Category Archives: Gun Control Legislation

April 29, 2013 · 7:43 PM

Senators Lose Support After Opposing Gun Background Checks, Poll Shows

The Huffington Post

Senators in several states who voted earlier this month against increasing background checks for gun buyers have since seen their approval ratings noticeably drop, according to new polls released Monday by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) net approval rating dropped 16 points, as she shed much of her previous cross-party appeal. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) saw his numbers dive 18 points, from a positive to a negative rating.

Not all of the change can be attributed to the vote. Portman, for instance, saw his approval drop among Republicans when he announced his support for gay marriage in March. But in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and Ohio, at least 60 percent of voters supported background checks, and many expressed disappointment with politicians who voted otherwise.

Fifty-two percent of Arizona voters said they were less likely to support Sen. Jeff Flake (R) for reelection due to his “no” vote, while 46 percent of Nevadans said the same of Sen. Dean Heller (R). More than a third of voters were less likely to back Portman as well as Alaska Sens. Mark Begich (D) and Murkowski. A previous PPP poll found that Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also saw her ratings tumble 15 points, likely due in part to her vote against background checks.

Much of the lost support comes from independent or moderate voters.

PPP hasn’t yet conducted polling on how senators who supported the bill have fared. But Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who cosponsored background check legislation, saw his approval rating increase by a net 7 points, according to a Quinnipiac University pollreleased Friday.

Nationally, most polls taken since the shooting in Newtown, Conn., have found thatupwards of 80 percent of people support gun background checks, and that there isrelatively little partisan division on the issue.

Opinions were less unified on the actual legislation considered in the Senate, but most still say they wish it had gone through. A 65 percent majority of Americans said the measure should have passed, including 45 percent of Republicans and a majority of Democrats and independents, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

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April 17, 2013 · 4:44 PM

SENATE KILLS BACKGROUND CHECK AMENDMENT

 

Background-Check Amendment Fizzles

The Huffington Post

The Senate failed to muster sufficient support Wednesday for a gun-buyer background check bill that’s supported by nearly 90 percent of Americans, voting the measure down in a procedural vote that likely dooms any major legislation to curb gun violence.

The measure — painstakingly crafted by the bipartisan duo of Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) — was seen as the key to getting the first measure in decades to address the sorts of mass slaughters that so recently horrified the country in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six teachers were gunned down, and in Auroro, Colo., where moviegoers where killed in a theater.

The amendment failed 54 to 46, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster of the measure, even as victims of the Sandy Hook shootings watched from the Senate gallery and activists at a vigil outside the Capitol read the names of people slain since then, hoping to prompt action.

Passage of the background check amendment had been seen as key because it represented a bipartisan agreement in a highly polarized debate, and would have preserved a major part of the overall bill that many advocates against gun violence saw as a minimum step toward stemming gun massacres.

Stronger measures up for a vote also appeared headed for failure, including a ban of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The only significant steps that all sides agreed on were stemming illegal trafficking of weapons and improving mental health efforts.

The background check measure would have expanded the current check system to cover sales of weapons on the Internet and at gun shows.

Democratic aides privately conceded that with the failure of background checks, the rest of the bill would likely go down. One described it as a “pyrhic victory,” noting that a majority of the Senate backed the bill that is so popular outside the halls of Congress. “It’s the farthest we’ve come,” said the aide, speaking on background to talk freely.

The aides saw little hope of it being resurrected, although leaders kept that option open.

Opponents argued that the expanded check system would have laid the groundwork for a national registry of gun owners, although the measure expressly forbid such a step with a 15-year jail sentence for anyone who tried to do that.

They also called it a useless step that would achieve little.

“Expanded background checks would not have prevented Newtown,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Neb.) said.

But Toomey said his amendment would have at least been a modest step in the right direction.

“The goal was to see if we can find a way to make it a little bit more difficult for people who have no legal right to have a gun for them to obtain it,” Toomey said. “That was the goal.”

The Seante failed to meet it.

