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Fineman: Gun Control? Don't hold your breath.
Newsweek ^ | April 19, 2007 | Howard Fineman

Posted on 04/19/2007 12:30:20 PM PDT by xsrdx

The shooting spree in Virginia will trigger the usual round of calls for tighter restrictions on gun traffic. But politically, that dog likely won’t hunt, even now.

April 17, 2007 - I don’t know what I was thinking. It seemed to me that the gruesome tragedy at Virginia Tech might prompt a new wave of legislation—not just talk but legislation—to limit the sale of handguns in America. But a few calls and e-mails to people who know the politics of the issue led to a different conclusion: forget about it.

Whatever the rest of the world thinks, whatever Rosie O’Donnell thinks, whatever big city mayors, present and former, think—it remains unlikely that the murder of 32 innocents in Blacksburg will alter the basic guns-for-all equation of American life.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
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1 posted on 04/19/2007 12:30:23 PM PDT by xsrdx
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To: xsrdx
Virginia Tech is a Gun Free Zone...
2 posted on 04/19/2007 12:31:41 PM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: 2banana

Are these people stupid? the VT massacre should make MOST American’s realize that GUN CONTROL does not work....unless you know how to/and are allowed to/ CONTROL YOUR OWN GUN FREELY!


3 posted on 04/19/2007 12:33:58 PM PDT by goodnesswins (We need to cure Academentia)
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To: xsrdx

If anything, legislation is going in the opposite direction: Tennessee is passing a law allowing guns to be carried in public accomodations.


4 posted on 04/19/2007 12:35:09 PM PDT by BackInBlack ("The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.")
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To: xsrdx

This article makes me proud to be a member of the NRA.


5 posted on 04/19/2007 12:36:03 PM PDT by rob21 (Duncan Hunter 2008)
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To: xsrdx

Cars kill more each day than Cho killed.

Cars aren’t Constitutionally protected.


6 posted on 04/19/2007 12:36:38 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (the Prophet said, ‘If (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’ - HADITH Sahih Bukhari [4:52:260])
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To: 2banana
Virginia Tech is a Gun Free Zone.

Yeah, used to be. For at least the next 10 years, it's safe to say, some red-staters that attend will be "defense enabled"

7 posted on 04/19/2007 12:38:15 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: xsrdx
Whatever the rest of the world thinks, whatever Rosie O’Donnell thinks,...

When the finest minds you can put forward on this debate
can't win you ought to take a hint and just forget it.

8 posted on 04/19/2007 12:39:11 PM PDT by TigersEye (If you don't understand the 2nd Amendment you don't understand America.)
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To: xsrdx

Howie, Americans believe they should be able to defend themselves, rather than depend on the government, which clearly showed its limits in the VT case, huh? Properly understood, this tragedy should be the catalyst for a renewed push to repeal the antiselfdefense laws in place today. Shall issue concealed carry should be the law of the land - Atlantic to the Pacific. Disarming the good guys never was a good idea bud. That bad guys don’t give a rat about laws anyway. Further, it should be easier to put insane people in confinement. And yes, that will cost money, and no it won’t be pretty. Consider the alternatives Howie.


9 posted on 04/19/2007 12:39:36 PM PDT by RKV ( He who has the guns, makes the rules.)
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To: xsrdx
It seemed to me that the gruesome tragedy at Virginia Tech might prompt a new wave of legislation—not just talk but legislation—to limit the sale of handguns in America.

Hey Howard.

Virginia has laws to limit the sale of handguns, you can only buy one a month.

Obviously it doesn’t work.

10 posted on 04/19/2007 12:40:26 PM PDT by MAexile (Bats left, votes right)
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To: xsrdx

while I must admit I loathe this weasel of mice,I’ll bet he could not even hold a .22 pistol up high enuf to aim level. Hell this anemic spew probably has to work in shifts so his glasses don’t crush his face.


11 posted on 04/19/2007 12:45:46 PM PDT by advertising guy (If computer skills named us, I'd be back-space delete.)
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To: rob21

My husband renews my NRA membership every year for Christmas. Smart husband. Trusting husband!


