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On Wednesday, former US Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), two years after she was shot in the head and critically wounded in a mass shooting in Arizona, surprised lawmakers when she testified during a US Senate hearing on gun violence in America. Speaking slowly and deliberately, on Wednesday, Giffords told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Too many children are dying… we must do something. It’ll be hard, but the time is now, you must act. Be bold, be courageous, Americans are counting on you”. This was the committee’s first hearing since last month’s shooting massacre at a Connecticut elementary school left 20 children and 6 adults dead. Giffords and her husband, former cosmonaut Mark Kelly, have become two of the leading advocates in America on the issue of gun safety, forming a group called Americans for Responsible Solutions, which calls for universal background checks for gun buyers and limits on high capacity ammunition magazines. Kelly also testified at the hearing, saying, “We aren’t here as victims, we’re speaking to you here today as Americans. … When dangerous people get dangerous guns, we’re all the more vulnerable.”
Also testifying at Wednesday’s hearing was the head of the powerful American gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), Wayne LaPierre. He told lawmakers that new proposals to ban assault weapons and increase background checks were not going to solve the problem of gun violence, saying, “Let’s be honest. Background checks will never be universal, because criminals will never submit to them”. LaPierre also called for stricter enforcement of current gun laws, pointing up, “violent felons, gang members and the mentally ill who possess firearms aren’t being prosecuted. That’s unacceptable”.
US President Barack Obama called for new gun control legislation, including banning military-style assault weapons, requiring background checks on all gun purchases, and outlawing ammunition magazines with more than 10 rounds. US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation banning the sale and manufacture of more than 150 types of semiautomatic weapons, as well as limiting ammunition magazines to ten rounds.
30 January 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/world/20130130/179130099/Too-Many-Children-Are-Dying-Critically-Injured-US-Lawmaker.html
Editor’s Note:
Isn’t that an oddbod argument for the NRA to use? “Let’s not have a law because the criminals won’t follow it”… that’s sheer bonkers and we deserve to laugh it out of court out-of-hand. We need robust gun laws, with especial attention paid to enforcement in the south and southwest, where scofflaws would be most common (that’s where most gun nutters and rightwing kooks are). At the same time, we should preserve the rights of the rural population and registered hunters to appropriate firearms (who ever heard of a mass shooting carried out with a shotgun or hunting rifle?). We can do it… we’ve allowed the rightwing gun nutters to run rampant for too long. Second Amendment be damned… its purpose was to provide for a well-regulated militia to protect the state and society (to keep national defence in the hands of citizen-soldiers, not standing “volunteer” mercenary forces, as is being done today), not provide a rationale for potty nutters to have access to whatever weapons their pointy little heads desired.
BMD
USA: 5-Year-Old Boy Shoots and Kills 2-Year-Old Sister in Kentucky
Tags: .22 Long Rifle, Gun control, Gun law, gun violence, guns, Kentucky, Kentucky State Police, National Rifle Association, NRA, political commentary, politics, Rifle, right-wing, United States, USA, weapons
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An official source said that a Kentucky mother stepped outside of her home just for a few minutes, but it was long enough for her 5-year-old son to accidentally shoot and kill his 2-year-old sister with the 22-calibre rifle he got for his birthday. Kentucky State Police Trooper Billy Gregory said that the shooting in southern Kentucky was ruled an accident, saying, “It’s just one of those nightmares, a quick thing that happens when you turn your back”. He added that parents in the area often introduce young children to guns at an early age, noting, “In this part of the country, it’s not uncommon for a 5-year-old to have a gun or for a parent to pass one down to their kid”.
2 May 2013
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05_02/US-5-year-old-boy-shoots-and-kills-2-year-old-sister/
Editor’s Note:
Do mark it down that the NRA is silent about such “accidents”. To put it plainly, no five-year-old should have untrammelled access to weapons. It speaks much of the parents, doesn’t it? Reflect on this… most people of such ilk are loud and aggressive sectarian “Christians”. I hasten to add that real Christians don’t do or believe in such tomfoolery. However, that’s not what society hears, is it? Marching in pro-life marches and giving kids guns, all at once… that’s NOT very “pro-life” at all, is it?
BMD