in the world advises the masses to be humble and come together as one. So I want to look at what he said just before that: Scripture tells us that there is ev...

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 Tucson shooting, several congressmen vow to carry guns more often
When he's traveling to meet constituents, bumping along the back roads of central Utah in his Ford F-150 truck, it's not unusual for Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) to have a Handgun strapped to his hip. A longtime gun owner, Chaffetz said that in light of the attempt last weekend on the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), he thinks it might be a good idea to bring his Glock 23 even more often when he heads out into the country. "It's just that you never know when you might find yourself...

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...

From the Gun-Carrying Hero at the Arizona Shooting
Gun owner liberal Ed Schultz is set straight on the ridiculousness of Gun Control by one of the men who helped subdue the Arizona shooter. (The man himself carries a concealed weapon.) When are people going to learn that outlawing the ownership of objects will not prevent them from being owned by people who still want them? If that were the case, there wouldn’t be any marijuana, LSD, Cocaine, or Heroin left in this country. (This post is a follow-up to my previous post of the murdered 9-...

The Paradox of Disarmament
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 5:39pm. Will there be copycats? Will parents let their Children attend political rallies anymore? Will Congress ever come to our corner again? We witness another impromptu festival of American violence, this one in front of a Tucson Safeway. One more place that used to be safe and ordinary, suitable for children, is suddenly, for one random moment, a free-fire zone. A 9-year-old girl who wanted to learn how government works is among the half dozen dea...

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...

No More Mister Nice Blog
THE Conspiracy TO KEEP YOU PERPETUALLY ENRAGED (AND, INCIDENTALLY, PARANOID) Steve Benen and Atrios have both flagged this Harold Meyerson column in The Washington Post, and I thought I'd add my thoughts about why right-wing Rhetoric inevitab...

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...

Attribution of Cause and the Events in Tucson
One obvious outcome of the Tucson shootings this past weekend has been the search for explanations. This search is, in part, a reflection of a basic human tendency to want to find explanations for high profile and unusual occurrences. President Obama took note of this fact of life in his Tucson Speech Wednesday night: You see, when a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations -- to try and pose some order on the chaos and make sense out of that which seems sens...

Congressman Pete King to Introduce Gun Safety Bill After Arizona Shooting
Rep. Peter King said Tuesday he plans to introduce a new gun safety bill in Congress in the wake of the Mass Shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz....

Poll respondents: Tucson shooting 'isolated incident' & concealed firearms should be allowed
A slight majority (51 percent) of respondents to a survey conducted Jan. 10-11 by Vision Critical & Angus Reid believe the Tucson shooting last Saturday was an isolated incident resulting from an individual's action. About a third (31 percent) said the shooting was the consequence of a negative tone in U.S. politics. And 37 percent said they expect there will soon be more such incidents. In addition, 73 percent of respondents said that citizens should be allowed to carry a concealed firearm...

Pawlenty: Reaction to Tucson shooting could 'chill' debate
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) warned that the reaction to the Tucson shooting could dampen free Speech.   "We got to be really careful here, because if you start saying: 'you can say this, you can't say that, you can use that tone, you can't use that tone.' Then pretty soon, you know, you start to discourage, maybe chill, intimidate," he said during an appearance on the "Daily Show" Wednesday. "I even caught myself today, I was talking a little bit about hockey fights and public p...

Weekly Diaspora: Tucson Shooting Reshapes Explosive Immigration Debate
The Tucson shooting that left Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) critically wounded and 6 others dead last Saturday wasn’t explicitly motivated by Arizona’s polemical stance on Immigration. Nevertheless, the tragedy bears a number of weighty implications for immigration issues both in Arizona and across the nation. Contextualizing political violence Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was among the first to discuss the shooting within the context of Arizona’s heated immigration ba