News and Press

New York Times Editorial: Talking About Guns

Admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:05:14 -0400

Published: March 16, 2011

More than two months after the killings in Tucson, Ariz., and some 2,400 American gun deaths later, President Obama has finally broken his silence on gun violence.

In an op-ed article on Sunday in The Arizona Daily Star, Mr. Obama called on gun control and gun rights advocates to set aside their broader differences for now and support a worthwhile goal: fixing gaps in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System so that it would be harder for dangerous people to buy weapons.

His starting point was the “clear and terrible fact” that the Tucson shooter — a man rejected as unfit by the Army, deemed too unstable for college and thought to be inclined to violence by neighbors and school officials — was, nevertheless, “able to walk into a store and buy a gun.”

Mr. Obama said many state records on disqualifying involuntary commitments or criminal records are not being submitted to the federal background check system. He stressed the need for an “instant, accurate, comprehensive” system devoid of loopholes that allow dangerous people to avoid background checks altogether. He was alluding to the perilous exception for private sales by unlicensed sellers, including at gun shows.

“If we’re serious about keeping guns away from someone who’s made up his mind to kill, then we can’t allow a situation where a responsible seller denies him a weapon at one store, but he effortlessly buys the same gun someplace else,” the president wrote.

It was a promising start toward a sensible discussion of gun violence, even though the president stopped short of offering a specific legislative proposal or endorsing one already in the Congressional hopper. His to-do list omitted banning the big volume ammunition magazines that figured in the Tucson massacre and a long line of other mass shootings. The magazines have no defensible use outside of combat and law enforcement.

Mr. Obama owes the country muscular White House leadership to make sure his reforms happen.

Over the next two weeks, the Justice Department is planning to meet with people on different sides of the gun safety issue to seek consensus on possible legislative and administrative steps. A good starting point for those discussions is a new measure sponsored in Congress by two New York Democrats, Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Carolyn McCarthy.

The legislation would withhold federal money from states that don’t submit the required reports to the national database that determines whether a would-be gun buyer is legally prohibited from purchasing a weapon. It would also close the gun show loophole.

The National Rifle Association, to its lingering shame but to no one’s surprise, declined the administration’s invitation to talk — a sign of real disrespect for a president who has actually expanded gun rights. It also shows disdain for the well-being and safety of the public.

Huffington Post: Majority Of Americans, Including Gun Owners, Support Tougher Restrictions

Admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:01:27 -0400

Amanda Terkel
01/31/11 02:24 PM

WASHINGTON -- Despite powerful lobbying against any new gun-control measures by groups like the National Rifle Association, a new bipartisan poll shows that both gun owners and the general public support stronger measures to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and other potentially dangerous individuals.

The poll -- conducted for the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino -- suggests that while far-reaching gun-control legislation seems unlikely to pass, some narrower measures may be able to earn bipartisan support.

"Large majorities of Americans agree with the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to own guns, and Americans strongly oppose efforts to ban handguns," said Bob Carpenter, vice president of American Viewpoint, the Republican polling firm that joined with Democratic firm Momentum Analysis to conduct the survey. "But Americans and gun owners feel with equal fervor that government must act to get every single record in the background-check system that belongs there and to ensure that every gun sale includes a background check. Most Americans view these goals, protecting gun rights for the law-abiding and keeping guns from criminals, as compatible."

Some findings from the poll results, provided exclusively to The Huffington Post:

-- 90 percent of Americans and 90 percent of gun owners support fixing gaps in government databases that are meant to prevent the mentally ill, drug abusers and others from buying guns.
-- 91 percent of Americans and 93 percent of gun owners support requiring federal agencies to share information about suspected dangerous persons or terrorists to prevent them from buying guns.
-- 89 percent of Americans and 89 percent of gun owners support full funding of the law a unanimous Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed after the Virginia Tech shootings to put more records in the background-check database.
-- 86 percent of Americans and 81 percent of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check, no matter where they buy the gun and no matter who they buy it from.
-- 89 percent of Americans and 85 percent of gun owners support a law to require background checks for all guns sold at gun shows.

In terms of protecting Second Amendment rights, 79 percent of Americans and 90 percent of gun owners said they believe an individual has the right to own guns, and the amendment is not limited to protecting the rights of state militias. Eighty percent of Americans and 90 percent of gun owners oppose a law that would ban the sale of all handguns.

