Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
There are approximately 7,500 child hospitalizations and 500 in-hospital deaths each year due to injuries sustained from guns. In an abstract presented Oct. 27 at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, researchers also identified a link between the percentage of homes with guns and the prevalence of child gunshot injuries.
In “United States Gunshot Violence—Disturbing Trends,” researchers reviewed statistics from the Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID) from 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 (for a total of 36 million pediatric hospital admissions), and estimated state household gun ownership using the most recent Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (2004).
The study found that approximately 7,500 children are admitted to the hospital for the treatment of injuries sustained from guns each year, and more than 500 children die during hospital admission from these injuries. Between 1997 and 2009, hospitalizations from gunshot wounds increased from 4,270 to 7,730, and in-hospital deaths from 317 to 503.
The study also found a significant association between the percentage of gunshot wounds occurring in the home and the percentage of households containing any firearms, loaded firearms and unlocked loaded firearms.
“Handguns account for the majority of childhood gunshot wounds and this number appears to be increasing over the last decade,” said lead study author Arin L. Madenci, MD, MPH. “Furthermore, states with higher percentages of household firearm ownership also tended to have higher proportions of childhood gunshot wounds, especially those occurring in the home.”
Many current gun control efforts focus on limiting the availability of military-style semi-automatic assault rifles.
“Policies designed to reduce the number of household firearms, especially handguns, may more effectively reduce the number of gunshot injuries in children,” said Dr. Madenci.
More guns, mean more children injured by guns.
Less guns means less injuries.
Why is that so fucking hard to figure out?
As liberals we should NEVER let this issue fall by the wayside. I know the conventional wisdom is that it is almost impossible to pass ANY gun control legislation but "almost impossible" is not impossible.
The super PAC created by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, to provide a counter-weight to the politically powerful National Rifle Association raised $6.5 million in its first six months of operation, according to a Federal Election Commission report filed Wednesday.
Unlike many other super PACs, Americans for Responsible Solutions received broad support from small and medium-sized donors. Tens of thousands of small donors giving less than $200 combined for a total $3.2 million to Giffords' group, and thousands of medium-sized donors giving under $1,000 accounted for slightly more than $1 million.
I am proud to say that even though I have been trying to avoid giving anymore money to charities and causes, that I was more than willing to send my $100 to Gabby. So yes my donation made up a very small part of this rather incredible sum.
And isn't it nice to see that people are so willing to give to such a positive and important political cause? Especially when you consider how poorly a certain Little Miss Blood Libel did the other day with HER PAC.
Not to mention that the NRA, in the first six months of 2013, has only raised a little of 7 million themselves.
God I love Karma! (Not that I believe in it, but you know.)
Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) held an event in New Hampshire Friday urging the state's political leaders to fight for an expansion of background checks on gun purchases, the Associated Press reported. Giffords, 42, survived an assassination attempt in January 2011.
Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples posted this photo on Twitter, which he describes as showing a protester at the event holding an AR-15 and taking a nap:
Should there not be an added concerns about something similar happening again? Especially now that she is taking up the battle for background checks?
In my opinion showing up at, or near, an event featuring Gabby Giffords, blatantly displaying a weapon, is an intentional act of intimidation and, considering that it is meant to terrify the poor woman, an act of domestic terrorism.
Giffords and Kelly came to Anchorage as part of their seven-state tour to persuade reluctant senators to support strengthening background checks on firearms purchases. The Senate leadership tried and failed to corral enough support for a background check amendment in April. Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich both opposed the background checks as proposed in that legislation; two months later, they are targets of a renewed effort to revive the issue before next year's elections complicate the politics. Begich, Alaska's first Democrat in Congress for decades, faces a multimillion-dollar contest to keep his Senate seat.
Giffords and Kelly came to Alaska based on a poll commissioned by Americans for Responsible Solutions, which inexplicably found overwhelming support among Alaska voters for the expanded background checks.
"We want Sen. Begich to look at our poll, because it shows Alaskans believe in expanded background checks," Kelly said.
