Tag Archives: gun control

This Is Discouraging

From “How the White House silenced gun control groups,” Reid J. Epstein, Politico:

“President Barack Obama’s gun control agenda is looking more doomed by the day, but gun control advocates still haven’t said a word to complain.

“That’s no accident.

“The White House knew its post-Newtown effort would require bringing key gun control groups into the fold. So the White House offered a simple arrangement: the groups could have access and involvement, but they’d have to offer silence and support in exchange.

“The implied rules, according to conversations with many of those involved: No infighting. No second-guessing in the press. Support whatever the president and Vice President Joe Biden propose. And most of all, don’t make waves or get ahead of the White House.”

Billionaires and “F” Grades Can Be Good!

In the first election to national office since Newtown, Robin Kelly has defeated Debbie Halvorson in the Dem primary for Jessie Jackson, Jr.’s House seat.  Winning the Dem primary in Chicago means you will win the general, so Kelly is going to Congress.

Kelly had been graded “F” by the NRA, while Debbie Halvorson had an “A” rating.

Mike Bloomberg’s super PAC Independence USA ran over $2 million in ads supporting Kelly, and gun control was really the only issue in the race.

GOP Way Out in Right Field with Wrong Policies

A new Pew Survey released today shows that on some issues, support for the Dem position and opposition to the GOP position is very, very lop-sided.  You don’t usually see numbers like these.

For example, 76% want to deal with the deficit by both raising taxes and cutting spending.  Only 19% agree with the GOP policy of no tax increases.

On President Obama’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour, 71% agree, with only 26% opposed.

On passing major gun control legislation, 67% agree and 29% oppose.

On toughening emission standards for power plants, 62% agree and 28% oppose.

These numbers aren’t just terrible for the GOP, they’re not healthy for our two-party system.

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry Your Child Is Dead, But We’re Really Busy

FL Sen. Marco Rubio said on Fox News today that Congress won‘t have time for gun legislation in this term.

I thought if Newtown didn’t change things, then nothing will.  So now I think nothing will.

What we need is for gun owners and non-gun owners to come together and align themselves against the nut jobs who don’t just want appropriate weapons to hunt or protect themselves or shoot for fun at a range, but want military arsenals to fight the government.

“Less Here Than Meets the Eye”

Charles Krauthammer was on Hannity tonight, and I agree with his take on Obama’s gun control proposals.

He said that all the items in the executive order list are “useless.”

He also said that there is “less here than meets the eye” because all the meaningful stuff requires congressional approval, and that won’t be forthcoming.

I’m way beyond discouraged, I’m totally disgusted.

Enough Is Enough

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, both of whom have A ratings from the NRA, are saying that we need new gun laws after Newtown.

Warner says, “Enough is enough.  … [T]here are ways to get to rational gun control.”

Manchin says, “This awful massacre has changed where we go from here.”

It means a lot more having folks like Warner and Manchin on board than just those you’d expect like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Yesterday I posted that this felt like a Sputnik moment to me.  This morning I’m thinking that another, and maybe better, analogy is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911.

146 garment workers, almost all of them young Italian and Jewish immigrant women in their teens or early 20’s, died when a fire broke out in their factory, and they were locked in because the factory owners feared theft of materials.  Many jumped to their deaths to escape the heat and flames.

Within two years, New York had passed 60 new labor reform laws, and the horrific Triangle fire was instrumental in the development of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

The final six victims of the fire were positively identified only last year, the centennial of the tragedy.

A Sputnik Moment?

Watching the President tonight in Newtown, I suddenly found myself thinking of when the Russians launched Sputnik in October 1957.  At first I thought maybe that was because it happened when I was the age of the children killed at Sandy Hook, and I was thinking back to being 6.  But then I realized that it was because Sputnik was a huge wake-up call for the U. S., and tonight I felt that things are finally going to change.

My sense at the time of the Gabby Giffords’ shooting in Tucson was a pervasive feeling of sorrow and “Shit happens.”  But with this shooting, I think there’s a pervasive feeling of shock and “Holy Shit.”