The survey also asked whether respondents believe that "the sale of guns should be more strict." Fifty-one percent said they agreed with that statement, 7 percent more than agreed in a November Gallup poll using nearly identical wording and 4 percent more than what CBS found using similar wording last week.

Jared Lee Loughner, the alleged shooter in the tragic Jan. 8 shooting in Arizona, legally obtained the Glock-19 pistol that he eventually used to kill six people and wound 13 others. Despite his documented history of drug abuse, Loughner was able to slip through the cracks and become a gun owner.

In the months following the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, lawmakers passed a bill meant to increase the number of records entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. But three years later, hundreds of thousands of records are still missing, allowing many to pass background checks they might otherwise fail. Additionally, since 2007, Congress allocated only $20 million of the $375 million authorized in the law.

"Our coalition of mayors has fought for years to fix our federal background check system and close loopholes that give dangerous people a way to get around the requirement altogether," Bloomberg said in a statement on the poll's findings. "This poll shows that, particularly in the wake of yet another tragic mass shooting, Americans and gun owners agree with our efforts. If the tragedy in Tucson was not enough to ensure that Congress finally takes action, we hope this clear call for reform from the public will add to the groundswell of support."

Closing the so-called "terror gap" has particularly strong support. A 2010 Government Accountability Office report found that during the past six years, individuals on the terror watchlist were able to buy firearms or explosives from licensed U.S. dealers 1,119 times.

The NRA has opposed bipartisan legislation closing the gap on the grounds that the list is flawed -- some individuals are put on the list by mistake, while many who pose legitimate threats are never added.

But this position puts the NRA far to the right of even its members. A survey last year by conservative pollster Frank Luntz found that 82 percent of NRA members supported "prohibiting people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns." Eighty-six percent agreed with the statement that the country can "do more to stop criminals from getting guns while also protecting the rights of citizens to freely own them."

The NRA has taken a low profile since the Tucson shooting, telling The Daily Beast that the organization "strongly believes that now is not the time for political debates or policy discussions. Indeed, anything other than prayers for the victims and their families at this time would be inappropriate."

Currently, there is no Senate-approved head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2006, the gun industry convinced Congress to require nominees for the position to meet with Senate approval. The upper chamber has not approved a single director since.

Republican senators even held up President Bush's nominee, arguing he had been "overzealous in enforcing requirements that dealers keep detailed gun-sale records." Obama's nominee, Andrew Traver, is likewise currently on hold.

A handful of lawmakers have signaled their intentions to introduce gun legislation. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) plans to introduce legislation Tuesday to "prohibit the transfer, importation, or possession of high capacity magazines manufactured after the bill is enacted." Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) is readying similar legislation in the Senate.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has also proposed legislation, backed by Bloomberg, making it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official. The latest Mayors Against Illegal Guns poll found that 58 percent of the public and 49 percent of gun owners support banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines. Sixty-seven percent of the public supports the King proposal, according to that polling, along with 60 percent of gun owners.

Even McCarthy, however, admits that significant gun-control measures are unlikely to go anywhere in Congress. "Everybody is petrified of the NRA," McCarthy told The Huffington Post.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" recently that Congress will therefore most likely look to fill the obvious gaps in current laws that have broad bipartisan support, such as pushing for better information-sharing and tightening weapon-purchasing restrictions on those diagnosed as mentally ill or drug abusers.

As HuffPost Pollster's Mark Blumenthal has noted, "While public opinion has generally turned against stricter gun-control measures over the last twenty years, majorities continue to support greater restrictions on the sort of semi-automatic weapon used in the Tucson shootings."

It seems, however, that the public's favorable views of gun rights have held despite the Tucson shooting. Forty-six percent of poll respondents said that the Jan. 8 tragedy had not changed their views on gun control at all, while only 41 percent said they now feel more strongly that gun laws should be stricter. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 69 percent of those surveyed said their views on gun laws hadn't changed.

UPDATE: A HuffPost reader points out that Mayors Against Illegal Guns included both gun owners and people living in gun households as "gun owners" in the summary of its survey results. One of the pollsters who conducted the survey said that they believe "those living with the actual person on a gun license have far more in common with them than with those with no guns in the house at all."