The couple's time on the ground in Alaska was tightly controlled: Local press was kept separate from Giffords and Kelly during a closed conversation with nine hand-picked Alaskan gun owners at Hotel Captain Cook.
Giffords did not take direct questions Tuesday but did pose for pictures and video with others in the group, before another photo op with the couple's dog, Nelson.
Giffords and Kelly are seeking 60 Senate votes, the threshold for passing the background check legislation and avoiding a filibuster. Both Murkowski and Begich are in Alaska for the Fourth of July holiday, but were unable to welcome Giffords and Kelly personally, staff to the senators said.
Yet even if Giffords and Kelly are able to sway Alaska's senators -- "not likely" in the legislation's current form, according to staff -- two additional votes are still needed to get the measure out of the Senate and on to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans.
And that's a hill that supporters of background checks can’t yet summit, Kelly acknowledged Tuesday.
"Would that bill pass this House? Absolutely not," he said, adding the strategy for now is to get background checks passed by the Senate and then look forward to leveling "the playing field" in the House.
As much as I appreciate Mark and Gabby coming up here they really are most likely wasting their time.
If they want to know how Alaskans feel about their guns let me help with that. They LOVE them! Sometimes they even love them more than their own families. (You think Track is the only Alaskan male to leave a marriage with an armful of rifles and not much else? Hardly!)
Right now Mark Begich is running ads attacking President Obama over the NSA program, bragging about his vote on the background check bill, and sounding more like a Republican everyday.
But do you know what? NOBODY is going to run against him in a primary.
I am probably one of the most liberal people up here, and completely agree with Giffords and Kelly on this issue, but when election time rolls around of course I am going to vote for Begich. In Alaska what other choice do I have?
Like I said I am glad they came, though I wish they would have been open to a few questions from bloggers. I also heard they came looking for some financial support, and I hope they got at least some, though I would be surprised if they had very much help in that area either.
They don't call this place the Last Frontier for nothing. And that is never more true than when it comes to guns.
Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, are heading to Anchorage to meet with gun owners and put pressure on Sens. Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski to support expanded background checks for gun buyers.
Giffords is the Arizona Democrat who survived an assassination attempt at a 2011 meet-and-greet in Tucson. Earlier this year, in response to the December school shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn., she and Kelly founded a gun violence prevention group called Americans for Responsible Solutions. They are calling this summer's trek the "Rights and Responsibilities" tour.
The two are flying into key states whose senators voted against expanding background checks.
Begich is one of four Democrats who broke party ranks and voted against a watered-down bill in April, drawing proponents' ire. He has said the expanded background checks don't make sense for Alaska, especially in rural areas where gun sellers may not have access to high-speed Internet.
"Senator Begich and Senator Murkowski are independent leaders who put aside special interests to advocate for Alaska," Kelly said in a written statement. "They have the same opportunity when it comes to promoting responsible gun ownership. By supporting responsible policies like background checks, they can forge a middle path that makes their communities safer and protects the rights and traditions that are important to Alaskans."
Giffords and Kelly were scheduled to arrive in Anchorage Monday evening. They are visiting a shooting range and holding a roundtable with a small group of gun owners on Tuesday morning. They plan to talk with news reporters mid-day.
Gee I wonder if a certain big mouth 2nd Amendment blowhard will show up to apologize?
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords received the 2013 Profile in Courage award at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston on Sunday in recognition of the political, personal, and physical courage she has demonstrated in her fearless public advocacy for policy reforms aimed at reducing gun violence.
Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting when a lone gunman opened fire as she met with constituents in a Tucson, Ariz., shopping mall, and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, have been lobbying for more gun control legislation.
This year, on the second anniversary of the January shooting, the couple started Americans for Responsible Gun Ownership, an organization that “supports the right to bear arms and responsible public policy on guns and gun ownership.”
Caroline Kennedy, President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, presented the award to Giffords.