 

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April 7, 2013 · 12:57 PM

Just The Numbers: Without Real Gun Control, We DO Have A Gun Problem

guns

Addicting Info

Sometimes, you just have  to look at the raw numbers to understand the severity of a problem.

In the United States:

There were 12,664 murders in 2011. Of those murders, 8,583 were committed by firearms. That’s 68% of the total.

Of the 8,583 firearms murders in 2011, 6,220 were committed by handguns, while only 679 were committed by rifles or shotguns.

In comparison, 1,694 murders were committed by knives or other cutting instruments, and  496 using bare hands.

The national  firearm murder rate was 2.75 per 100,000

The states with the highest firearm murder rate (2011, per 100,000):

Louisiana – 10.16

Mississippi – 7.46

South Carolina – 5.41

Michigan – 5.06

Maryland – 4.70

Missouri – 4.64

Arkansas – 4.39

New York – 4.12

Pennsylvania – 3.97

Georgia – 3.93

Tennessee – 3.92

North Carolina – 3.87

Oklahoma – 3.64

Ohio – 3.54

Arizona – 3.53

There were 122,300 armed robberies committed with a firearm in 2011. The total number of armed robberies using knives or other weapons was 48,862.  The firearm robbery rate was 39.25 per 100,000.

There were 136,371 aggravated assaults using firearms in 2011.

(Source for everything above.)

There were 36,909 suicides in the United States in 2009. Of those, 18,735 (50.7%) were committed using a firearm.  (Source)

How we compare:

Compare our overall homicide rate (using guns and anything else) with other countries, starting with the top 5:

Mexico – 18.1 (per 100,000)

Estonia – 5.6

United States – 5.0

Chile – 3.7

Turkey – 3.3

Here are a few other countries, included for comparison:

Israel – 2.1

Canada – 1.8

France – 1.4

Poland – 1.3

Northern Ireland – 1.2

Australia – 1.2

England and Wales – 1.1

Scotland – 1.6

Italy – 1.0

Sweden – 1.0

Germany – 0.8  (Source)

Compare the number of firearm murders in the United States with the latest data from other countries:

South Africa – 31,918

Colombia – 21, 898

Thailand – 20,032

United States – 8,583

Philippines – 7,708

Mexico – 2,606

Slovakia – 2,356

El Salvador = 1,441

The counties above were the only countries reporting more than 1,000 firearm deaths in a single year. What about Europe, Australia and Canada? Here are some samples:

Germany – 269

Czech Republic – 181

Ukraine – 173

Canada – 144

Poland – 111

Spain – 97

Switzerland – 68

Australia – 59

Sweden – 58

Austria – 25

United Kingdom – 14

Compare our rate of firearm ownership with select other countries:

United States – 88.8 guns per 100 people

Yemen – 54.8 (second-highest in the world)

Switzerland – 45.7

Sweden – 31.6

France – 31.2

Canada – 30.8

Austria – 30.4

Germany – 30.3

Czech Republic – 16.3

Australia – 15.0

Spain – 10.4

Ukraine – 6.6

Poland – 1.3       (Source)

Only the United States and Yemen consider gun ownership a right, and Yemen is beginning to enact stricter gun control measures.

Though the United States has 4.5% of the world population, accounts for 40% of its civilian firearms.

The numbers speak for themselves. We have a problem in this country, and if you can’t see it, you’re blind. We have more guns than anyone else, but that’s not the problem. Proportionally peaking, Canada and most of Europe have a significant number of guns, yet nowhere near the number of gun homicides and deaths experienced annually in the United States. How do you explain three times the number of guns, but 40-100 times the number of gun deaths?

The difference seems to be that other countries seem to have a handle on their guns, and we do not.

If so many people were dying from any other consumer product, we’d demand answers. But when it comes to guns, we treat them as a sacred cow. The numbers don’t lie; our firearm statistics are more in line with third world dictatorships than a developed country. No other developed country is even close to us on this. Why aren’t we fixing it?

