House Dems introduce new gun control bill
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy,D-NY, announces new legislation to make the online and mail-order sale of ammunition safer at a news conference on July 30, 2012. / DON EMMERT/AFP/GettyImages
As lawmakers return to Capitol Hill today to kick off the start of the 113th Congress, Democrats are already priming for a renewed battle over gun control, announcing the introduction of a bill banning high-capacity ammunition magazines before the first House session had been gaveled in.
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The High Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act, which is being introduced by Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., and is co-sponsored by Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would ban the sale or transfer of ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds. That standard was the federal mandate between 1994 and 2004 under the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.
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"These assault magazines help put the 'mass' in 'mass shooting' and anything we can do to stop their proliferation will save lives in America," said McCarthy in a statement. "These devices are used to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time possible and we owe it to innocent Americans everywhere to keep them out of the hands of dangerous people. We don't even allow hunters to use them - something's deeply wrong if we're protecting game more than we're protecting innocent human beings."
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McCarthy, whose husband was killed and son wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad in 1993, has long advocated stricter gun laws. DeGette, whose district is near Aurora, Colo. - where a gunman opened fire in a movie theater last summer, killing twelve and injuring dozens - also called for a ban on multiple ammunition magazine cartridges in an August interview with CBSNews.com.
Gun control advocates have had little success in recent years fighting the lobbying power of the National Rifle Association, however, and a sense of inevitable failure has permeated legislative efforts.
But in the wake of last month's murders in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 first-graders were killed in a mass shooting at their elementary school, public support for new gun laws has strengthened. A CBS News poll conducted in the days following the Newtown showed support for stricter gun control at a 10-year high, and up 18 points from the spring of 2012.
President Obama, too, has signaled a newfound willingness to broach the issue, and has appointed Vice President Joe Biden - an original author of the Assault Weapons Ban - to helm a task force aimed at producing legislative recommendations.
"I think anybody who was up in Newtown understands that something fundamental in America has to change," Mr. Obama said recently in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press." "I'm going to be putting forward a package and I'm going to be putting my full weight behind it. And I'm going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again."
This is not something that I will be putting off," he pledged.
Mr. Obama acknowledged that getting any such bill through the GOP-led House of Representatives would be difficult, but Shams Tarek, McCarthy's communications director, argued that such a measure is already garnering support from moderate Democrats. Some Republicans have also expressed a willingness to consider it: Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), for instance, said limiting the size of ammunition clips "might be helpful," while incoming Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said he would "consider looking at some of the larger magazines and other things if it gave us an opportunity to talk about the other things as well."
"Our belief is that yes we could get some yes votes, but getting [Republican] sponsors and getting a vote are heavier lifts - it's going to be our job and the public's to help organize the support," Tarek said in an email.
Still, DeGette insists that the bill is more urgent now than ever.
"Since I came to Congress, I have been working to protect our children and our families from senseless gun violence," she said. "Recent tragedies have only heightened the need, and that is why Rep. McCarthy and I are reintroducing our bill to ban high-capacity assault magazines. While there is no single answer to stopping these massacres, this bill is a step that will go a long way toward making our country safe."
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about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded
up and exterminated.
------------------------------
In 1911, Turkey established gun control and from 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million
Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were r ounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of
13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were
rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
China established gun control in 1935 and from 1948 to 1952, 20 million political
dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
Guatemala established gun control in 1964 and from 1964 to 1981, 100,000
Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
Uganda established gun control in 1970 and from 1971 to 1979, 300,000
Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------
Cambodia established gun control in 1956 and from 1975 to 1977, one million
educated' people, unable to defend themselves, w ere rounded up and
exterminated.
------------------------------
Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century
because of gun control: 56 million.
There are more "gun Laws" (city, county, State and Federal) than you can count.!
Criminals and crazies are going to get their hands on any kind of weapon they want; any way they can.
What's really needed is enforcement of the laws already on the books.
Many local programs have been created (specially trained police officers) to identify who is carrying while walking down the streets.
But when and until politicians get over their almost maniacal fear of being called racist; we can expect things to go on as usual.!
The simple fact is, had the gunman not chose to kill my family with a gun, and had used an ax, I would still feel bad that they are gone. That is what is wrong, that someone would kill another. The gun he used was nothing special. It could have been an ax, a car, a ball bat.
I'll tell you what we did when our family got killed by a nut. We all went out and bought guns and got CCW's and learned how to protect ourselves. Because we realized the government was lying to us and the police could not protect us. So we had t protect ourselves.
I realize now that had any one of the people that was there when my family member got killed had been armed as we now always are. We would not be sad, because more than likely one of us would have stopped the killer before he gt to our people.
So CBS?? How about you stop the lying ********? Some of us know the truth. And we are not afraid to tell it.
Cut the politics crap and report them truth.
Let leaders actually lead on this.
If all politicians, police, and their families are completely banned of being armed or having armed security, whether privately or publicly funded, for one year, then I'll give up every gun I own save one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory
The Arsenal at Springfield
This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;
But front their silent pipes no anthem pealing
Startles the villages with strange alarms.
Ah! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary,
When the death-angel touches those swift keys
What loud lament and dismal Miserere
Will mingle with their awful symphonies
I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,
The cries of agony, the endless groan,
Which, through the ages that have gone before us,
In long reverberations reach our own.
On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer,
Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song,
And loud, amid the universal clamor,
O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong.
I hear the Florentine, who from his palace
Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din,
And Aztec priests upon their teocallis
Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin;
The tumult of each sacked and burning village;
The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;
The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage;
The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;
The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,
The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;
And ever and anon, in tones of thunder,
The diapason of the cannonade.
Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,
With such accursed instruments as these,
Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
And jarrest the celestial harmonies?
Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals or forts:
The warrior's name would be a name abhorred!
And every nation, that should lift again
Its hand against a brother, on its forehead
Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!
Down the dark future, through long generations,
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,
I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!"
Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals
The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies!
But beautiful as songs of the immortals,
The holy melodies of love arise.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
http://wh.gov/UAyA
Yet again...