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If we don't change our permissive gun laws, we'll never end gun violence

umbertino
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umbertino Grand Master

umbertino

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Other developed nations don’t live with mass or individual shootings at this frequency. We need to change our attitude toward gun control

 

 

Saturday 20 June 2015 13.00 BST

By Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney

 

 

This week a deranged young man walked into a church, sat in a folding chair, pulled out a gun and allegedly massacred nine people at a bible study. Two years ago, 12 people died in a mass shooting at a naval base in Washington, DC. Three years ago: Newtown, Oak Creek and Aurora. And in the meantime, tens of thousands of others were killed at the barrel of a gun.
It seems pretty clear that racism was at the heart of the heinous incident in Charleston. There is no place for such hatred in our society, and the degree of violence that this hatred can inspire is all the more distressing. But, at some point we also have to recognize that the common thread in all of these gun crimes is our attitude toward guns and our outdated gun laws. We must confront the reality that other developed nations don’t live with these horrors with such frequency. The United States has nearly four times more gun-related deaths per capita than the UK, Canada, and Japan combined.

 

Over the past few months, I’ve introduced three gun safety bills and fought for a proposal by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to keep cop-killing bullets off the street.

 

The ATF’s proposal was shelved before its comment period even ended because of the uproar from the gun lobby and its allies in Congress, and my own proposals have triggered a wave of invectives and false attacks in an attempt to get me to back down and scare off others from supporting responsible gun safety reforms.

 

Earlier this month, I introduced a bill with Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) to invest $10m annually to help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research gun violence as a public health epidemic – a modest sum when we consider that gun violence is estimated to cost us over $229bn a year in medical care, the prosecution of assailants, lost wages, mental health treatment, and other long-term effects of gun violence. This small investment would help us understand and address this public health crisis.

 

I also introduced a bill to close the gun show loophole, because criminals have discovered that in many states guns can be bought without a background check at gun shows as long as the deal is deemed a private sale.

 

More recently, I introduced The Firearm Risk Protection Act to require gun owners to carry liability insurance – just as state laws require car owners to carry an insurance policy. If you want to buy that Uzi, the thinking goes, you should also have to pay for the risk that gun poses to society as a result.

 

I’m also planning on introducing a bill to make gun trafficking a federal crime and to stiffen penalties for straw purchasers. This bill would directly address concerns expressed by law enforcement officials like the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and the Major Cities Chiefs Association, who have called for a dedicated firearms trafficking statute to help them combat the flow of thousands of firearms to violent criminals, international drug cartels, and a host of other dangerous people.

 

I’m doing this because more children die in the United States from bullets than from cancer, and it’s a scandal that the federal government hasn’t done more.

 

But instead of a reasoned and measured debate about how to reduce gun violence, the response has been an onslaught of gun-obsessed fanatics who strongly – and wrongly – believe that the second amendment guarantees unregulated access to anything that anyone might wish to add to their own personal arsenal. The armchair-constitutionalists among them can make the case against pretty much any regulation of guns, and the courts be dammed.

 

The only solution that National Rifle Association-bunch does have to our nation’s gun woes is more guns. It’s the philosophy that served the Wild West, but doesn’t make much sense in modern times.

 

We can and should get back to a serious discussion about how we eliminate the horrors of and needless loss of life from gun violence from our society. We can begin to prioritize the lives of the men, women, and children who will die at the barrel of a gun this year over the minor inconveniences that a minority of Americans might face from policies designed to end the bloodshed.

 

Those who support sensible solutions must start standing up to the gun bullies. We cannot back down from those who believe their inaccurate interpretation of the second amendment matters more than the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be lost if we do nothing.

 

 

1000.jpg
Police escort victims’ family members into the bond hearing for the suspect in the 17 June attack on an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Photograph: John Taggart/EPA
 
 

 

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BigJake Apprentice

BigJake

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Maybe we should ban cars because of the deaths they cause. Maybe we should ban red meat because of the possibility of cancer. Maybe we should ban cigeretts because of the cancer they cause. Maybe we should ban swimming pools because people drown in them. Maybe we should ban swimming in the ocean because of shark attacks. Maybe we should ban alchohal. I have owned guns since I was 18 (I'm 67) and I have never shot anyone. Maybe we should question the father who gave that kid a gun or question his friend who never notified the police of his intentions. If people want to kill someone there is always a way. I have sorrow in my heart for those affected by this but getting rid of guns is not the solution. In the NRA magazine that comes out monthly, there are stories after stories where people were saved by owning a gun and knowing how to use it. And yes, I am a Life member of the NRA anf I taught both my kids how to use a gun as well as my wife. I will teach my grandsons when they are old enough.

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Zebra0101 Newbie

Zebra0101

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Trying to pass a law that requires liability for owning a gun will not solve the problem.  There are drivers that drive without insurance.  The politician sounds like she is in cahoots with an insurance company. 

Follow the money trail...

Guns are not the problem...  Period...

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SgtFuryUSCZ Apprentice

SgtFuryUSCZ

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***///

 

..."inaccurate interpretation of The 2nd Amendment..."

 

Tsk, tsk, tsk... oh, KommieCarolyn....  YOU are sadly mistaken.   :facepalm3: 

 

And speaking of "inaccurate interpretations"...

you, KOMARADE, certainly seem to have inaccurately interpreted ALL THE FACTS. 

 

You, madame, are an idiot.  

 

Not to mention a stranger to THE TRUTH.  <_< 

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Jim1cor13 Explorer

Jim1cor13

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Much of these incidents would be avoided if the fuel behind them

were stopped...the "psych drugs" are this fuel that most avoid

addressing and the track record shows these drugs to be involved.

 

These folks have problems that these drugs do little more than incite

the rage to the point the offenders can no longer contain it...that is fact.

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The Machine Newbie

The Machine

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Posted

Banning guns won't solve the problem, it would be like banning hammers or knives, you could kill someone with a hammer.

Changing attitudes on what level of violence is acceptable would in the long term help.

People Just seem to eager to pull the trigger.

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Whatshername Newbie

Whatshername

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"The news out of the United Kingdom almost reads like a satire piece from The Onion. But as strange as it may sound to people around the world, and especially in the United States, the British police push to ban knives is no joke."

British Police Call On Nation To ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife’ As ‘Knife Violence’ Continues

http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/11/british-police-calling-for-knife-ban/

  

I'm just going to park this right here and leave it for folks to decide.We've already seen the deal with Sandy Hook and how that was BS 

 

Thanks for the video RRogers... I agree :)

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