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March 26, 2013 · 11:17 AM

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz threaten filibuster on guns

Rand Paul (left) and Ted Cruz are pictured in this composite photo. | AP Photos

Is this really about the libertarian values of ‘smaller government‘ or is this the directive of the NRA via a couple of “campaign donations”?

Politico

Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are threatening to filibuster gun-control legislation, according to a letter they plan to hand-deliver to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office on Tuesday.

“We will oppose the motion to proceed to any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions,” the three conservatives wrote in a copy of the signed letter obtained by POLITICO.

Reid plans to bring up a gun-control measure that focuses on broadening background checks and cracking down on interstate gun-trafficking after the current Senate recess.

Conservatives are concerned that once that bill reaches the floor, amendments could stiffen restrictions on gun control.

Moreover, they understand that Reid intends to allow liberal amendments that would limit clip capacity and ban certain assault weapons to be offered — even though they would be defeated — to give Democrats a chance to vote on them. For moderate Democrats in competitive states, that amounts to an opportunity to vote no and show allegiance to gun rights.

Though they don’t use the word “filibuster” in the letter, the conservatives are leaving no doubt that they would filibuster on an initial procedural question — the motion to proceed.

Lee staged a test vote on the issue during consideration of the Senate budget last week. He tried to amend a point of order against gun control legislation to the budget but fell short. It needed a three-fifths supermajority and failed 50-49, needing 60 votes to pass. But the final tally emboldened Lee, Paul and Cruz because they were so close to a majority and a filibuster takes just 41 votes to sustain.

 

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January 15, 2013 · 7:51 PM

House Republicans Can’t Find Any Co-Sponsors For Their Latest Obamacare Repeal Bills

It appears they’re too busy getting ready to impeach the POTUS if he bans their assault weapons via executive powers…

Think Progress

Earlier this month, Tea Party darling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) admitted that his plan to introduce yet another Obamacare repeal bill would be unlikely to pass in the wake of President Obama’s decisive re-election. As it turns out, that was an understatement.

In a sign that the GOP’s anti-Obamacare fervor may finally be giving way to political reality, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) latest Obamacare repeal billdoesn’t have a single co-sponsor in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Bachmann made introducing the repeal billher first order of business for the 113th Congress, even as millions of Americans waited for House Republicans to act on a disaster relief package in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

And two other anti-Obamacare bills — one to repeal the law’s individual insurance mandateand another introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to repeal the whole law — also do not have any co-sponsors. By contrast, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) so-called “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” had a total of 182 cosponsors by the fourth day of the 112th Congress, and House Republicans successfully voted to repeal Obamacare a staggering 33 times during the last session — costing taxpayers an approximate $50 million. Public support for repealing the reform law has plunged to an all-time low as Americans begin experiencing its positive effects.

But the latest repeal efforts’ lack of co-sponsors should by no means be taken as a sign that Republicans will embrace health reform altogether. House Republicans can still try to obstruct Obamacare’s implementation by putting the law’s funding mechanisms on the chopping blockand attempting to repeal measures such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). In fact, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) recently advocated for doing exactly that in an editorial for his hometown paper, and former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) went as far as to suggest “civil disobedience” and breaking the law in order to stymie Obamacare.

Still, the full Obamacare repeal effort’s newfound loneliness in the House is a powerful demonstration of the difference an election can make.

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January 10, 2013 · 6:24 PM

Tactical Response CEO Threatens To ‘Start Killing People’ Over Possible Obama Gun Measure (VIDEO)

James Yeager

Multiply this guy by millions who think just like him..scary scenario, indeed…

The Huffington Post

One CEO says he’s willing to go to outrageous lengths to protect his right to use a gun.

James Yeager, CEO of Tactical Response, a Tennessee company that trains people in weapon and tactical skills, claimed in a video posted on YouTube and Facebook thathe would “start killing people” if President Barack Obama decides to take executive action to pass further gun control policies, Raw Story reports.

In a frenetic address to the camera, Yeager puts a call out to other gun rights advocates to “load your damn mags” and “get ready to fight” in what he claims will turn into a “civil war” if gun control measures in the country get any stricter.