Alluding to her disappointment in Congress’ failure to pass gun control legislation last week, Giffords called for courage from lawmakers.
“I believe we all have courage inside,” she said. “I just wish there was more courage in Congress.”
“It’s been a hard two years for me,” Giffords said, “but I want to make the world a better place more than ever.”
"I want to make the world a better place more than ever.” And she already has, by demonstrating the kind of courage that puts virtually EVERY member of Congress to shame.
Now if only some of her incredible reservoir of courage can somehow rub off on a certain group of people in Washington.
Shortly before the a crucial Senate vote to expand background checks in gun transactions, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) sent a letter to the mother of a shooting victim claiming that he was “truly sorry” for her son’s death and that “strengthening background checks is something we agree on.” A few days later, he voted to kill the background checks bill.
Caren Teves’ son Alex died during the Aurora theater mass shooting while shielding his girlfriend from the gun man’s bullets. She wrote a letter to Sen. Flake, in which she “invited him to our home to sit in our son’s chair, his empty chair” and “feel the emptiness and have dinner with us and discuss” guns. In response, Flake sent Teves a hand-written letter claiming that he supported one of the most important steps Congress could take to improve gun safety — expanding background checks.
It's true! Here is the actual letter:
Flake used the excuse that the bill “would expand background checks far beyond commercial sales to include almost all private transfers — including between friends and neighbors.”
This pissed Mark Kelly, Gabby Giffords husband, off and he responded thusly:
Kelly said Flake is mistaken and the bill would not do what the senator says.
“It appears he hasn’t read the bill,” Kelly said.
You know here is what I think,
If your last name is "Flake" you would think that you would do EVERYTHING in your power to be anything but a flake. Good thing his last name wasn't "Rapist."
I have heard murmuring that perhaps Kelly might challenge Flake during his next bid for reelection. My only question is, can I donate money now?
So the faux "journalists" over at Breitbart got their hands on the photo above and this one down below and attempted to use them to smear Gabby and infer that she was a hypocrite for calling for stricter gun control laws.
In typical fashion Gabby did not take this lying down, took to Facebook to explain what the pictures represented:
Here are two photos of me that a conservative blog has dug up. I remember both of these days fondly. The first is at the Tucson Police Department firing range. They invited me to test rifles and tasers that they bought with federal funds, which I helped secure. The second was in Afghanistan while I was visiting with our troops serving abroad. My work as Southern Arizona's Congresswoman frequently put me in close contact with some of the world's most powerful and deadly weapons - supporting police departments, advocating for the Border Patrol, standing up for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and supporting my constituents' and my own Second Amendment rights. I grew up with guns, and I like owning them. So does my husband Mark. It's an interest we've shared ever since we met. It's part of my heritage as an Arizonan and it's my right as an American. Being able to shoot a gun is something I haven't been able to do since I was shot - because my right arm is paralyzed, and I'm less mobile than I was. As I member of the House Armed Services Committee, I proudly spent a lot of time with our military, border patrol and state and local law enforcement. I guess the intention of those who have publicized these photos is to somehow call into question my belief that military style assault weapons should be more strongly regulated with background checks and other safeguards. I have never wavered in my support for those who serve our country. I fought to make sure they have the weapons and safety gear needed to carry out their mission, and proper health and mental care when their service ends. Both sides of the gun violence debate usually miss the point. We don't have to choose between owning, using, and enjoying guns, on one hand, and preventing gun violence, on the other. Both sides need to come together to support commonsense solutions to gun violence, like keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people like the young man who shot me. That's why I'm fighting this fight. That's why I'm working to bring people together to support gun rights and reduce gun violence. I hope you join me.
Gee not quite such a smoking gun now is it Breitbart?
(P.S. Before anybody feels the need to bring this up, yes I realize that Gabby could not have written this Facebook post on her own, and undoubtedly had help from her husband and possibly others, but I have little doubt that the words are essentially her own.)
