Harkin echoes Obama: Now is the time to toughen gun law

amestrib.com ^ | December 21, 2012 | Mike Malloy

[Tailgunner Joe]

Sadness and sympathy alone are insufficient responses to last week’s killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

That was the message U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, delivered in a teleconference Thursday in response to the massacre last Friday as he vowed to pursue stricter guns laws in 2013.

“There is a palpable sense that tears are not enough,” Harkin said.

Harkin, himself a hunter, pledged to defend basic gun rights but said the Second Amendment does not grant unlimited access to all guns, including semi-automatic assault rifles. Harkin said the purpose of such guns “is to kill a large number of people in seconds … they shouldn’t be out in the general populace.”

Harkin also wants “long overdue” reform of mental health care, though he said he had no specific proposals.

Harkin is the latest to join the chorus of those advocating for tighter control of firearms.

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he’s forming a task force, headed by Vice President Joe Biden, to examine the nation’s gun laws. Obama said the complexity of the issue “can’t be an excuse for doing nothing.”

Obama also pressed for “real reforms right now” after the new Congress is seated in January.

“(The task force) is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside,” Obama said.

The Washington Post, citing White House staff, said those reforms would likely include a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban — a law Biden helped pass in 1994 that expired in 2004 — closing the so-called “gun show loophole,” which allows people to purchase weapons at such events without a background check, and banning high-capacity ammunition clips.

The press conference was held five days after Adam Lanza killed 26 people, including 20 children, before committing suicide at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Lanza, who killed his mother before the massacre, was armed with three guns, including a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle. CBS reported that Lanza had hundreds of unfired rounds of ammunition at the scene.

It was the fourth high-profile case of a gunman on a killing spree in the past six months.

Harkin brushed aside a question about whether it was too soon — some funerals for the victims were Thursday — to have such a debate.

“No, I don’t think we should wait,” he said. “There’s nothing that the (National Rifle Association) and the gun lobby would like better than to postpone this.”

Any effort to tighten gun laws will need the support of Republicans who generally have favored laxer gun laws. Harkin hasn’t spoken with any Republicans and said he didn’t know how much Republican support the effort would receive.

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told Sioux City Radio station KSCJ Tuesday “the political opportunists didn’t wait 24 hours before they decided they were going after some kind of a gun ban.”

King did say there would be time later for a discussion on gun control but not in the immediate aftermath of the shootings.

[ScottinVA]

Piss off, Harkin.

The libs are excitedly looking forward to the next massacre to say the same crap.

[Nowhere Man]

I guess the old geezer is still alive. I haven’t heard much of him after his 1984 Presidential bid.

[Paladin2]

The Feds need to use DC as a demonstration area to prove their ideas on eliminating violins by eliminating guns will work.

[FlingWingFlyer]

As long as the left keeps blaming the guns, the problem will never be fixed. Look at how well the liberals’ plan of blaming Bush for the economy 24/7/365 has worked out.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Little Tommy needs to step back, lighten up and hold his breath. For a long, long time.

[PubliusMM]

From the article: “Harkin, himself a hunter, pledged to defend basic gun rights but said the Second Amendment does not grant unlimited access to all guns, including semi-automatic assault rifles. Harkin said the purpose of such guns “is to kill a large number of people in seconds … they shouldn’t be out in the general populace.” “

Needless restrictions are already in place, from progressives and socialists tinkering with the system for a couple hundred years. We don’t need more attacks on the Second Amendment (or any other element of the US Constitution, for that matter).
We need to protect our children while we find ways of dealing with the seething anger and evil that walks the face of this earth.
As the NRA notes, we protect our money (banks) with armed guards. We protect a number of elected officials with armed guards. Many of the wealthy are protected by armed guards. Why are our CHILDREN any less important?
A good suggestion I saw a day or so back called for declaring a gun free zone for a five hundred foot radius around the President, and sending the Secret Service home. That would put him on an even footing with those school children in CT, and all over the country.
The tragedy demands action, but the proper action is not to further cut into the God given rights of the American people. Rather, we need to address the failings of the (leftist-driven) mental health industry, and the lack of effective security in our schools.

[VeniVidiVici]

Democrat 2d Amendment:

... the right of the criminals to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

[popdonnelly]

A dumb leftist like Harkin never gives up. And never admits they’re wrong.

[JPG]

Harkin didn't earn the moniker ‘Dung Heap’ for nothing.

[elcid1970]

Harkin lied about his nonexistent Vietnam service during the 1992 campaign & got called out for it. Been boring from within ever since. B@stard.

[Prospero]

Harkin is a communoid. “We do not hear his words.”

[Terry L Smith]

We have had ‘gun control’, since the now-dead drunken Senator from Harvard first foisted this idea on the American People in 1968!

Did it help stop that idiot at that college in Texas?
Did it stop the idiot that shot Reagan?
Did it stop the idiot that shot Gifford?
Did it stop the idiot known as Son of Sam?
Did it stop the idiot that shot John Lennon?
Did it stop the idiot that shot Robert Kennedy?

Has it stopped ANYONE, unnamed for too much to type, after THAT gun control bill was passed?????

It is NOT about ‘gun control’, it is about those that either buy, or are afforded legal protection details by state or federal law, disarming the rest of us.

IS THAT CONSTITUTIONAL???

[KeyLargo]

Dear friends of the Second Amendment,

Many throughout the U.S. have believed, incorrectly, that President Obama had "no position" on gun control, that he was "neutral", or somehow took a "reasonable" view toward our fundamental Second Amendment rights. No matter what your views prior to the recent tragedy in Newtown, there can no longer be any doubt.

In a recent press conference, the President stated, “This is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside … This is a team that has a very specific task: to pull together real reforms, right now.”

It's doesn't take a political science degree to understand what that means. His message is clear: 'it's time to ban guns.' What kind of "reforms" does the President have in mind?

Backing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's proposed ban on the most common semi-automatic firearms in the United States, including the AR-15 platform modern sport utility rifle

Banning the standard-capacity magazines that protect our families in our homes and while lawfully carrying in dangerous urban areas

Making firearms purchases virtually impossible for those who don't live near federally-licensed dealers by prohibiting all private sales of firearms

Demanding that Congress approve his anti-gun choice to lead the BATFE

https://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-vice-president-biden-representatives-and-senators-oppose-all-legislation-banning-guns-ammunition-or-magazines

[EdReform]

Piss on your guncontrol laws. You WILL NOT disarmus. NO COMPROMISE!