Senate panel likely to vote on gun laws next week
CBS/iStockphoto
WASHINGTON The Senate Judiciary Committee seems all but certain to start voting on an assault weapons ban and other gun curbs next week, Congress' first roll calls in response to the Newtown, Conn., slayings of 26 students and staff at an elementary school in December.
The Democratic-written bills largely follow President Barack Obama's proposals for limiting gun violence, which have been opposed by the National Rifle Association and generated little support from congressional Republicans.
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Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman, said Monday that the panel would consider:
-A bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., banning assault weapons and ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds;
-A Leahy measure toughening federal penalties for illegal trafficking of guns, including up to 30-year sentences for people buying firearms they know will be used in crimes;
-A measure by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., increasing federal grants for school safety measures such as installing surveillance equipment.
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Leahy said the panel would also consider still evolving legislation expanding the requirement for federal background checks for gun purchases, which are now required only for transactions by federally licensed gun dealers. Requiring those checks for nearly all gun sales is a top Obama goal, and one that has received the broadest support by the public and in Congress.
The details of the bill are not yet complete as liberal Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democratic leader, continues trying to reach a compromise with conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Leahy announced plans for the panel to start voting on the measures this Thursday. But committee rules let senators postpone announced legislative work for a week, a practice that is followed routinely. The panel's top Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, said he would request that delay.
"It's just a process of making sure we have plenty of time to study" legislation, Grassley said in a brief interview.
Feinstein is chairing a Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday on her effort to ban assault weapons, a proposal that is given low odds of enactment because of opposition by many Republicans and resistance by some moderate Democrats.
Witnesses are to include Neil Heslin of Newtown, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse, was killed at the school and Dr. William Begg, an emergency room physician in Newtown who helped treat victims that day. Feinstein has said the public needs to know how gruesome assault weapons wounds can be.
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What is your solution for honoring the rights and freedoms we Americans enjoy without curtailing those very rights and freedoms?
Sandy Hook was a tragedy. 20 innocent children & 6 adults lost their lives to an evil man using a gun. Around the same time in China 22 children and 1 adult were slashed down by an evil man wielding a knife. 0 people died in the attack in China, but wounds were very severe.
In both cases law enforcement were notified, but were unable to respond fast enough to prevent a lot of injuries and deaths. In both cases at the school in the US & China the kids were in "Gun Free Zones". That means that no one in the school was able to defend the children effectively against the evil attackers. Had there been armed staff at either of the schools the attackers would have been meet with force and stopped before they could inflict so much damage. Guns in the hands of law abiding citizens to much to stop evil men in their tracks. Gun free zones mean that nobody in those zones can defend themselves against an armed attacker. Obamas children go to schools with HEAVILY ARMED GUARDS. What makes his kids more important than yours? If doing shooter drills makes schools safer then why are his kids doing drills instead of being protected by armed individuals?
Why does Obama need armed secret service protection himself? He should be doing drills instead.
The problems we are facing are not based on guns or knives, but evil people. There is no law that will stop evil men from getting any gun they want and carrying it when they want. Criminals don't care about background checks, gun registration, banned weapons, maximum round limits for magazines, or military characteristics of a weapon. They don't buy their guns legally they get them from weapons smugglers. The only people laws effect are the law abiding. Evil men hell bent on doing evil deeds will do them in spite of the law.
A lot of you have been drinking the kool-aid for too long. Have your eyes opened at infowars dot com. Know the truth and it will set you free.
Sandy Hook was a tragedy. 20 innocent children & 6 adults lost their lives to an evil man using a gun. Around the same time in China 22 children and 1 adult were slashed down by an evil man wielding a knife. 0 people died in the attack in China, but wounds were very severe.
In both cases law enforcement were notified, but were unable to respond fast enough to prevent a lot of injuries and deaths. In both cases at the school in the US & China the kids were in "Gun Free Zones". That means that no one in the school was able to defend the children effectively against the evil attackers. Had there been armed staff at either of the schools the attackers would have been meet with force and stopped before they could inflict so much damage. Guns in the hands of law abiding citizens to much to stop evil men in their tracks. Gun free zones mean that nobody in those zones can defend themselves against an armed attacker. Obamas children go to schools with HEAVILY ARMED GUARDS. What makes his kids more important than yours? If doing shooter drills makes schools safer then why are his kids doing drills instead of being protected by armed individuals?
Why does Obama need armed secret service protection himself? He should be doing drills instead.
The problems we are facing are not based on guns or knives, but evil people. There is no law that will stop evil men from getting any gun they want and carrying it when they want. Criminals don't care about background checks, gun registration, banned weapons, maximum round limits for magazines, or military characteristics of a weapon. They don't buy their guns legally they get them from weapons smugglers. The only people laws effect are the law abiding. Evil men hell bent on doing evil deeds will do them in spite of the law.
A lot of you have been drinking the kool-aid for too long. Have your eyes opened at infowars dot com. Know the truth and it will set you free.
The president and his flunkies want to blame the law abiding citizens and a chunk of metal called a gun. What about the chunks of metal called, automobiles, knives, ball bats, etc.
If the current laws were enforced, most if not all of these terrible incidents would not be happening.
Another thing, if the 300 million gun owners would get off their butt's and contact these politicians there would be a lot of pressure to use existing laws that have been passed. Secondly, the idoit politicians who think making another law will change anything need to be removed from office the very next elections.
These politicians are bowing and scraping to the few non gun owners when in fact the majority of the people (gun owners) could put a stop to it if they would voice their opposition.
Instead of the emotional, all guns are evil, lets put the people in jail who failed to enforce the laws that would have prevented the incident.
