Representative Louise Slaughter says she wants Congress to re-enact a federal assault weapons ban.
Discussion about the legality and availability of rapid-fire weapons has spiked following the tragic shooting of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school last Friday. Police and media reports say that the shooter, identified as Adam Lanza, used a Bushmaster .223 rifle, which looks like it’d be more at home on the battlefield than at a deer hunt.
During a conference call with media this afternoon, Slaughter said “there is no reason on earth for anybody to own a military weapon.” She put her support behind Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has called for the re-authorization of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. Feinstein was the original author of that bill.
Slaughter says it’s important for the ban to address not just the weapons, but high-capacity magazines. Lanza had several 30-round magazines for the rifle, which the Hartford Courant says didn’t even fall under Connecticut’s ban. (New York has a ban on magazines that fit more than 10 rounds, but there are loopholes and grey areas in that law. New York has its own assault weapons ban.)
The last attempt to reinstate the federal assault weapons ban took place in 2008 and pro-gun members of the House were able to shut it down, Slaughter said. She said that there now may be bipartisan will to pass legislation.
“I think the country’s different,” Slaughter said. “I believe their constituents are going to demand it.”
This article appears in Dec 12-18, 2012.
Sorry, but the public AND the media have short memories Those not already perpetually enraged by the fact that over 11,000 citizens are murdered each year by fire arms , or who weren’t clamoring for stricter gun controls or bans after Columbine, Aurora, Binghamton, U of VA, etc. ,are unlikely to remain outraged over Newtown for more than a few weeks.
The rifle looks like a piece of military hardware yes, but that really doesn’t matter. It’s about as tame as rifles get actually. Please understand that practically every rifle and handgun in this country is semi-automatic and capable of firing as fast as one can pull a trigger (one shot fired per pull). Contrary to a what the media seems to push, we are NOT dealing with fully automatic weapons (holding the trigger=continous fire) on our streets. The focus on guns is really useless. Over 300 million guns in this country, and they are basically equivalent when it comes to killing things. They aren’t going away. This shooting was the result of extremely, criminally poor parenting; a severely mentally ill man/child was trained to shoot by his mother, and lived in a home with many firearms.
Feinstein has a concealed carry permit. If it’s good enough for a Senator, it’s good enough for a citizen.
A reporter asked Obama yesterday “where have you been” for the last four years on gun control? Always the opportunist Obama (and Slaughter) are now exploiting the deaths of children to further their new-found political cause. Can’t they at least wait until all the funerals are over? Or would that lessen the impact of their message? As Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said, never let a good crisis go to waste. Shame on them.
“The rifle looks like a piece of military hardware yes, but that really doesn’t matter. It’s about as tame as rifles get actually.”
– Sylph
Unless of course you happen to be a 6 or 7 year old in Newtown, CT.
I love the liberals who attack the Second Amendment as if it is an embarrassment, but then make sure they and their families are protected by guns. David Gregory trying to humiliate the NRA guy on Meet the Press for the suggestion that cops should be in the schools, while his own kids attend a school with 11 — 11!! — armed security officers is the perfect example of liberal hypocrisy.
“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
For somebody as gung-ho for federalized/national health care as Slaughter is, it’s still not surprising that she’s taking the easy way out and arguing for gun control and ignoring the mental health needs of Americans.
The issue should not be gun control, it should be mental health screening and treatment. Arguing for gun control to prevent episodes like this is like trying to prevent bankruptcy by eliminating casinos and gambling.
Gun control is the lazy answer. Which explains why politicians love it… it’s easier than actually trying to solve the problem.
If doctors treated patients this way, they’d never need anything more than aspirin and ace bandages.
They’d also be about as successful.