Posted on 01/05/2013 10:00:43 AM PST by pabianice
President Obama announces he is appointing Vice President Joe Biden to craft new policies within the next month to curb gun violence.President Obama announces he is appointing Vice President Joe Biden to craft new policies within the next month to curb gun violence. 0
The White House and gun control supporters are gearing up for a whirlwind month, with plans to pass reform legislation before outrage over the Sandy Hook massacre has a chance to fade.
While the fiscal cliff has dominated Washington’s attention in recent weeks, lawmakers and activists are laying the groundwork for their big push. Vice President Joe Biden, tasked with heading a commission to investigate gun violence, has been quietly meeting with experts, interest groups, and public officials and is expected to release a set of recommendations within weeks. Boston mayor Thomas Menino, co-chair of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the Boston Herald this week that an optimistic Biden had assured him that Obama would sign legislation “by the end of January.”
“We had been led to believe their report would come by end of January, but we’re hearing they may want to have something out by January 15, even quicker than expected,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told TPM.
House Democrats are moving ahead with their own plans as well. On Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the newly created Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the appointment of 12 vice chairs, including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the body’s leading voice on gun control. According to a Democratic aide, the group plans to release its recommendations in early February and is already organizing public hearings on the issue.
Obama has personally identified an assault weapons ban and limits on ammunition magazine size as top priorities. Other possible reforms could include background check requirements for purchases at gun shows, a loophole that’s helped create a huge market of off-record arms purchases.
Pro-gun groups have dominated Congress in recent years and, while lawmakers approved by the National Rifle Association have mostly kept their heads down in recent weeks, any legislation could face an difficult path to passage, or even a vote, especially in the Republican-led House.
Glaze said his group would work hard to build public support, hosting local events with various mayors, dozens of whom will descend on Washington later this month for The United States Conference of Mayors winter gathering.
Gun violence survivors are also planning trips to lobby lawmakers to support legislation. Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in 2011, could play a prominent role in that regard: on Wednesday she met with Bloomberg in New York and on Friday traveled to Newtown to comfort families who lost loved ones in the attack there.
But Glaze acknowledged the NRA has long held an advantage not only in its cash resources, but in its large and active grassroots membership, which has rallied in the past to whip members of Congress against gun control bills. For gun control advocates, they’ll have to offer a compelling case that lawmakers who squelch reforms will pay a price in the midterm elections and that means building their own active network of supporters. Glaze is confident they can do so, citing recent polls showing restrictions on extended ammunition clips and an expansion of background checks to be popular nationally.
“The broad solutions are there and if Congress doesn’t act I think theyre going to be digging themselves further into a big hole,” he said.
The Brady Campaign, the gun control group founded by former Ronald Reagan press secretary Jim Brady, is also expected to play a role in promoting legislation, but it’s an open question whether they can compete with the NRA’s experienced leadership. TPM reached out to the group’s staff in recent days for information on its plans, but received no response.
Can we please settle this once and for all? Several news reports say that he did:
In Newtown, in addition to the Bushmaster M-4 carbine, two handguns were found at the scene, a 10-millimeter Glock and a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer, although the rifle is what Mr. Lanza used, pumping up to 11 bullets into each victim’s body, according to the medical examiner. All three guns belonged to his mother, officials said.
Dr. Carver said it appeared that all of the children had been killed by a “long rifle” that Mr. Lanza was carrying; a .223 Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle was one of the several weapons police found in the school. The other guns were semiautomatic pistols, including a 10-millimeter Glock and a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer.
According to the state's chief medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver, many of the victims were shot multiple times with the same "long weapon"—the Bushmaster rifle.
The Regime is after total disarmament!
Be Ever Vigilant!!
En masse.
“Epic fail is on the way.”
Yes, but what is behind this smokescreen he is pushing out there?
...If you want to kill as many people as possible and you have two pistols, a shotgun and an AR-15 with several loaded magazines, which weapon are you going to use?....
It is unclear if he had an AR 15, why no real PR Releases from the PD? Newsflash, if he left the shotgun in the trunk maybe he went in with the pistols hidden under a coat and carrying a rifle or shotgun would have given people advance warning that is why he might have used the pistols and planned to return for other weapons...Did anyone see im carrying an AR 15? Did they call police? When did first call come in where are the 911 tapes?
keep jumping to conclusions without evidence, your liberal side is showing.
It is clear. He did. Please see my reply #121.
maybe clear to you, I want to see facts not news reports. I cannot believe anything coming from MSM or this corrupt administration
Talking Points Memo (TPM) is a publication in New York. Senate bills will be introduced on January 22nd.
I support a bill to require every teacher in America to get firearms training and carry a sidearm while on school property. Those who refuse should be suspended pending psychatric treatment for Hoplophobia.
I’m remembering thinking there was no way the usurper would be reelected, given all I was seeing...
More jobs than people will be “killed” by gun control.
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