Long Island Herald: Let’s arm ourselves with stronger gun laws

Admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:45:06 -0400

January 20, 2011

Almost two weeks ago, 22-year-old Jared L. Loughner, allegedly armed with a Glock 9mm with a 30-round magazine (and another bullet in the chamber) opened fire at a public meet-and-greet outside a Safeway store in Tucson, killing six and wounding 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In the aftermath of this carnage, some in Congress have made constructive proposals. We applaud their efforts.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Reports of Loughner’s odd behavior in the months leading up to the shooting make it clear that he never should have been able to a purchase a weapon, and certainly not one with a high-capacity ammunition clip. He cleared a federal background check even though he had been banned from his community college campus for being a threat to other students and faculty. He had also been rejected by the Army for failing a drug test. But these things didn’t show up on the background check.

Three years ago, U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from Mineola, authored a bill that became law, requiring the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to prohibit gun purchases by convicted criminals and those with a history of mental illness. This legislation stemmed from the March 2002 murder of the Rev. Larry Penzes of Our Lady of Peace Church in Lynbrook, and was also supported by State Sen. Dean Skelos, a Republican from Rockville Centre, and then-Assemblyman Bob Barra, a Republican from Lynbrook.

Penzes, 50, and congregant Eileen Tosner, 73, were shot and killed in the church by Peter Troy, 34, who was eventually sentenced to two life terms for the murders and an additional 25 years for the attempted murder of a police officer involved in his capture. Troy had purchased a .22 caliber rifle from a Mineola gun shop only days before the shootings, even though he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had spent time in a mental institution.

Arizona has eased its gun law restrictions in recent years. Loughner customized his weapon with an extended ammunition clip that was illegal in the state six years ago. It contained 18 more bullets than a standard magazine.

Just two days after Tucson incident, Mc-Carthy introduced legislation in the House that would restrict large-capacity magazines. A stand-alone bill, the Large Capacity Ammu-nition Feeding Device Act, would prohibit the transfer, importation or possession of these magazines manufactured after the bill was enacted. It would also require large-capacity clips manufactured after the date of enactment to indicate that with a serial number.

We applaud McCarthy’s attempts, as well as those of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, to update the nation’s gun laws. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said he would urge President Obama and the Pentagon to notify the FBI when someone is rejected by the military for excessive drug use, as happened in Loughner’s case.

Will these bipartisan attempts to plug loopholes in our current laws stop the depraved actions of individuals who are hell-bent on creating carnage? Maybe not, but it is our elected officials’ job to try to keep us safe.

No one is challenging the Constitution’s guarantee of citizens’ right to own guns. But we do hope Congress can work together to strike a balance between our right to own them and our right to be safe from the people who would use them malevolently. We may never stop violence or murder or someone obeying a voice in his head instructing him to go out and kill as many people as possible. But we can try to make it harder for him to do so.

McCarthy's Bill

What is a high-capacity feeding device?
A magazine, belt, drum, feed strip or similar device that has a capacity of more than 10 rounds of ammunition, or can be readily restored or converted to accept multiple rounds.

What would the new law prohibit?
It would outlaw the transfer, possession or import of large-capacity ammunition-feeding devices manufactured after the date of the bill’s enactment. Active and retired law enforcement personnel and the devices’ use for protecting nuclear materials and for authorized testing or experimentation would be exempt.

What would the penalties be for violating the law?
Violators would be subject to fines and/or imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Best of Long Island: Long Islanders Voted Rep. Carolyn McCarthy Best Democrat on Long Island!

Admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:39:32 -0400

Most New York Democrats have it so easy – liberal constituencies, historically incumbent power – but on Long Island they’re often the underdog. The Best Democrat on Long Island is then, in a sense, the best Democrat in the state. Way to go, LI blue guys. You fight that good fight. We bring you this year’s winners for Best Democrat on Long Island.

1. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy

Carolyn McCarthy is a lifelong Mineola resident, currently serving her seventh term representing Long Island’s Fourth Congressional District. Elected in 1996, the Congresswoman has served Long Island for more than 12 years, has fought for Long Island’s children, schools, taken a stand against cyber-bullying and is one of the most vocal advocates in the nation for gun control.The recent shootings in Arizona have placed Rep. McCarthy’s gun control agenda back on the front burner and McCarthy herself in the limelight once again.