The Newton School shooting is the fault of the mother, she taught a mental subject how to operate and shoot weapons, failed to keep them secured from a mental subject and failed to have a dangerous mental subject locked up in a mental hospital. HER ACTIONS ALONE CAUSED THE ENTIRE SCHOOL SHOOTING.
She was punished. He killed her first but her failed responsibilites to the public, allowed others to be killed.
Some of you out there will say, if she didn't own guns he couldn't have done it. WAKE UP......! How many people in the last year were murdered by Bow and Arrows, Automobiles, Knives, Ball Bats, Ropes, Kitchen knives, peoples hands, drowned, beaten to death, explosives and sufficated.
I will gladly give up my guns whan all of the above are given the same restrictive laws as guns.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The president and his flunkies want to blame the law abiding citizens and a chunck of metal called a gun.
If the current laws were enforced, most if not all of these terrible incidents would not be happening.
Another thing, if the 300 million gun owners would get off their butt's and contact these politicians there would be a lot of pressure to use existing laws that have been passed. Secondly, the idoit politicians who think making another law will change anything need to be removed from office the very next elections.
These politicians are bowing and scraping to the few non gun owners when in fact the majority of the people (gun owners) could put a stop to it if they would voice their opposition.
Instead of the emotional, all guns are evil, lets put the people in jail who failed to enforce the laws that would have prevented the incident.
The Newton School shooting is the fault of the mother, she taught a mental subject how to operate and shoot weapons, failed to keep them secured from a mental subject and failed to have a dangerous mental subject locked up in a mental hospital. HER ACTIONS ALONE CAUSED THE ENTIRE SCHOOL SHOOTING.
She was punished. He killed her first but her failed responsibilites to the public, allowed others to be killed.
Some of you out there will say, if she didn't own guns he couldn't have done it. WAKE UP......! How many people in the last year were murdered by Bow and Arrows, Automobiles, Knives, Ball Bats, Ropes, Kitchen knives, peoples hands, drowned, beaten to death, explosives and sufficated.
I will gladly give up my guns whan all of the above are given the same restrictive laws as guns.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--------------
wrong !
All retail sales of firearms currently require a NICS check, no matter where they occur. It is a federal felony to lie or otherwise make false statements on a NICS. IT'S THE LAW, AND IT'S A GOOD LAW.
According to a recent General Accounting Office study, as of 2011 23 states and the District of Columbia submitted less than 100 mental health records to NICS; 17 states submitted less than ten mental health records to NICS; and four states submitted no mental health records to NICS. WHERE'S THE DATA SHARING TO SUPPORT NICS?
In 2010, the FBI denied 72,659 NICS checks out of a total of 14,409,616. But only 62 of these cases were actually prosecuted, and only 13 resulted in a conviction. SO WHAT WAS ERIC HOLDER AND THE DOJ DOING ALL OF THIS TIME? WE'LL NEVER KNOW!
Hear are some words straight from the Vice President's lips to your ears: VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN says that "the U.S. government doesn't have the time or resources to prosecute those people that are caught breaking this long time federal law (NICS)", so the OBAMA government (President = Executive Branch = responsible for Law Enforcement) HAS CHOSEN NOT TO ENFORCE this FEDERAL LAW. So here we have a good law (NICS) already on the books that isn't being enforced at any level. Not by accident, but by PRESIDENTIAL DECISION. Just like he did with immigration laws, budget laws, etc.. DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE?
THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT NOBODY'S BETTER AT PLAYING THE BLAME GAME THAN OUR PRESIDENT, RIGHT?
Well, due to some recent high profile mass murders committed by lunatics and criminals, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN and the OBAMA White House have seized upon a chance to look as though they are actually doing something meaningful, by ASKING THEIR CADRE OF GULLIBLE TV ADDICTED AMERICANS FOR PERMISSION TO place the BLAME for these criminal acts on THEIR NEIGHBORS, who are ORDINARY LAW ABIDING CITIZENS, because it's politically convenient to do so, and it shifts our attention away from this administration's rotting trail of failed policies. Hey, it worked for ADOLPH HITLER in 1934.
So, don't JUST SAY NO, say HELL NO to OLD CARTOON JOE AND HIS WINDY CITY ASSOciateS!
It is a shame that Sandy Hook is being exploited to push this unconstitutional gun grab. This is the same thing that Hitler, Stalin, and Mao did. www dot infowars dot com/yes-hitler-stalin-did-take-the-guns/
Its not about keeping kids safe. If they wanted kids safe they would allow some staff at schools to be armed. That would allow your kids the same protection Obama's kids enjoy. This is about taking power from the citizens of America. The 2nd Amendment was bought with the blood of patriots. It give you the freedom to protect your family, your neighbor, your community, and your country. This emotional plea about gun bans protecting children is just psyops. Nothing more. If you buy it you buy the demise of this country.
If you want to protect children train and arm school staff that are willing to step up to the plate in defense of the kids.
Create a national data base with the names and SSN's of all criminals and certified mentally ill people. Call it the "Cannot own a firearm" list. (COF list) Make the COF list public and easy to access. We already have a data base for sex offenders . It shouldn't be difficult to create a data base with criminals. We would have to decide what level of crime would constitute a criminal. To save time, for now we'll say anyone that is convicted of a felony.
The Federal Government is to be responsible for maintaining the COF list and also responsible for making sure the COF list is up to date and accurate. That way all gun dealers and private citizens will know who not to sell or trade their guns to. If a gun is sold to a criminal that is not on the COF list, we know who is to be held accountable - The Federal Government. If a gun is sold to someone on the list, prosecute the person that sold the gun and add them to the COF list. Informed law abiding citizens will follow the rules. If this was done, the average law abiding citizen's rights would not be violated and then they can own any type rifle that they want to own.
But it would be a good start.