I swear every time I see this woman I feel like such a wuss for skipping a workout or putting things off until later. Her recovery is nothing short of amazing, and the fact that she is now returning to the public arena to fight for gun control laws is an inspiration to all of us.
And you know what? I think that her husband Mark Kelly is destined for politics as well. He is a very strong, and reasonable voice, that I think would find ample support should he decide to throw his hat in the ring.
Perhaps he could run against John McCain, and finally put that old fossil out to pasture where he belongs.
A series of sweeping gun-control measures in Colorado is on track to hit the governor's desk by the end of the month, with Democratic committees in the Legislature advancing all the bills despite a Capitol packed with hundreds of opponents and surrounded by cars circling the Capitol blaring their horns.
Gun limits including expanded background checks and ammunition magazine limits were helped Monday by testimony from the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and victims of mass shootings in Connecticut and suburban Denver.
Colorado has become a focus point in the national debate over what new laws, if any, are needed to prevent gun violence after recent mass shootings, including an attack at an Aurora movie theater last summer – a massacre that brought to mind the Columbine High School shooting of 1999 for many in the state and across the nation.
The seven gun-control measures cleared their committees on 3-2 party-line votes and are planned for debate by the full Senate by Friday. Four of the seven have already cleared the House, making it possible some of them will land on the desk of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper within weeks.
"I think they'll all pass. I really do," said Democratic Senate President John Morse. "And I think they all should pass. I think any of them failing doesn't make Colorado as safe as we could make Colorado."
Besides the blaring car horns, the gun nuts also decided to take to the skies to advertise their displeasure:
A biplane flying above the Capitol Monday warned the governor, "HICK: DO NOT TAKE OUR GUNS!"
Yeah nothing has an impact on legislation like banners on biplanes, don't you agree?
I see Colorado as a sort of legislative "canary in the mine shaft." If these laws get passed here, there is a strong chance that others states will feel emboldened to pass them as well.
At least that is my hope.
Do you remember how right after the shootings at Sandy Hook we had so many Republicans coming out and attempting to shame the President and others for suggesting that they were using the tragedy for political reasons, and that it was "too soon to start talking about gun control?"
That was because they well knew that the memories of the American people are sometimes brief, and that with the passing of time the outrage and pain would subside. They hoped that if they could just delay things long enough, while also pointing towards numerous other contributors to the violence like mental health and video games, they might help their NRA overlords escape the impact of stringent new gun control laws.
Fortunately, at least in Colorado, that did not work for them. Let's hope that with Colorado setting the example it will not work for them nationally either.
I’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.
You read that right. Not harder, easier. Which isn’t what the more than 74 percent of NRA members in this country who are law-abiding citizens and responsible gun owners, as Gabby and I are, and who support expanding background checks, believe.
Making the system of background checks fair and consistent isn’t hard to understand. If you don’t think there should be two different sets of rules, leveling the playing field and expanding the effective National Instant Criminal Background Check System is the way to go. For the same reasons we don’t make getting screened for bombs or weapons at the airport optional, or registering your car something you only have to do if you want to, having a giant loophole in the background check system just doesn’t make sense.
I have said it before, but it bears repeating, that the single biggest threat to the NRA's ability to wait out the outcry for new gun laws after Newtown is Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly.
Gabby is a living reminder of the devastation done in this country due to ineffective gun legislation, and with Mark by her side they are a force that NO amount of NRA money will be able to minimize or defend against.
In the latest poll, 86 percent of African Americans, 82 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Hispanics, and 71 percent of urban respondents said they were in favor of stricter gun laws, all up double-digits from 2011.
You know we all said that this time it was different after the Sandy Hook shooting occurred and at the time I for one was saying that more hopefully than assuredly.
But do you know what? This time it IS different.
And those that do not see that are doomed to lose politically, personally, and morally.
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) stars in an ad released Monday by the gun control group she launched with her husband, Mark Kelly, who also appears in the ad.
"We have a problem: where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school," Giffords said in the Americans For Responsible Solutions ad. "But there are solutions we can agree on, even gun owners like us. Take it from me, Congress must act. Let's get this done."