2. Rep. Steve Israel

3. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice

The Hill: Hill bonding, as sisters or 'amigos'

Admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:18:03 -0400

By Kris Kitto - 02/09/11 07:40 AM ET

Among the many lessons that came out of the Arizona shootings last month was that members of Congress can become friends — real friends.

After gunshot wounds hospitalized Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), scores of lawmakers told stories of a woman who made quick connections with her colleagues, whether it was by sharing her blanket on President Obama’s cold Inauguration Day or offering one of her signature hugs.

“Gabby Giffords is my friend,” they said.

Two colleagues in particular, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), showed that, despite leading on-the-go lives, they bonded with Giffords on a deeper level.

Theirs is not the only political friendship that has gotten public attention. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) may come from different areas of the country, but they’ve become fast friends throughout their years in the Senate, even making trips to Iraq and Afghanistan together and earning the moniker “the three amigos.”

And while politics can make strange bedfellows, other duos and trios in Congress go beyond cursory politeness, finding commonalities and forming relationships that aren’t limited to the workplace. They exercise together, travel together, chat over shared meals and spend time with each other’s families.

In other words, they’re friends.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)

Collins and Harman knew each other before they became two of four lawmakers tasked with negotiating intelligence reform in 2004, but it was the long nights and intense work during that time that solidified their friendship.

After finally cutting off talks at 11 p.m. one night, the two, both still revved up, decided to go for a glass of wine at Bistro Bis. As they were finishing, a bar patron sent over another round because he observed that they were having such a good time together that he thought they must be sisters.

“It crystallized something for me, and it remains true,” says Harman, “that we are sisters.”

Collins says she was impressed with the breadth of Harman’s knowledge on the government’s intelligence agencies, but the two found that their admiration and commonalities didn’t stop there. They also enjoy good food, shopping and reading. They often exchange books — Harman just gave Collins Christopher Buckley’s Losing Mom and Pup.

“Ours is an unusual relationship because it’s a bicameral, bipartisan, bicoastal relationship,” Collins says. “It’s very special to me, because it isn’t common in Washington. We are so busy — I’m off to Maine every weekend, she’s off to California — yet we try to get together almost every week, and we certainly talk on the phone at least every week.”

Both say they’re better members of Congress because of their friendship.

“Our relationship has not only been a source of joy to me, it also has helped us accomplish good legislation for the country, because we do trust each other completely,” Collins says.

Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)  and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)

As the co-heads of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s domestic policy subcommittee in the 111th Congress, Kucinich and Jordan spent time getting to know and respect each other — so much so that Jordan invited Kucinich to his daughter’s wedding. (Jordan’s daughter, a House page for former GOP Rep. Mike Oxley, married a man who was a page for Kucinich.)

Jordan jokes that his credibility skyrocketed with his liberal-leaning relatives, from wife Polly’s side of the family, when they saw that Kucinich — the two-time presidential hopeful — was at the wedding.

Kucinich also enjoys retelling that story and says Jordan is “a good guy.”

“He’s without pretense or guile, he’s totally down to earth, forthright and honest and is a person of strong character,” Kucinich says. “He’s great to work with. We’re miles apart politically, but he’s one of the more solid people I’ve met around here.”

Reps. Eddie Bernice  Johnson (D-Texas) and  Corrine Brown (D-Fla.)

Johnson and Brown were both elected to Congress in 1992, and their friendship began shortly thereafter. They were both assigned to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and they soon found residences near each other so that they could go to the gym together.

Among their favorite joint activities are shopping and traveling.

“[The friendship] means a lot to me because I don’t have any family in the area,” Johnson says. “It’s like having a sister. We discuss almost everything with each other.”

Brown remembers helping Johnson through a particularly difficult time — the passing of Johnson’s mother. She went to Dallas, Johnson’s district, to support her and her family.

“She is my best friend,” Brown says. “We’ve been together for 18 years, and that’s a long time.”

Reps. Jo Ann Emerson  (R-Mo.) and Carolyn  McCarthy (D-N.Y.)

Emerson’s rural Midwest district and McCarthy’s urban East Coast district couldn’t be more different, but that hasn’t kept them from finding common ground.

The two lawmakers were in the same freshman class, 1996, and soon began traveling together as part of the NATO parliamentary assembly. They got to know each other on the long flights.

