Courtesy of CBS News:
During emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, the father of a first grader slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School fought back tears as he stressed the need to ban weapons like the assault rifle that a gunman used to kill his son, 19 other children, and 6 educators in Newtown, Conn.
Neil Heslin described how his son Jesse "was brutally murdered at Sandy Hook school on December 14, 20 minutes after I dropped him off."
"He said 'It's all going to be OK'," Heslin recalled his son saying as he was dropped off at school. "And it wasn't OK."
"Jesse was the love of my life. He was the only family I have left. It's hard for me to be here today, talking about my deceased son," Heslin said. But he added, "I have to. I'm his voice. I'm not here for the sympathy...I'm here to speak up for my son."
"There's many changes that have to happen to make a change effective," he continued. "Mental health issues, better background checks, bans on these weapons, bans on high capacity magazines - they all have to come together and they all have to work effectively...common sense tells you that."
I have watched this testimony about three times now but I still cannot get through it without tearing up. And I doubt that any person with any feeling of empathy toward their fellow human beings could.
Around the 5:50 mark Mr. Heslin makes a very important point about the 2nd Amendment:
"They warn you about the 2nd Amendment. Well the 2nd Amendment says a well regulated militia. Bear arms, freedom of state...It HASN'T been well regulated. It's not being well regulated."
That is a very important observation. The 2nd Amendment may provide the right to "keep and bear arms" but it does NOT afford that right free of government regulation.
And that is all anybody is asking for here. The right to protect our babies from the fanatics who stockpile weapons and may someday use them on their fellow citizens, or worse yet, a classroom full of innocent children.
And if you don't agree with that then perhaps you need to watch Mr. Heslin's testimony again.
In the end your right to bear arms is secondary to our right to protect our children. Period!
good morning IM'ers.
ReplyDeleteAs a responsible gun owner, I'm appalled that even with police chiefs speaking in favor of 100% background checks, there is serious opposition to even that small measure.
Right now, any 16 year old kid, or a lunatic from an asylum can walk into a gun show or gun flea market, and purchase any weapon they want, as long as it's not from a licensed dealer.
If it's just somebody selling off a collection, they can buy without ID or background check, in any quantity or anything for sale.
What's even more disturbing is how the drums are beating for armed conflict, civil war, and outright war on the US government from the fringe elements of the Teaparty far right.
I've been reading articles at Right Scoop, and some of these people are brazenly wishing for, and openly plotting attacks on Washington DC with organized armed gangs.
These are the people that Palin, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and Allen West are encouraging with their hateful, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric.
We can only hope that our country survives this hateful period, and can return to some level of civility and comity in the Congress, and begin to address the serious issues that face us.
Thanks for sharing this, G. Mr. Heslin's testimony was very moving, and very important to the issue of gun regulations in the United States.
ReplyDeleteScarborough Goes Off: We Took On Nazis, Soviets, Al Qaeda… But Can’t ‘Protect Our Kids’ From Guns?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-goes-off-we-took-on-nazis-soviets-al-qaeda%e2%80%a6-but-cant-protect-our-kids-from-guns/
Let us study gun violence, physicians beg Congress
ReplyDeleteDr. William Begg wiped away tears as he pleaded with Congress on Wednesday to help rescind laws that limit medical research into gun deaths and that restrict doctors from asking patients about guns in their homes.
Begg’s testimony highlighted a growing battle between some doctors and some gun advocates over whether federal health dollars should be spent on research into gun violence, and on whether doctors should counsel their patients about gun safety.
Medical groups have been complaining for years about restrictions on the research. And now 101 doctors from Newtown, Conn., have started their own group to try to influence both legislation and, perhaps, the U.S. culture itself.
“We are being intimidated not to discuss gun violence as a public health issue,” Begg, emergency medical services director at Danbury Hospital, 10 miles from Newtown, said in testimony to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence.
Begg was working in his hospital’s emergency department on Dec. 14 when Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 small children at Sandy Hook Elementary School using his mother’s assault rifle and other weapons. He has begun speaking out, with other doctors, against what they see as efforts to keep them from doing their utmost to prevent gun violence.
“Allow me as a medical doctor, when I see a patient and I talk to them about the risks of excess alcohol, or tobacco use, or safe sex, morbid obesity, seat belts, texting and driving, can I talk to them about the risk of gun violence, please?” Begg asked.
Begg asked Congress to ban assault weapons, high capacity ammunition magazines and semi-automatic rifles. “People say the overall number of assault weapons deaths is small. Please don’t say that to the people of Tucson or Columbine or Aurora or Virginia Tech and don’t tell that to the people of Newtown,” he said to applause from the audience in the hearing room.
Dr. William Begg (R), and Neil Heslin (L), the father of 6-year-old Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim Jesse Lewis, testify during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on "The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013."
“This is a tipping point. And this is a public health issue.”
more...
