Posted on 01/11/2011 9:04:15 PM PST by Second Amendment First
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is rejecting gun-control legislation offered by the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in response to the weekend shootings of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others in Arizona.
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) announced plans Tuesday to introduce legislation prohibiting people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of members of Congress.
King, who has previously called for the removal of illegal guns from the streets, made the announcement alongside New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation’s loudest voices for stricter gun laws.
King said the legislation is not intended only for the safety of government officials but also to protect the public. He said elected officials are not necessarily more important than constituents, but by protecting them in this way, they would feel safer in meeting federal officials at public events.
“The fact is they do represent the people who elect them, and it’s essential, if we’re going to continue to have contact, that the public who are at these meetings are ensured of their own safety,” King said.
King’s legislation got the cold shoulder from Boehner and other Republicans after it was announced.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said the Speaker would not support King’s legislation.
The office of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the majority leader is reserving judgment until the King bill is finalized.
“Mr. Cantor believes it’s appropriate to adequately review and actually read legislation before forming an opinion about it,” Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring stated in an e-mail.
The immediate rejection of King’s legislation by Boehner illustrates the difficulty gun-control advocates will face in moving forward with any legislation.
Even Capitol Hill’s most ardent gun reformers don’t anticipate any changes to the nation’s gun laws will be forthcoming in the 112th Congress. They say the combination of a GOP-led House and the powerful gun lobby is simply too formidable to take on over an issue that’s become a proverbial third rail of Washington politics.
“Anything you can get through the gun lobby is going to have little consequence,” Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a longtime supporter of tightening Second Amendment restrictions, said in a phone interview. “I don’t see the likelihood of much progress — I don’t see much hope.”
Aside from King’s proposal, longtime gun-control advocates Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) are working on legislation to prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines like those allegedly used by Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old college dropout who’s been charged in the Arizona rampage.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers say the public debate about whether incendiary punditry helped ignite the Arizona rampage has overshadowed the more important role that mental health played in the deadly shooting.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said the sometimes violence-laced remarks from Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and other political commentators should be toned down, but were likely not the impetus for the shooting spree.
“Whether you blame them or any of those things on what happened, I don’t think is the issue,” Brown said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Rather, the reportedly erratic behavior of Loughner should have raised red flags about his mental health, Brown said — flags that might have led to treatments that could have prevented the tragic shootings.
“The mental health issues here haven’t been talked about much. We don’t really have much of a mental health safety net in this country. You know, there’s almost nobody watching today,” Brown said.
Although Loughner’s behavior reportedly set off enough alarms that he was expelled from community college and denied entrance into the military, he had no problems buying a hand gun from a local sporting goods store in November .
“This young man should have been [red-flagged] when he was thrown out of that community college,” Brown said. “The mental health safety net’s pretty shredded in Arizona, as it is nationally.”
King’s proposal perplexed some members of Congress, who wondered how it would be implemented because members are so mobile and often encounter individuals without knowledge that a congressional event is taking place.
“I think my concern would be, how do you put a 1,000-foot bubble around a member of Congress and what are you going to do about judges and Cabinet secretaries?” asked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). “If you get past the logistics of it, it would seem to have a ripple effect throughout the upper echelons of appointed and elected officials.”
A spokesman for the National Rifle Association, Andrew Arulanandam, said this week that it would be “inappropriate” for the group to comment on potential reforms so soon after the tragedy.
It isn't just the democrats taking away our freedom people.
It's time to see what the newly elected members of congress think about this.
KneeJerk reactions is no way to govern a country. Especially a country that prides itself on its freedom.
Good going, guys. Keep standing firm for The People.
Way to go John! Put a decisive end to this knee-jerk BS from weak and ineffective leaders.
>>Good going, guys. Keep standing firm for The People.<<
Big time “Dittos”!
Bless him.
Bless him.
How about a bill to outlaw Communist moonbats ?
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
What a stupid, stupid, stupid piece of legislation.
This wasn’t a Muslim attack on some worthless soldiers (like at Ft Hood.)
This was an attack on the Ruling Class!
Don’t you ungrateful peasants understand that?
/sarc
(We’re about to find out just how conservative the new Congress is.)
It is already against the law to shoot people, including politicians. Adding the 1000 ft barrier isn’t going to do anything more.
If a perp is determined to commit an act, a law of 5 ft or 5000 ft isn’t going to matter.
Rep King is just trying to jump on the political bandwagon.
Let’s just make demon possession a felony.
Um, pardon me for stating the obvious but... If the guns you are worried about removing are already "illegal guns from the streets..." then how is passing another law going to help? By making them "more illegal" ??? Maybe double-secret-probation illegal? {snort}
Instead of more laws that turn more Americans into outlaws, how about concentrating on the actual criminals themselves. Firearms don't just jump up and do bad things all on their own. Instead of coddling criminals and worrying about their right to 24x7 cable, air-conditioning, unlimited exercise equipment, etc. etc. lets make prison as unpleasant as possible and an actual deterrent to crime.
As for King, he needs to get his head right.
I am optimistic (cautiously) that Boehner said this. Hopefully not tearing up.
I hope he stands firm on this. I think we need to pray that God puts good strong, sound-minded people around Boehner and help him stand hard and fast against the libs and the press. I would rather not have to keep referring to him as “No Balls”, I would rather refer to him as “Big Balls” Boehner.
What happens when a member of Congress visits a shooting range?
Banning law abiding citizens from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of the feds will guarantee that the only people who may carry near the feds WILL be either criminals or loonies.
Roving, random felon bubbles.
Logistically impossible. Not feasible. You can’t just unknowingly be turned into felons because someone else gets close to you and you don’t know they’re within 1000 feet of you.
As my chef buddy said, “FORK THAT!”
This asshole has gone over to the dark side.
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