“The Hill can be a pretty lonely place at times, and you start to gravitate toward people who have the same values,”  McCarthy says.

The two began meeting for dinner once a week — along with other colleagues — just to get to know each other better. They talk about family and other aspects of their personal lives, “just to feel like you’re normal to a certain extent,” McCarthy says.

“We understand the pressure of doing your job in D.C. and spending time home,” Emerson says. “Our lives are so similar, even though she has what I’d call a metropolitan district and I have a very rural district.”

McCarthy and Emerson can often be seen walking on to the House floor together, and they were planning on sitting together for the State of the Union address until Emerson slipped on a patch of ice and broke her arm a few days before the speech.

They have a goal of visiting each other’s districts soon to better understand the other’s constituents and hometown. Emerson has extended an invitation for McCarthy to join her on her “farm tour” this summer.

“I trust Carolyn 100 percent,” Emerson says. “We can talk to each other about anything. I feel blessed to have a friend like Carolyn.”

Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.)

This group includes two more — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) — but the two senators see more of each other on a daily basis than they do their House colleagues these days.

In fact, they like each other’s company enough that they make a habit of going out to dinner together nearly every night.

Like several of these other friendships, Chambliss and Burr arrived in Washington at the same time, as part of the House freshman class of 1995 (Latham was a member of the same group).

The original link between Chambliss and Burr was their Southern roots.

“We’re both from the South, and we didn’t need an interpreter,” Chambliss joked last week as the two walked together through the Capitol to the Senate floor.

“It was a large class,” Burr said, “and in those big classes you tend to gravitate toward people you get to know and trust.”

Chambliss moved to the Senate in 2003, and Burr followed him two years later, but the two still manage to see Boehner and Latham for dinner on a regular basis.

They also like to hit the links.

“We still play a little golf together,” Chambliss said.

Molly K. Hooper contributed to this article.

ABC: NY Lawmaker Touched by Gun Violence Presses On

Admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:14:13 -0400

By FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press
GARDEN CITY PARK, N.Y. February 15, 2011 (AP)

Out of nowhere, a deranged gunman shoots into a crowd of innocent victims, firing until bystanders tackle him as he tries to load a new clip of ammo. Six people are killed and several injured; one person suffers a head wound but survives to face a long period of rehabilitation.

That shooting on a Long Island Rail Road train in 1993 inspired Carolyn McCarthy, who lost her husband and saw her son paralyzed, to run for Congress. And the more recent shooting at an Arizona shopping center with which it shares eerie similarities has thrust her back into the spotlight as she seeks to outlaw the high-capacity magazines believed to have helped both gunmen.

McCarthy has been doing this for so long that she answers the Second Amendment question on gun ownership before it is asked.

"Many people are saying, 'Oh, you're taking away our rights to own a gun,'" McCarthy said. "This has nothing to do with taking away the right of someone owning a gun. The Supreme Court already came out and said everybody has a right to own a gun. The large-capacity clips, though, should only be for our police officers and our military."

McCarthy, a 67-year-old Democrat who won a tight race for an eighth term last year, was glued to the television for hours after the Tucson shooting, hearing echoes of Long Island in the news coverage, of why she ran for Congress in the first place and of why she's risking her precarious congressional seat.

Her son Kevin, now 43, suffered a head wound similar to that of Giffords, who is undergoing rehabilitation in Houston. Her son's recovery, she said, took two years and cost $1 million. These days, he is married with two children, 12-year-old Denis and 10-year-old Grace.

"They are my miracles as far as I'm concerned, given that I was told Kevin would never survive," McCarthy said.

Though McCarthy has expanded her portfolio to topics beyond gun control, including health care and family issues, the time after the Tucson shooting was ripe for returning to her roots.

"She realizes it's going to be hard to get all-encompassing gun control passed, but she's smart enough to know that it's important to make some progress," said Rep. Peter King, a Republican and fellow Long Island congressional member who supports McCarthy's ammunition clip legislation. "Deep down, I think she knows that."

McCarthy's bill, introduced shortly after the Tucson shooting, would limit ammo clips to 10 rounds. King is sponsoring a companion bill that would ban people from carrying handguns within 1,000 feet of the president, members of Congress or federal judges. Some conservatives have advocated carrying guns to political rallies, and a federal judge was killed in the Tucson shooting.

