Posted on 12/17/2012 8:03:44 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., today called for new federal gun control laws in the wake of Friday’s shooting spree in Newtown, Conn. that killed 27, including 20 young children.
Grijalva called for some new actions on who can obtain guns in the wake of the Connecticut killings. He also referenced the 2011 shooting spree in Tucson that killed six, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, and severely wounded former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
“The scandalous availability of highly lethal weapons to even the least qualified, least competent and most dangerous among us has gone on long enough,” said Grijalva, whose district includes Tucson, Yuma and Nogales and some parts of the West Valley. “If pro-gun activists will not negotiate in good faith, it is time for the country to move on without them.”
Grijalva’s comments were the strongest on either side of Arizona’s political aisle in the wake of Friday’s horrific events.
Other Arizona elected officials -- ranging from U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., to Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat -- issued statements of condolences and prayers for the victims’ families and loved ones.
The children killed Friday in Connecticut were 6 and 7 years old.
Here is the full text of Grijalva’s statement:
When a man kills 20 children and seven others for no reason other than his own demons, the immediate human response is the same anywhere: deep pain, grief, anger and frustration. In the United States, unfortunately, such a tragedy carries an added weight because it is not unique.
Last Friday will live in our collective memory, just as Aurora, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Tucson and the numerous other mass killings we have endured will live in our memory. We have become a nation overly acquainted with shock and grief.
That grief cannot be the end of our response. With millions of other Americans, I say today that we should stop making emotional room in our hearts for each year’s new round of public shootings and killing sprees. We should resolve to end them rather than accommodate them.
At some point, which I believe we long ago passed, the time comes to stop calling for “a national dialogue” when one side is clearly uninterested in talking. Absolutism in defense of gun violence is no virtue, and we have been cowed by absolutists for too long. When we accept eight or nine thousand gun murders a year as the price of what some people think of as freedom, we have gone too far.
It takes necessary courage in these moments to admit that our laws are part of the problem, and that no amount of emotional healing is going to prevent the next tragedy. The scandalous availability of highly lethal weapons to even the least qualified, least competent and most dangerous among us has gone on long enough. If pro-gun activists will not negotiate in good faith, it is time for the country to move on without them. Sitting on our hands and hoping for the best is no longer an option.
There are plenty of people who believe otherwise. I wonder how they would feel if it had been them at 5 years old.
Negotiate what? You liberal criminal apologists allow psychos to run free. When will you do something about it?
He equates defending firearm ownership to defending gun violence. I suppose it stems from a liberal belief that guns in and of theselves stand alone as 'evil'.
Americans are better marksmen than his illegal Mexican pets, so this psycho has ulterior motives to ban guns.
That’s terrible! I got my master’s there too, but luckily lived in a so-so area. Lots of helicopters overhead every night with bright lights shining into your house/yard, but no gunfire. I can imagine where your exchange student lived (there are a few bad spots like that!).
Too many areas of the country are the proverbial war zones now, thanks to the leftists.
If the illegal aliens weren’t allowed to vote, this lowlife would be mopping floors at Taco Bell.
He’s not (even) Taco Bell material.
(Sorry ... I couldn’t resist).
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