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.
Go rogue.
Be very careful. I said the same things about Obamacare and now I’m looking for a new line of work.....
If you paid them as well as they do, you could keep your guns too.
As I remind anyone who has an opinion on Gun Control, along with Puppies and German Children, Hitler loved Gun Control.
It's line in the sand time...
They can start by INDICTING Eric Holder for the AG and ATF gun running via fast and furious
Aanything to take the heat off of NO JOBS NO GROWTH and a recession
Those of you who think Republicans are no better than Democrats ought to pay close attention to this issue.
Those of you who think Republicans are no better than Democrats ought to pay close attention to this issue.
If Nazi Pelozi were Speaker of the House, the gun grabbing legislation would already be on the desk of Obamugabe.
Poor old ignorant fool Joe. he fell for it. Hook line and sinker.
It's very obvious that the process from before the blood at Newtown dried that the plan of attack was to go full-force and move rapidly to shove as much of their disarmament plan down the public's throats as they can before election time.
Dems have proven in the past they are willing to sacrifice their offices (and each other) to further their cause, knowing that the chance of the gutless Republicans to reverse their laws, once enacted, are about zip.
It's very obvious that the process from before the blood at Newtown dried that the plan of attack was to go full-force and move rapidly to shove as much of their disarmament plan down the public's throats as they can before election time.
Dems have proven in the past they are willing to sacrifice their offices (and each other) to further their cause, knowing that the chance of the gutless Republicans to reverse their laws, once enacted, are about zip.
What has Obama lost on?
He got the health care law, he got higher taxes.
The GOP seems to not be willing to make a stand.
And if Mitt had won it would be law already.
Remember, he signed a weapons ban and gay marriage into law.
Horse crap. Mitt’s positions in the campaign were clear. Hey, go ahead and work for a Democrat Congress if you like.
I will stand for fighting Pelosi, Reid, and Obama...even if that means sometimes having to support mere mortals.
Newsweak is gone; the others can’t die-off fast enough to suit me.
“How did a Dem get the chair of a special House gun-grabbing committee? “
The Dem didn’t. But the Republicans under the leadership of that militant activist John Boehner have decided to become wall flowers in the House.
We see even now how the Republicans are being pro-active on this issue. They’ll wait for some draconian proposals from the Democrats and then choose to react to them by settling for the “less” draconian measures or just simply crying UNCLE.
The Democrats are going to run the House from a minority status.
The GOP needs to get out and beat the drums on the issue of JOB LOSSES— if these 120 guns are banned, how many thousands of American jobs will be lost?
Between the manufacturers, the suppliers, gun stores, etc., the jobs lost by shutting down the firearms industry could be devastating to the economy. The House GOP could be heroes instead of goats...touting the jobs they’ve saved by killing the gun bans.
Good catch, thankx. Yeah, liberals like to do that across the board. "Frontal" politics goes back to the 19th century. "The united voice of the Whole People demands ....!" And bushwah, bushwah, bushwah.
Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court, because they knocked down his National Recovery Act.
Let's hope Barky overreaches the same way. I.e., unsuccessfully.
We need a task force to examine un-American activities within this administration.
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