SEE FULL VIDEO BELOW — WARNING ADULT LANGUAGE

Yeager’s diatribe was a response to a recent statement from Vice President Joe Biden indicating that Obama was exploring using executive orders to address gun policy. Yeager accused Obama of being a “dictator” for considering taking action without Congress.

After the massacre in Newtown, Conn. last month, Obama instituted a task force lead by Biden to come up with policy proposals to deal with gun violence no later than this month.

The Washington Post reported that the White House is considering more expansive measures to tackle gun violence than simply reinstating a ban on assault weapons and large magazines. Biden’s working group will consider initiatives such as a national database to track sale and movement of weapons and universal background checks for gun buyers.

Yeager isn’t the first gun advocate to loudly voice his opinion about potential action on Capitol Hill. On Monday, Radio Host Alex Jones went on a scathing pro-gun tirade on “Piers Morgan Tonight” claiming that, “1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms! Doesn’t matter how many lemmings you get out there on the street, begging for ‘em to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them. Do you understand?!”

Yeager recently edited the video he put up on YouTube to not include his threat to “start killing people.” The original video was preserved by Raw Story and can be seen below.

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December 27, 2012 · 12:15 AM

Far Right Website Newsmax Shoots Down NRA Israel Myth

This should tell you everything you need to know about their politics

This should tell you everything you need to know about their politics

The NRA can’t rely on truth to support their positions so they resort to such blatant lies that even a far right publication has to call them out on it…

Addicting Info

Whatever side of the gun control debate you’re on, everyone can agree: there’s something different this time. Whether we’ve reached a tipping point and we are collectively tired of the unnecessary violence or the crime was so shocking that it can not be rationalized, it’s clear that the usual bag of NRA tactics is not working.

Nothing has made this more clear than the outright rebellion from reliable right-wing sources. The New York Post  labeled NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre a “Gun Nut.” Fox News has been uncharacteristically subdued and now, even Newsmax, a website known only for being an outlet for right-wing propaganda has turned its back on the NRA in a bit of rarely seen journalistic integrity:

Israel’s policy on issuing guns is restrictive, and armed guards at its schools are meant to stop terrorists, not crazed or disgruntled gunmen, experts said Monday, rejecting claims by America’s top gun lobby that Israel serves as proof for its philosophy that the U.S. needs more weapons, not fewer.

Far from the image of a heavily armed population where ordinary people have their own arsenals to repel attackers, Israel allows its people to acquire firearms only if they can prove their professions or places of residence put them in danger. The country relies on its security services, not armed citizens, to prevent terror attacks.

This is not a right-wing knee jerk defense of Israel in any sense. It is simply a statement of reality that stands in stark contrast to the NRA’s Wild, Wild west fantasy. Newsmax goes on:

“Israel had a whole lot of school shootings until they did one thing: They said, ‘We’re going to stop it,’ and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then,” LaPierre said on the NBC News show “Meet the Press.”

Israel never had “a whole lot of school shootings.” Authorities could only recall two in the past four decades.

…

Israel didn’t mandate armed guards at the entrances to all schools until 1995, the Education Ministry said — more than two decades after the Maalot attack and two years after a Palestinian militant wounded five pupils and their principal in a knifing at a Jerusalem school.

…

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor spelled it out.

“We’re fighting terrorism, which comes under very specific geopolitical and military circumstances. This is not something that compares with the situation in the U.S,” Palmor said.

The only terror we’re fighting on American soil is the one instilled by groups like the NRA itself. Newsmax goes on to fully describe how superior Israel’s gun policies are in relation to America’s in the sense that the Israelis take the time to know who is buying a gun, why and to check whether they are a risk to public safety. All of this would be considered “tyranny” but gun “rights” advocates. It’s OK for the rest of the country to live in fear of the next gun massacre as long as a well-funded minority tells us they have the right to buy as many guns as they want.