I still think that Giffords, is the NRA biggest problem.
Every time you hear her speak in that halting voice, knowing that it was caused by a bullet fired into her head, it drives home the devastation that can be caused by allowing guns to fall into the hands of the wrong people, and the importance of limiting their ability to use them to gun down dozens of innocent Americans.
In short she is the perfect spokesperson to push forward responsible gun control policies that do not infringe on the basic rights of the 2nd Amendment but DO limit access to extended clips, assault weapons, and the type of ammo used to penetrate a police officers bullet resistant clothing.
You know I listened to much of the testimony today during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on gun violence, and there were some VERY good points made. I especially enjoyed hearing from Gabby Gifford's husband Mark Kelly and James Johnson, chief of Baltimore County (Md.) Police Department. Both gave compelling argument for more gun control.
Of course there was also testimony from a those on the other side, and while some of it seemed relatively reasonable, there were a few, like Wayne LaPierre who sounded deeply disturbed. (And THAT includes some of the Senators in attendance as well. I'm looking at you Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz.)
However nobody, and I mean NOBODY could hold a candle to the insanity that issued forth from a woman named Gayle Trotter, who apparently is a senior fellow from the conservative Independent Women’s Forum. The things she said were....the point she was trying to make was...Oh hell you're going to have to listen for yourself.
Did you hear those giggles from the audience during her testimony? That is how people usually respond when confronted by this level of lunacy.
For those having trouble with the video, here is a portion taken from the transcript:
Ms. Trotter, your testimony discussed the need for women to be able to use firearms to defend themselves and their families. The law currently permits the lawful possession of semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s. Can you tell us why you believe a semi-automatic rifle such as AR-15 has value as a weapon of self-defense? And does banning weapons -- banning guns which feature designed to improve accuracy disproportionately burden women?
TROTTER: I believe it does. Young women are speaking out as to why AR-15 weapons are their weapon of choice. The guns are accurate. They have good handling. They’re light. They’re easy for women to hold. And most importantly, their appearance. An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon. And the peace of mind that a woman has as she’s facing three, four, five violent attackers, intruders in her home with her children screaming in the background -- the peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened violent criminals.
And if we ban these types of assault weapons, you are putting women at a great disadvantage, more so than men, because they do not have the same type of physical strength and opportunity to defend themselves in a hand-to-hand struggle. And they’re -- they’re not criminals. They’re moms. They’re young women. And they’re not used to violent confrontations.
So, I absolutely urge -- I -- I speak on behalf of millions of American women across the country who urge you to defend our Second Amendment right to choose to defend yourself.
Ms. Trotter claims to speak on behalf of "MILLIONS of American women," but I call bullshit on that. She is the fringiest of the fringe, as indicated by the fact that she also writes for the Right Wing rag the Daily Caller.
I am left to wonder what kind of a neighborhood this batshit crazy individual lives in where there is a legitimate fear that "three, four or five violent attackers" might invade your home? Becasue I am going to make damn sure I don't buy a house on THAT street!
I also cannot imagine how anybody on the gun rights side of this debate thought that her testimony was going to help them in any way, but I do have to say that listening to that kind of insanity, certainly going to help OUR side of the debate.
Whoa Nelly! I don't think there is any reason for a more probing psychiatric examination. Based on that testimony alone, I can say unequivocally that THAT woman should NEVER have access to a weapon, of ANY kind.
Perhaps the most powerful single spokesperson for gun control legislation in this country, and hands down one of the most courageous people on the planet.
I actually choked up a little while watching her struggle to get her words out.
You'll notice that NOBODY dared to heckle Gabby as she was speaking.
A communications professor from Florida Atlantic University isn’t backing down from his theory that the mass killing of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut may have never happened.
Writing on his Memory Hole blog last month, Professor James Tracy asserted that it was “not unreasonable to suggest the Obama administration [had] complicity or direct oversight of an incident that has in very short order sparked a national debate” on gun control.
