Father of slain teen urges McCain to speak against gun violence

Newsday ^ | 2/23/07 | DANIEL MASSEY

[kiriath_jearim]

Before his daughter was shot to death in an Arizona parking lot last Sunday, Ronald Schiffman never considered himself a political person. Now he says he might be ready for a change.

Less than a week after his daughter, Nicole, 19, and her best friend, Carol Kestenbaum, 20, were killed, Schiffman called on Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to speak out against gun violence.

"This is his state. John McCain should make a statement about this incident," said Schiffman. "He cries, rightly so, about all the boys who die in Iraq. I'd like to see him talk about gun control. It's a topic I think has disappeared because of all the problems the country is facing."

[Lockbar]

Amazing, the number of stories like these since November.

[BenLurkin]

Schiffman and Kestenbaum were shot last Sunday night in Tempe by 22-year-old Joshua Mendel, who had called 911 two weeks earlier asking for help with an alcohol problem.

The punk was a drunk with an infatuation with the decedent.

So what's the answer for this grieving father? Ban guns?

[kromike]

"I'd like to see him talk about gun people control."

Corrected...

[Disambiguator]

No mention of any perps, so one must assume that a gun slaughtered these two with no outside (human) help.

The same thing happened in Stockton back in '89. Patrick Purdy was actually trying to stop the gun from shooting the schoolkids, so it turned on him, too.

I agree, guns are out of control, like Daleks running around crying "Exterminate, exterminate!"

/(Do I really need a SARC tag?)

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

How about control of angry undisciplined unprincipled uncaring people who use violence to solve their "problems"?

[from occupied ga]

So what's the answer for this grieving father? Ban guns?

The standard tactic of the statists who want to ban guns pick a spoksperson who everyone feels sorry for. Well he just lost my sympathy. If he wants to get political about it then he's fiar game. Screw him. If he wants to take my firearms let he come and try and maybe he'll join his kid.

[RAY]

What beautiful, wholesome looking girls, such a tragedy.

Sad, but beware of "gun control"! One wonders what this grieving father means by "gun control"!

The hateful perpetrator killed himself -- to bad we can't rid the world of all such cowards!!

[frogjerk]

If a gun wasn't available to this sicko a knife or rock would have sufficed for him to commit his evil intentions.

[Irontank]

I'd like to see him talk about gun control.

Pure idiocy...my father was shot and killed in a mugging in NYC on February 10, 1995...and I am pretty certain of two things...(1) the scum who murdered him (who were never caught) were not in legal possession of their gun(s) and (2) if my father were carrying a gun, he would have had a fighting chance

[Candor7]

More single event driven legislation , designed to screw us all?

OUT OF CONTROL US Gun violence. It is a myth.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

All information. based on Private Firearm Ownership in the U.S. as of 1997

All Firearms # of Guns 200-240 Million

All Firearms Owners : 60-65 Million

Handguns # of Guns 75-80 Million

Handgun Owners: 30-35 Million

1997 All Crimes in US in which Guns were used: 701,369

Murder in which guns were used......10,369

Other violent Crimes in which firearms were used, not resulting in death......691,000

Measure Gun Violence :701,369/60,000,000 ( presuming erroneously that some of the 60 million gun owners turned criminal)=1.1689483333333333333333333333333 % of guns are used for criminal violence.

99% of gun owners in the USA are law abiding citizens.

We are responsible gun owners and self help defenders. The 2nd amendment is no myth, as the liberal gun control wing nut press would have you believe.

There is relatively little gun violence in the USA.

Stats Source: www.justfacts.com/gun_control.htm

And if you say that 701,369 incidents represent a lot of gun violence, they would do so IF they were manifest within the context of a population that was smaller than 260 million people, or not spread across a continent. But that is not the context in which we speak, thanks to the 2nd amendment of the United States Constitution. The fact is that more people die from car accidents annually in the United States than from gun violence.( About 40,000)

Maybe we should outlaw cars and go to bicycles.

[pabianice]

Gun-grabbing is part of the cult of enforced defenselessness. As a cult it is immune to contrary fact or reason. It can only be defended against.

[malos]

I'm in favor of gun violence.

[LibLieSlayer]

"If he wants to take my firearms let he come and try and maybe he'll join his kid."

Amen brother!

LLS

[Just sayin]

Father of slain teen should urge McCain to speak against people who do violence with guns

There that's how it should read.

[Egon]

(2) if my father were carrying a gun, he would have had a fighting chance

Or even if they thought he might be-- which is the point of conceal-and-carry.

[RonF]

I'm sorry; between the headline and the story I'm confused. Is the issue gun control or gun violence?

[DejaJude]

Gun violence? Were the guns raised by abusive parents? We need to get to the root of the problem. There has to be a reason these guns go bad./sarc

[alisasny]

Schiffman asked that contributions in his daughter's name be sent to Schneider Children's Hospital of North Shore and said that donations would be directed to help teenagers with psychological problems.

But he still wants more gun control? Interesting but not unexpected. He admits the kid was troubled which means any weapon, even his bare hands could have killed.

[TXnMA]

"The standard tactic of the statists who want to ban guns pick a spoksperson who everyone feels sorry for."