This particular episode of America’s addiction to guns has not yet played itself out and the NRA may yet prevail with its bag of distractions and nonsense. This time, though, it will not be with quite the same amount of automatic support from the usual suspects. Hopefully that means the tide is finally turning and America can reverse the “shoot first, ask never” mentality that has overtaken us.

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December 17, 2012 · 12:29 AM

Five Lies The Gun Lobby Tells You

None of it is true…

Think Progress

America’s seems to be in for another debate over gun regulation after the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School left 27 (mostly children) dead. So it’s worth reviewing five made against regulating gun ownership in the United States:

MYTH #1: More guns don’t lead to more murders. A survey by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health found strong statistical support for the idea that, even if you control for poverty levels, more people die from gun homicides in areas with higher rates of gun ownership. And despite what gun advocates say, countries like Israel and Switzerland don’t disprove the point.

MYTH #2: The Second Amendment prohibits strict gun control. While the Supreme Court ruled in D.C. v. Heller that bans on handgun ownership were unconstitutional, the ruling gives the state and federal governments a great deal of latitude to regulate that gun ownership as they choose. As the U.S. Second Court of Appeals put it in a recent ruling upholding a New York regulation, “The state’s ability to regulate firearms and, for that matter, conduct, is qualitatively different in public than in the home. Heller reinforces this view. In striking D.C.’s handgun ban, the Court stressed that banning usable handguns in the home is a ‘policy choice[]‘ that is ‘off the table,’ but that a variety of other regulatory options remain available, including categorical bans on firearm possession in certain public locations.”

MYTH #3: State-level gun controls haven’t worked. Scholars Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander recently studied state-to-state variation in gun homicide levels. They found that “[f]irearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation.” This is backed up by research on local gun control efforts and cross-border gun violence.

MYTH #4: We only need better enforcement of the laws we have, not new laws. In fact, Congress has passed several laws that cripple the ability for current gun regulations to be enforced the way that they’re supposed to. According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, a series of federal laws referred to as the Tiahrt amendments “limit public access to crime gun trace data, prohibit the use of gun trace data in hearings, pertaining to licensure of gun dealers and litigation against gun dealers, and restrict ATF’s authority to require gun dealers to conduct a physical inventory of their firearms.” Other federal laws “limited the ATF compliance inspections” and grant “broad protections from lawsuits against firearm manufacturers and retail sellers.”

MYTH #5: Sensible gun regulation is prohibitively unpopular. Not necessarily. As the New Republic’s Amy Sullivan reported after the series of mass shootings this summer, a majority of Americans would prefer both to enforce existing law more strictly and pass new regulations on guns when given the option to choose both rather than either/or. Specific gun regulations are also often more popular than the abstract idea.

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December 16, 2012 · 1:44 PM

David Gregory: No Pro-Gun Rights Senators Would Go On Meet The Press

David Gregory

Pro-gun rights politicians are wimps when it comes to facing the public with their gun advocacy stance, especially in the aftermath of a horrific event like the Newton massacre.  Yet behind closed doors they accept “campaign contributions” and endorsements from the National Rifle Association (NRA) with no hesitation.  The hypocrisy is astounding…

The Huffington Post

‘Meet The Press’ host David Gregory said that no pro-gun rights senators would agree to go on the show on Sunday.

“We reached out to all 31 pro-gun rights senators in the new Congress to invite them on the program to share their views on the subject this morning,” he said. “We had no takers.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined the show to discuss a greater need for gun control. She announced that Senate Democrats would intrduce a new bill banning assault weapons on the first day of the new Congress in January.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch advocate for gun control, also appeared on the show. Bloomberg helped found the group “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.”

MTP Executive Producer Betsy Fischer Martin confirmed that none of the 31 senators invited would agree to come on.

Pro-gun rights have been mostly quiet since a gunman walked into a Connecticut elementary school on Friday and shot 26 people, including children, and then himself.The NRA on Friday refused to comment on the shooting.

One exception? Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) told Fox News Sunday that he believed more guns are the answer to violence in schools.

“I wish to god she had had an M4 in her office,” he said of Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, who was killed in the shooting.

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