“While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place—at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described,” he declared, noting that no surveillance video of photos of bodies had been released by authorities.
“Moreover, to suggest that [President Barack] Obama is not capable of deploying such techniques to achieve political ends is to similarly place ones faith in image and interpretation above substance and established fact, the exact inclination that in sum has brought America to such an impasse.”
On Tuesday, WPTV caught up with Tracy, who also doubts the official versions President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks and the mass shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado last year.
“In terms of saying that Sandy Hook — the Newtown massacre — did not take place, is really an oversimplification of what I actually said,” he explained. “I said that I think that there may very well be elements of that event that are synthetic to some degree, that are somewhat contrived. I think that, overall, the media really did drop the ball. I don’t think that they got to the bottom of some of the things that may have taken place there.”
As for the deaths of 20 elementary children, the professor said, “I think that most likely that took place.”
So to be clear he is NOT saying that the children are not dead, only that President Obama was the one that killed them. Oookay.
And believe it or not the Professor has company on his "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of Conspiracy."
But in the crazy world of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, this one may be the worst yet. (Maybe you’ve already heard some of the others, like the one about fantasy ties between the gunman’s family and the LIBOR banking scandal and a related theory about the Aurora shooting and the “Dark Knight Rises.”) Most of the theories are really pieces of a larger meta-theory: that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, perhaps by the Obama administration, designed to stir demand for gun control.
In the latest angle, theorists think they have found “absolute proof” of a conspiracy to defraud the American people. “You reported in December that this little girl had been killed,” a reader emailed Salon in response to a story. “She has been found, and photographed with President Obama.”
Do you remember how we all joked that after President Obama's reelection that certain Teabaggers and fringe conservatives were going to lose their shit? Well folks I think this is what "losing their shit" looks like.
In other, reality based, news here is Slate with the number of gun deaths that have occurred SINCE Sandy Hook and here is a portion of Diane Sawyer's interview with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly as they discuss taken some common sense approaches to dealing with gun violence in this country.
You know I knew this debate would get crazy, but even I was not quite prepared for this level of crazy.
P.S. In case some of you are just now joining us, and don't know who this Alex Jones character is that I am referencing in the title. Here you go.
Gabby and Mark after meeting with Newtown residents.
Below is a statement from Gabby and Mark as it showed up in USA Today:
In response to a horrific series of shootings that has sown terror in our communities, victimized tens of thousands of Americans, and left one of its own bleeding and near death in a Tucson parking lot, Congress has done something quite extraordinary — nothing at all.
I was shot in the head while meeting with constituents two years ago today. Since then, my extensive rehabilitation has brought excitement and gratitude to our family. But time and time again, our joy has been diminished by new, all too familiar images of death on television: the breaking news alert, stunned witnesses blinking away tears over unspeakable carnage, another community in mourning. America has seen an astounding 11 mass shootings since a madman used a semiautomatic pistol with an extended ammunition clip to shoot me and kill six others. Gun violence kills more than 30,000 Americans annually.
This country is known for using its determination and ingenuity to solve problems, big and small. Wise policy has conquered disease, protected us from dangerous products and substances, and made transportation safer. But when it comes to protecting our communities from gun violence, we're not even trying — and for the worst of reasons.
An ideological fringe
Special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission. Rather than working to find the balance between our rights and the regulation of a dangerous product, these groups have cast simple protections for our communities as existential threats to individual liberties. Rather than conducting a dialogue, they threaten those who divert from their orthodoxy with political extinction.
As a result, we are more vulnerable to gun violence. Weapons designed for the battlefield have a home in our streets. Criminals and the mentally ill can easily purchase guns by avoiding background checks. Firearm accessories designed for killing at a high rate are legal and widely available. And gun owners are less responsible for the misuse of their weapons than they are for their automobiles.
