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.
hee hee hee, plug is leading the charge??
No reason to yell at the operators. Get your name and number on the list. Numbers count in this application.
If it passes the Senate but not the House, could the Democrat Senate sit on it and wait for a Democrat House to approve it sometime in the future and send it up to zer0 or does the whole process have to start over?
I’ve changed my mind and I’m withholding judgement on what gun(s) were used by Lanza until I see an official report. Too many lies were spewed in a very short time.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/340113
See Pete Williams report. It contradicts the story that was promulgated later in the above link and here below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqpjJ6P-NSQ&feature=player_embedded#t=0s
“An EO to turn in guns would be ignored in mass.”
Such an EO would have to be DIRECTLY addressed by The People, one way or another, come what may.
Mark Levin said on his show this week, that even a legal statute passed by the US Senate and signed by pResident, can’t change the US Constitution. It would be challenged in the courts. Anyone else hear that, or did I mis-hear him?
Sure there is.
When they gather around for lunch and the topic of discussion is how angry the callers are, it gets back to the idiots that are supposed to represent us.
I won't be nice about this. Not ever. Try admonishing the bastards trying to take freedoms to be nice.
/johnny
That term is just for show and talking points. If you want to evaluate the "effectiveness" of a weapon you would not choose an AR for the weapon of choice. Did it work on defenceless children? Yes, unfortunately.
“He’s going to do this by executive order...”
That will be the spark that starts the conflagration.
Such an action would be illegal and unconstitutional which is exactly why I think he’ll do it. “We just can’t wait” for Congress to do this, right? owebama and his handlers are out of touch with the “high-information” voters and will miscalculate the resistance that this will cause. They probably don’t care either.
he is arrogant enough and vain enough to believe he can get away with it and he will have his left-stream media morons slobbering over him in adulation.
kill it in the house....kill it dead
It’s weird. They trotted out that medical examiner to proclaim that all the victims he examined had been shot multiple times with a long barrelled gun. Complete dog and pony show to drive home that one particular point. Then total silence. Nothing about the actual gun used, where it was found, number of magazines, rounds fired.....nothing.
This thing stinks to high heaven.
The ME’s presser said he used the .223 for all murders; handguns never used. The long gun in the trunk was a shotgun. I posted vid of cops racking-out shells.
My 12/29 post:
According to the ME’s presser, he used to AR-15 to do all the killings. They found another long gun in the trunk. Look at the shells being racked-out; looks like 12ga.
This article says he had the AR-15 and 2 handguns w/ him, and a shotgun was found in the car:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/16/at-least-26-dead-in-shooting-at-connecticut-school/
and
Here’s the vid of the long gun in the mother’s car’s trunk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLrxSgkqJQc
Now over 15,000. Drudge should be made aware of it. Less than 10,000 to go.
No, that simply cannot happen. Republicans control the House and therefore they have final say on every single piece of legislation. There is absolutely no Constitutional way for House Democrats to move any legislation through the House on ther own.
I certainly hope so. Obamacare was one of *the* most unpopular bills ever, but it was passed.
Not in Republican house, though.
If they cannot get it this time, they will be very discouraged.
ME’s (weird) presser, actually saying the long gun was used, and describing multiple wounds on 26 victims:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVLCSqoZYqY
Spot on.
1. He did not use the AR-15 to shoot the kids in Newtown.
The bulk of the evidence is that he did use the AR-15. There was early misreporting by the MSM.
Lots of reasons to mistrust the MSM and early reporting.
ditto here! Not raised with guns around. Never felt a need or thought much about owning a gun, but will be going out with an experienced friend to help me buy my first gun, mostly as a fight and resistence against these degenerates.
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