McCarthy is seeking a meeting with President Barack Obama as she elicits support, and she's reaching out to schools and through social networks. She spoke recently to seniors at Mineola High School, noting that some of them hadn't been born when mass violence hit so close to home.

"Young people today with social media have friends not only in the state, but in the country," she told reporters afterward. "Most of them are seniors who will go off to college, and again take this issue up and talk to their family and friends and hopefully we'll have a groundswell."

If McCarthy has opponents in the gun-rights movement — the National Rifle Association says her bill would "severely violate the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense" — she also has them in her suburban Nassau County district. She replaced her chief of staff, communications director and overhauled her legislative staff after surviving a stiff challenge last November from a popular Republican.

In a tough year for Democrats nationwide, McCarthy won a 7-point victory for her eighth term. She insists she loves her job and won't even bring up the R-word — retirement. But because New York is expected to lose two House seats in upcoming redistricting, some have speculated that McCarthy's could be vulnerable.

Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic strategist, called that "certainly a possibility."

McCarthy and her staff insisted she doesn't plan on going anywhere.

"There are days when I want to put this comforter over my head and say, 'Why am I doing this?'" she said. "Well, I'm doing this to try and save lives and try to prevent injuries."

The congresswoman said she has not contacted the Giffords family, preferring to let them focus on their loved one's recovery.

"She's going through the same kind of treatment that Kevin went through," McCarthy said. "It's going to be a very, very long journey or her and all the other victims."

Although he worked as a financial planner for a time, Kevin McCarthy is currently on disability because of his injuries.

"He's doing very well. He's still partially paralyzed. He struggles," his mother said. "He still has a little bit of anger in him. When something like this happens he won't even watch the TV because it brings him back to a place he doesn't want to go."

That place, she said, is the knowledge that nearly 20 years later, another Colin Ferguson was allowed to end or disrupt so many lives.

Ferguson, she noted, "had 15 bullets in a clip, and every one of his bullets hit somebody."

"We're saying that you can't have more than 10," she said. "That's common sense, as far as I'm concerned."

New York Times: An Assault on Everyone's Safety

Admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:08:12 -0400

January 10, 2011
Editorial

The Glock 19 is a semiautomatic pistol so reliable that it is used by thousands of law enforcement agencies around the world, including the New York Police Department, to protect the police and the public. On Saturday, in Tucson, it became an instrument of carnage for two preventable reasons: It had an oversize ammunition clip that was once restricted by federal law and still should be; and it was fired by a disturbed man who should never have been able to purchase it legally.

The ludicrously thin membrane that now passes for gun control in this country almost certainly made the Tucson tragedy worse. Members of Congress are legitimately concerned about their own safety now, but they should be no less worried about the effect of their inaction on the safety of all Americans.

As lawmakers in Washington engage this week in moments of silence and tributes to Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other casualties, they should realize that they have the power to reduce the number of these sorts of horrors, and their lethality.

To do so, they will need to stand up to the National Rifle Association and its allies, whose lobbying power continues to grow despite the visceral evidence that the groups have made the country a far more dangerous place. Having won a Supreme Court ruling establishing a right to keep a firearm in the home, the gun lobby is striving for new heights of lunacy, waging a campaign to legalize the possession of a gun in schools, bars, parks, offices, and churches, even by teenagers.

It reflexively opposes even mild, sensible restrictions — but if there is any reason left in this debate, the latest mass shooting should force a retreat. Is there anyone, even the most die-hard gun lobbyist, who wants to argue that a disturbed man should be able to easily and legally buy a Glock to shoot a congresswoman, a judge, a 9-year-old girl?

One of the first things Congress can do is to take up a bill proposed by Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat of Long Island, that would ban the extended ammunition clip used by the Arizona shooter, Jared Loughner. A Glock 19 usually holds 15 bullets. Mr. Loughner used an oversize clip allowing him to fire as many as 33 bullets before pausing to reload. It was at that point that he was tackled and restrained.

Between 1994 and 2004, it was illegal to manufacture or import the extended clips as part of the ban on assault weapons. But the ban was never renewed because of the fierce opposition of the N.R.A. At least six states, including California and New York, ban extended clips, which serve absolutely no legitimate purpose outside of military or law enforcement use. At a minimum, that ban should be extended nationwide, and should prohibit possession, not just manufacture.