Forget the boogeyman of big, bad government coming to dispossess you of your firearms. As a Western woman and a Persian Gulf War combat veteran who have exercised our Second Amendment rights, we don't want to take away your guns any more than we want to give up the two guns we have locked in a safe at home. What we do want is what the majority of NRA members and other Americans want: responsible changes in our laws to require responsible gun ownership and reduce gun violence.
We saw from the NRA leadership's defiant and unsympathetic response to the Newtown, Conn., massacre that winning even the most common-sense reforms will require a fight. But whether it has been in campaigns or in Congress, in combat or in space, fighting for what we believe in has always been what we do.
(There is a bit more which you can read at the USA Today site, Here is a link to the website that Gabby and Mark have launched asking people to get involved.)
I have to believe that THIS is the very thing that the NRA and the gun nuts feared the most.
It is one thing to take on the big bad government that they claim are coming to take away your guns, and quite another to fight such a sympathetic figure who simply wants to have intelligent effective gun control laws put in place.
Now there is no clear indication that Gabby and Mark are working with the administration (And perhaps they want it that way,), but it is striking that this weekend there were leaks from Joe Biden's task force that put the gun enthusiasts on high alert:
News that the White House is considering significant gun control legislation in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting is music to the ears of gun control advocates, who have waited decades for a serious conversation about guns. But it’s also being welcomed by gun rights groups, who say leaks from the Biden task force are just the thing to push their flock back into the fight.
“[The article] was a Molotov cocktail right into the middle of this thing,” Dave Workman, a former board member at the National Rifle Association, told TPM Monday. “That lit the fuse, it really did.”
Now see THIS is the battle the gun nuts want to have, but they if they believe they are going to get support from the more rational Americans they are really NOT paying attention.
"I spent a career carrying typically either a M16, and later a M4 carbine," he said. "And a M4 carbine fires a .223 caliber round, which is 5.56 millimeters, at about 3,000 feet per second. When it hits a human body, the effects are devastating. It's designed to do that. That's what our soldiers ought to carry."
Said McChrystal, "I personally don't think there's any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America. I believe that we've got to take a serious look -- I understand everybody's desire to have whatever they want -- but we have to protect our children and our police and we have to protect our population. And I think we have to take a very mature look at that."
But hey, to be fair the Gun nuts have their own supporters as well.
Why just yesterday CNN's Piers Morgan attempted to interview the guy behind the "Deport Piers Morgan" campaign.
(Now if you have not yet had your anti-lunatic shots, you might want to get them before watching this clip. I mean this is Alex Jones, and crazy is his bread and butter.)
Well now there you go, both sides of the debate clearly laid out.The "We need more comprehensive gun laws to protect our citizens" side vs the "You commie motherf**kers will get my guns over my corpulent dead body!" side.
Wow! That's a lot of crazy for this early in the morning!
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly will speak exclusively to “ABC World News” anchor Diane Sawyer about an important new initiative they are launching. The interview will air January 8, 2012 on “World News with Diane Sawyer” – two years to the day after Giffords was shot in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson, Arizona. The interview will also be featured on “Good Morning America,” “Nightline,” as well as ABCNews.com, Newsmakers on Yahoo!, ABC News Radio, and ABC’s local affiliates.
"An important new initiative?" Does anybody else think that this HAS to be about guns?
Please let this be an announcement that she is joining up with President Obama and Joe Biden to do something about guns. Please!
The White House and gun control supporters are gearing up for a whirlwind month, with plans to pass reform legislation before outrage over the Sandy Hook massacre has a chance to fade.
While the fiscal cliff has dominated Washington’s attention in recent weeks, lawmakers and activists are laying the groundwork for their big push. Vice President Joe Biden, tasked with heading a commission to investigate gun violence, has been quietly meeting with experts, interest groups, and public officials and is expected to release a set of recommendations within weeks. Boston mayor Thomas Menino, co-chair of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the Boston Herald this week that an optimistic Biden had assured him that Obama would sign legislation “by the end of January.”
