Yes, yes, - four times yes.
Allow gun sales to mentally ill: Yes
Allow gun sales to people on No Fly list: Yes
Allow gun sales sans background checks: Yes
Many U.S. senators are stupid: Yes
TRUTH IN BLOGGING: This scrivener owns guns and has a concealed weapons license. One son is a policeman, another has a small arsenal of rifles and handguns.; both have concealed weapons licenses.
What the Senate did on December 3 should join December 7th in the "Days of infamy" category.
BY THE NUMBERS
By a vote of 52 to 47, the Senate rejected a proposal to strengthen treatment for mental illness and substance abuse disorders. The proposal to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing weapons was included in the overall proposal.
- Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) said Thursday there are still too many unknowns about the San Bernardino shootings, but he said one common theme among many mass shootings is mental illness, an issue he says Congress has already been working on with legislation.
"People with mental illness are getting guns and committing these mass shootings," Ryan said on CBS This Morning. Ryan made the same point earlier this week in reaction to the post-Thanksgiving shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic.
Lawmakers voted 50 to 48 to reject a bill that would have expanded background checks on guns purchased online or at gun shows.
- John Cornyn (R-TX) failed to win an alternative putting gun sales on hold for 72 hours for people on watch lists. Critics have said such background checks could take longer to complete.
Many states already have waiting periods - from 3 days (Florida, Iowa) to 14 days (Hawaii). During the 72-hour delay, Florida's Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) checks to assure the buyer is eligible to own a handgun. A Florida concealed carry license is significantly more stringent and time consuming.
The Senate voted 45 to 54 against a bill that would have stopped people on the terror watch list from purchasing guns.
- Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis) said part of the discussion surrounding mental health legislation is who should and shouldn't have access to guns, but he signaled that barring gun purchases by people on no-fly terror lists — as President Obama urged Wednesday — is not an option.
Ryan said government officials put people on such lists without any due legal process and so denying those listed the right to bear arms would violate their rights.
"People have due process rights in this country," he said.
"If somebody is too dangerous to board an airplane (because they are on a terrorist watch list), they are too dangerous to buy a gun," Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said at a press conference with seven Democratic senators. "This shouldn't be a partisan issue."
Do non-citizens have all citizen rights and if so, why? If a person unjustly is on the No Fly list, there is a remedy.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll last month found 82 percent thought gun violence was a very serious or somewhat serious problem. But opinion split almost evenly over whether enacting new laws to reduce gun violence or protecting the right to own guns was more important.
The poll also found that 63 percent blamed mass shootings on mental health problems, while 23 percent cited inadequate gun control.
I'm always skeptical of polls. Who was polled? Where was the poll taken? How many people were polled? How were the questions phrased. As a writer I know how to phrase a question to get the answer I want. Unless I have all the information, in my mind all polls are suspect - even ones that agree with me.
WHAT WAS NOT DISCUSSED
Apparently ignored by the Senate was purchase of fully automatic weapons and weapons that can be modified to be full automatic.
Likewise, why would a hunter with an AK-47 need a 75 round magazine (clip)? Or even a 30-round magazine? Is the hunter a terrible shot? I'd hate to be hunting where he is hunting. Does he think it will take 30 or 75 shots to bring down a buck?
Why would anyone need a 33-round clip for a handgun unless the shooter was planning either mass murder, a gang war, or just planning to "shoot up the neighborhood."
Yes, Virginia, 75-round and 33-round magazines are for sale in the U.S., no questions asked.
WERE THEY TERRORISTS?
The FBI and other state and federal government agencies seem to have a problem labeling the husband and wife who murdered and wounded so many at a San Bernardino center on December 2 as terrorists.
Never mind that they had more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, that they had bomb making equipment and completed bombs in their home, that they had contact with known, albeit "low level" (meaning???) , terrorists, that they outfitted themselves with body armor before the rampage.
How can anyone, including POTUS, conclude that these people were NOT terrorists. Even if they were not Muslim terrorists, they still were terrorists: a terrorist is a person whose acts are intended to terrorize others, and by their actions, this husband and wife team were, without a doubt, terrorists.
After thought Because the San Bernardino building was a gun-free zone, all of the victims were unarmed, defenseless.
Gun-free zones are the result of work-place violence, someone "going postal." Unfortunately, terrorists - as proven in San Bernardino - ignore the rules, leaving employees and visitors at the mercy of murderers.
SOURCES
Senate rejects a series of gun control bills.
Polarized Senate blocks expanded background checks, other gun curbs after California shootings
Republicans say no to new gun control legislation after San Bernardino
U.S. Senate debates gun control after California shooting, but no action taken
No comments:
Post a Comment