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17121033-let-us-study-gun-violence-physicians-beg-congress
I still think that all members of Congress should have to see the morgue photos of the Newtown victims and hear their injuries described by Connecticut's chief pathologist. Too many politicians are caught up in a fictitious interpretation of the Second Amendment and too many of them think that they have to depend on ALEC and the NRA for re-election.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Yesss!!! And look at those pictures EVERY DAY!!!
DeleteGuns in America: Who owns them and who believes laws should be stricter (or not)
ReplyDeleteMore Americans say they are now in favor of stricter gun laws than at any time since 2000, after the Columbine shooting, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Sixty-one percent said so, a nine-point jump from before the December 2012 Newtown shootings. The last time the question was asked before the shooting was in January 2011. Then, 52 percent said guns laws should be "more strict."
What’s responsible?
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17117903-guns-in-america-who-owns-them-and-who-believes-laws-should-be-stricter-or-not?lite
Mark Kelly Says NRA Trying ‘To Make It Easier’ For Criminals And Mentally Ill To Get Guns
ReplyDeleteI’ve been on the road lately, and everywhere I go, I hear huge determination to curb gun violence and real excitement about a simple, really important first step we can take: closing the so-called gun show loophole and instituting one simple system for background checks.
But then I read the newspaper or watch TV, and I hear other voices — specifically, the leadership of the National Rifle Association — describing this proposed legislation in terms that are misleading at best. They’re calling on legislators to make it easier, instead of harder, for criminals and the dangerously mentally ill to get guns.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/mark-kelly-closing-gun-show-loophole-is-right-way-to-go-88187.html#ixzz2MCxZoA6f
An Illinois Republican state lawmaker unleashed an ugly tirade yesterday, offering an analogy that concluded banning assault weapons is “exactly” like castration.
ReplyDelete“Here’s an analogy folks, Sacia continued, growing even angrier. “I ask you to think of this. You folks in Chicago want me to get castrated because your families are having too many kids. It spells out exactly what is happening here. You want us to get rid of guns.”
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/banning-assault-weapons-exactly-like-castration-says-republican-lawmaker/politics/2013/02/27/61419
Ok, I don't get these senators, congressmen who would protect gun laws to keep harmful military-style weapons on the street, but yet berate the Obama Administration for everyone's economic woes. While the President is trying to juggle the economy and bring up solutions, Republicans would block every proposal, which in effect, lowers privileges in salaries and health care, or reducing staff for police, ambulance, hospital staff, emergency room staff and all the necessary staff that is desperately needed to put together again all those little children that need to be triaged full of bullet holes. What a disgrace these politicians are.
ReplyDeleteThey would refuse to relieve the working class who are the ones who have to resuscitate victims of gunshot wounds, and they would refuse to stop the sale of automatic and semi-automatic weapons that spray bullets multiples times in each victim. What has the GOP become?
What do these Republicans stand for then? The seem to block every effort at keeping the country safe and protected by blocking laws that would save lives and would ease financial burdens of each municipal rescue worker. They would remove ObamaCare which is working, from these workers who the counties and states depend on with their very lives.
And when tragedy hits a school and the streets, and everywhere, they would rather choke every effort to keep citizens safe. Yes, the world is watching to see how the once great nation is showing a GOP color that doesn't coincide with it's image.
Gun owner fires at Walmart shoplifter to ‘mark’ him for police
ReplyDeleteA gun owner in Florida was arrested on Wednesday after he opened fire at a suspected Walmart shoplifter because he said he felt threatened and wanted to “mark” the man’s car for police.
As unarmed 42-year-old Eddie McKee allegedly ran from an Orange City Walmart with stolen merchandise, 35-year-old Jose Martinez pulled out his gun and fired at least five bullets, according to WKMG.
“I saw one black gentleman running from the parking lot, he dove in his car,” a caller told 911. “And there were two older gentlemen chasing him down. One drew a gun, ripped open the guys car door and screamed, ‘Freeze, freeze, don’t move!’ And then fired shots.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/28/gun-owner-fires-at-walmart-shoplifter-to-mark-him-for-police/
LOL C4pees had Bob woodward so called story up on their site and pointed all figers as usual at Pres. and now that the WH has published the full emails exchange C4pee have removed it LOL.
ReplyDeleteYou can see the article on google cache.
Such losers .
When I started my family, my mom's advice seemed almost too dumb to repeat, but she was so right. You'll learn more about yourself because of your kids. It's measured in the "letting go" moments. Letting go of their hand so they can take their first step, letting go of the bike seat so they can go on their own, letting go of their hand as they take the school bus, letting go of their childhood when they start dating, etc etc etc
ReplyDeleteI don't think anything can prepare a parent for the "letting go" this man had to do, and the lesson he learned. I have no frame of reference but thank him for sharing his experience.
What a brave man, he's not asking for much, but the fact that he's asking makes me sick to my stomach.