The gun itself was purchased by Mr. Loughner at a sporting goods store that followed the bare-minimum federal background check, which only flags felons, people found to be a danger to themselves or others, or those under a restraining order.

Mr. Loughner was rejected by the military for failing a drug test, and had five run-ins with the Pima Community College police before being suspended for disruptive activity. Why can’t Congress require a background check — without loopholes for gun shows or private sales — that would detect this sort of history? If the military didn’t want someone like Mr. Loughner to be given a firearm, neither should the public at large.

At least two members of Congress say they will start to carry weapons to district meetings, the worst possible response. If lawmakers want to enhance their safety, and that of their constituents, they should recognize that the true public menace is the well-dressed gun lobbyist hanging out just outside their chamber door.

Politico: Carolyn McCarthy readies gun control bill

Admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:58:25 -0400

By: Shira Toeplitz
January 9, 2011 05:57 PM EDT

One of the fiercest gun control advocates in Congress, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), pounced on the shooting massacre in Tucson, Ariz., Sunday, promising to introduce legislation as soon as Monday targeting the high-capacity ammunition clip the gunman used.

McCarthy ran for Congress after her husband was gunned down and her son seriously injured in a shooting in 1993 on a Long Island commuter train.

“My staff is working on looking at the different legislation fixes that we might be able to do and we might be able to introduce as early as tomorrow,” McCarthy told POLITICO in a Sunday afternoon phone interview.

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) said he’s preparing to introduce a similar bill in the Senate.

“The only reason to have 33 bullets loaded in a handgun is to kill a lot of people very quickly,” Lautenberg said in a statement. “These high-capacity clips simply should not be on the market.“

Gun control activists said it was time to reform weapons laws in the United States almost immediately after a gunman killed six and injured 14 more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Arizona on Saturday.

Many said that people with a history of mental instability, like the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, should not be able to buy a gun — and no one should be able to buy stockpiles of the ammunition allegedly used by the 22-year-old assailant.

McCarthy said she plans to confer with House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to see “if we can work something through” in the coming week.

McCarthy’s spokesman confirmed that the legislation will target the high-capacity ammunition clips the Arizona gunman allegedly used in the shooting, but neither he nor the congresswoman offered any further details.

“Again, we need to look at how this is going to work to protect people, certainly citizens, and we have to look at what I can pass,” McCarthy said. “I don’t want to give the National Rifle Association — excuse the pun — the ammunition to come at me, either.”

Pennsylvania Rep. Robert Brady, a Democrat from Philadelphia, told CNN that he also plans to take legislative action. He will introduce a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to use language or symbols that could be seen as threatening or violent against a federal official, including a member of Congress.

Another vocal supporter of gun control, Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, told POLITICO that he hopes “something good” can come from the Arizona tragedy — perhaps discussion of a new assault weapons ban, sales at gun shows and tracing measures.

Loughner legally purchased his weapon — a Glock 19 with an extended magazine — from an Arizona store. The same kind of extended magazine was illegal under the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

“The ability to buy a weapon that fires hundreds of bullets in less than a minute” is a problem, said Quigley. “He had an additional magazine capability. That’s not what a hunter needs. That’s not what someone needs to defend their home. That’s what you use to hunt people.”

After the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, in which a student with a history of psychological problems killed 33 and injured 25 others, lawmakers immediately started looking at gun control reforms at both the state and the federal level.

Then-Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine issued an executive order making it harder for people who have been committed to mental health treatment centers to buy a gun.

In 2008 President George W. Bush signed a law expanding the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which registered gun dealers use, to include more comprehensive reporting of mental health records. Under the current law, it is illegal for anyone who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution” to purchase a firearm, according to the FBI’s website.

However, Loughner did not fall into either of those categories, according to Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

“I’ve seen no evidence that he falls into those categories. It’s the same thing as this guy at Virginia Tech,” said Horwitz. “We can do a much better job checking people’s mental health background.”

New York Times: Talking About Guns

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/opinion/17thu1.html?_r=2

The Daily News: Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, Mayor Bloomberg Push Washington On Gun Checks

admin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/03/rep-carolyn-mccarthy-mayor-bloomberg-push-washington-on-gun-checks