Posted on 03/08/2008 8:33:52 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Paul Helmke’s mind is filled with stories about gun violence.
The former Fort Wayne mayor can talk about the first time he struggled with the idea of guns, when as a North Side High School student he turned on the news to find a friend from grade school had been accidentally shot in the back. The current president of the non-profit Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence talks about a Fort Wayne police recruit killed in 1987 by a training officer because he didn’t know the gun was loaded.
That happened one month before Helmke took office in 1988, but Helmke remembers that after he became mayor, a minister’s son was shot in the head in a drive-by while waiting outside a YMCA to be picked up from piano lessons. He can speak about a Chicago mother whose 9-year-old daughter was killed at a birthday party by someone who drove by and sprayed the house with bullets.
“The stories are heart-wrenching, and it’s clear that we have a problem,” Helmke said.
Helmke was at Indiana Tech in front of nearly 200 people Thursday night to share those stories and some theories on how the nation’s current gun control laws can be changed. He’s been president of the Brady campaign since 2006. The organization is named after President Reagan’s press secretary Jim Brady, who was shot and paralyzed during an assassination attempt on the president in 1981.
If the federal government would follow about four items on the Brady campaign’s agenda, Helmke thinks this country would see a decrease in gun violence within three years. Helmke said he’s not pro-gun and he’s not anti-gun, but he is for establishing rules so that guns can be owned by responsible people.
“It doesn’t make sense that it’s harder to buy Sudafed than it is to buy a gun,” Helmke said.
Helmke wants to implement more effective background checks for gun buyers; prohibit the sale of certain weapons to the general public; regulate the trafficking of illegal guns; and restrict the number of guns one person can buy at one time.
He encouraged those in the audience to talk with their legislators and elected officials and push them to move on these ideas.
“I don’t want to stay in this job forever,” Helmke said. “I want to get this problem solved.”
Vermont carry everywhere. There, solved.
Vac hoses??
If the current laws were enforced, we wouldn’t have so many problems. Why is he too stupid to realize this?
Helmke lives in a crap hole city and is frustrated because he can’t do anything to better the place. I know, let’s blame guns.
What an idiot ! As another post mentioned, time for a VT type of law !
““The stories are heart-wrenching, and it’s clear that we have a problem,” Helmke said.”
Drop dead, problem solved.
>>“It doesn’t make sense that it’s harder to buy Sudafed than it is to buy a gun,” <<
No, it shouldn’t be hard to buy either.
Well, Mr. Mayor, here's the problem with that. You have four items. Then next year, someone else has four items. The year after that, four more items.
Gosh, next thing you know we'll have 20,000 gun laws on the books.
Wait a minute ....
Helmke sure is the king of anecdotal evidence. If he knew somebody whom was hit by a spitball, he’d advocate univeral salivary gland removal. With idiots like this, we don’t need cartoons.
The statists cite misuse by a few as reason to deprive the entire population of access to tool,technology,medicine,knowledge,and freedom.
It is? Really?
Even if it was, this is the sort of irrational logic I can't stand from the gun grabbers.
California bans the outdoor game of lawn darts in an emotional knee-jerk reaction to a little girl being killed at a picnic, which allows the gun grabbers to hold a media event where they hold up a lawn dart in one hand and a rifle in another and claim "It doesn’t make sense that lawn darts are banned in California, but this rifle isn't!". Only an idiot would nod their head and believe it makes sense.
I agree that it doesn't make sense that lawn darts are banned, if that's what they mean, but I must point out that lawn darts aren't Constitutionally protected -- or heck, maybe they are since they're 'arms-like'. Of course, just because California has banned lawn darts doesn't mean that Nevada must also follow along in order to preserve whatever increase in peace and safety to Sunday picnics that Californians think they've legislated into existence.
If I were to see a California legislator bemoan the fact that lawn darts are still available right over the border in Nevada to anyone walking into a sporting goods shop and asking for a set, I'd just shrug.
I hate when Wal Mart calls the FBI and I get delayed for 3 days when I order sudafed. I really hate it when I buy multiple packs of sudafed and YET another form has to be sent to our sheriff, who dutifully calls a few days later asking why I bought multiple boxes.
ASSHATS!!!! ALL OF THEM!
I don't know about that but I purchased a pistol yesterday first I had to show my CCW permit,then fill out a page and a half questionnaire include my SS number address, birthplace,age,and answer stupid questions about my legal status then show my drivers license for further proof and wait while they called my info in to state agency for approval before I was able to walk out with my gun.
What is the interesting adjective here?
Hint: (he is for establishing rules so that guns can be owned by responsible people)
NB: All gun legislation makes exception for law enforcement
Be forced to jump through some stupid hoops to buy Sudafed just because criminals might use it to make drugs. Be forced to wait ten days to get a gun and die after your ex says he/she is on the way over to kill you and the cops say call us if anything happens, just because criminals might use a gun to commit a crime.
I hate liberals.
Michael Frazier
With idiots like Helmke, it's easy to see why we need the 2nd Amendment.
Michael Frazier
Not going there...uh-uh, not gonna do it...
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