“We had been led to believe their report would come by end of January, but we’re hearing they may want to have something out by January 15, even quicker than expected,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told TPM.
House Democrats are moving ahead with their own plans as well. On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the newly created Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the appointment of 12 vice chairs, including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the body’s leading voice on gun control. According to a Democratic aide, the group plans to release its recommendations in early February and is already organizing public hearings on the issue.
Obama has personally identified an assault weapons ban and limits on ammunition magazine size as top priorities. Other possible reforms could include background check requirements for purchases at gun shows, a loophole that’s helped create a huge market of off-record arms purchases.
This is SUCH good news!
I had been worried that the attention span of the American people and Congress would prove to short for anything of importance to be done on this issue before we became distracted with other breaking news items or partisan political battles.
However I have also believed that this time things were different and that we would finally see some real impactful legislation passed to deal with what I think we can all agree is an out of control situation.
You know I believed the President when he said that hearing about the Newtown massacre was the worst day of his presidency. I saw that man's heart breaking when he addressed the nation after that attack, and believed that he could not simply allow things to remain the way they are without doing something to protect our children. I am glad to see that I was right to have faith.
Limping slightly and leaning on astronaut husband Mark Kelly for support, Giffords smiled as she entered town hall and embraced Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson.
“We’re so glad you came,” Robinson said. “Thank you.”
“How horrible,” Giffords replied, holding on to Robinson for a beat longer.
Then Giffords was ushered inside for a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D—Conn.) and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman.
Giffords brought with her a perspective that only a select few share — that of a person who came face-to-face with the kind of madness that left 20 innocent children and six school staffers dead on a cruel December morning.
You know I thought I was filled with hope after reading of the President's plans, but seeing Gabby in Newtown, and realizing that she will most likely lend her voice to this issue as well, increases that hope tenfold.
Here is the statement read by Mark Kelly in its entirety courtesy of the Huffington Post:
Mr. Loughner, for the first and last time, you are going to hear directly from Gabby and me about what you took away on January 8th, 2011 and, just as important, what you did not. So pay attention.
That bright and chilly Saturday morning, you killed six innocent people. Daughters and sons. Mothers and fathers. Grandparents and friends. They were devoted to their families, their communities, their places of worship.
Gabby would trade her own life to bring back any one of those you savagely murdered on that day. Especially young Christina-Taylor Green, whose high-minded ideas about service and democracy deserved a full life committed to advancing them. Especially 30-year old Gabe Zimmerman, whom Gabby knew well and cherished, and whose love for his family and his fiancee and service to his country were as deep as his loss is tragic. Especially Judge John Roll, whom Gabby was honored to call a colleague and friend and from whose interminable dedication to our community and country she gained enormous inspiration. Gabby would give anything to take away the grief you visited upon the Morrises, the Schnecks, and the Stoddards – anything to heal the bodies and psyches of your other victims.
And then there is what you took from Gabby. Her life has been forever changed. Plans she had for our family and her career have been immeasurably altered. Every day is a continuous struggle to do those things she was once so very good at. Gabby is a people person: she exudes kindness, creativity, and compassion. If she were not born with the name – “Gabby” – someone would have given it to her. Now she struggles to deliver each and every sentence. Her gift for language can now only be seen in Internet videos from a more innocent time.
Gabby was an outdoor enthusiast. She was often seen rollerblading with her friend Raoul in Reed Park, hiking in Sabino Canyon, or careening down Rillito Wash Trail on her bike, as she was the night before you tried and failed to murder her. She hasn't been to any of those places since, and I don't know when she’ll return.
There’s more. Gabby struggles to walk. Her right arm is paralyzed. She is partially blind. Gabby works harder in one minute of an hour – fighting to make each individual moment count for something – than most of us work in an entire day.
Mr. Loughner, by making death and producing tragedy, you sought to extinguish the beauty of life. To diminish potential. To strain love. And to cancel ideas. You tried to create for all of us a world as dark and evil as your own. But know this, and remember it always: You failed.