12 posted on 04/19/2007 12:46:23 PM PDT by trimom
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To: xsrdx
As a result, Sabato said, access to guns is easy—as the shooter in Blacksburg demonstrated. "Hell, I’ve got a clean record, only a few traffic tickets, so I could go out to Clark Brothers"—a famous gun emporium that always does a brisk business.

This is the author's summation and the point he lays his thesis on. It is false. Cho did break the law when he purchased his guns. He had been deemed a danger to himself and others after court ordered phychiatric evaluation and prescribed an anti-depressant. The gun seller did nothing wrong in selling him guns though as this information was not available to him through the national database. HIPPA privacy laws prevented that info, which had legal implications, from going into the database.

Fineman shot his own point in the foot.

13 posted on 04/19/2007 12:56:50 PM PDT by TigersEye (If you don't understand the 2nd Amendment you don't understand America.)
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To: xsrdx

Hey Howard try this on for size. The victims never even had the OPTION to even try to defend themselves. Your sick thinking helped kill them. How do you feel now a$$wipe.


14 posted on 04/19/2007 1:05:27 PM PDT by beltfed308 (Rudy: When you absolutely,positively need a liberal for President.)
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To: 2banana

“Virginia Tech is a Gun Free Zone...”

The school was advertised as such...and the shooter just answered the ad! He KNEW he would meet no resistance.


15 posted on 04/19/2007 1:32:49 PM PDT by hophead ("Enjoy Every Sandwich")
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To: TigersEye

Cho did break the law when he purchased his guns. He had been deemed a danger to himself and others after court ordered phychiatric evaluation and prescribed an anti-depressant. The gun seller did nothing wrong in selling him guns though as this information was not available to him through the national database. HIPPA privacy laws prevented that info, which had legal implications, from going into the database.

They had the judge on TV that ordered his commitment and showed the actual forms. The checkbox “danger to others” was not checked and the judge indicated that nothing in his examination of the case suggested that the kid was a danger to others. He failed to check the box that would have gotten this kid into the database.

Aside from that does the federal form require self-disclosure? Doesn’t the form ask if you are a felon or have been committed to a mental health facility? In that case a crime was committed when he bought the gun.


16 posted on 04/19/2007 1:44:10 PM PDT by Belasarius (Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:2-7)
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To: Belasarius

You are better informed on the details than I am. I suppose that only a judge could have submitted that info to the database although Cho was deemed (as I understand it at this time) a danger to himself and others by the psychiatrist/psychologist. You are absolutely correct that he violated the law by not disclosing this info on the Fed form at the point of purchase. A private purchase would have avoided that violation or any requirement to file a form. I wouldn’t have that any other way either.


17 posted on 04/19/2007 2:09:35 PM PDT by TigersEye (Are your parents Pro-Choice? I guess you got lucky! ... Is your spouse? Your doctor?)
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To: TigersEye

All of my gun-control friends and family are making the most effective hay with this issue. Can you explain the HAPPA thing in more detail or give a link?


18 posted on 04/19/2007 3:02:47 PM PDT by NucSubs (Rudy Giuliani 2008! Our liberal democrat is better than theirs!)
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To: NucSubs
I'm afraid I'm not the one to give a detailed explanation of HIPPA. That is a federal law concerning patient privacy and confidentiality of medical records. Google might find you what you specifically want to know.

Your friends shouldn't be making any hay with this. VA Tech was a gun free campus. They took a student to court last year for legally carrying with a CCL on campus and won. The VA legislature made a law (or the VA courts ruled, I don't know which) that the university could ban guns on campus. They were quite proud and happy about it. They made sure no one could defend themselves.

Ask them if they could wave a wand and make all guns in the U.S. disappear and make them illegal how many weeks would it take for the black market to bring a million guns back in? And who would have them all then? Only criminals and they would know that no one BUT criminals had them.

I don't know if that would faze them but that's what I think of asking them. There is also the issue of not hospitalizing the insane as we used to. I don't know the details of that either but it was about 30 or 40 years ago and it regarded their civil rights not to be deprived of liberty against their will. That goes hand-in-hand with the privacy laws to prevent the courts and society from protecting ourselves from lunatics.

19 posted on 04/19/2007 3:27:42 PM PDT by TigersEye (For Democrats; victory in Iraq is not an option.)
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To: MAexile

The problem is not guns.


20 posted on 04/19/2007 4:00:08 PM PDT by virgil
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