The Senate on Wednesday rejected a bipartisan plan to expand background checks for gun buyers, dealing a crippling blow to President Barack Obama's campaign to curb gun violence after the Newtown school massacre.Despite emotional pleas from families of victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings and broad public support nationwide, the plan to extend background checks to online and gun-show sales failed on a 54-46 vote, six short of the 60-vote hurdle needed to clear the Senate."All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington," an angry Obama said of the vote, adding the effort "is not over." Political momentum for new gun-control laws had dissipated after December's shooting. Opponents criticized the proposals as government overreach that would infringe on the constitutional right to bear arms, and the NRA mounted a strong lobbying effort against it. 
Anna 

Blog Response Questions

1. My group and I experienced the project feeling very accomplished and more resourceful. As we are completing the project we feel like we have researched more into our topic gun control and have become more knowledgeable from our research for our blog. We all jumped right into the blog, but sometimes I felt that I (Kennedy) had difficulty getting into the blog only because my partners had better knowledge of gun control than I did.

2. Overall, I believe our group was happy with our topic of gun control and gun rights. Our topic was a hot topic of debate in the news just about the entire time we blogged, so we had a lot of information.

3. The most intriguing aspect of our topic we talked about was all of the information we got from Congress' debate and all of the opinion's of the people of the USA. This is the case because we had plenty of sources to go off of and a ton of media coverage over the gun control debate.

4. A central idea of our blog is to get stories out so people can form an opinion about gun control and gun rights. The theme of our blog is gun control and gun rights, more recently all of the shootings.

5. We have learned from this project that to get things done, we need to divide the work to get more done. Also we learned to work ahead so we do not have to worry about getting our blog in on time.

6. The most enjoyable part of this project was to everyone's personal opinion about our topic. We were all honest about what we thought about gun control and gun rights. We never argued over our opinions because we all respected our partner's personal thoughts.

7. The most difficult part of this project was finding appropriate videos and pictures. This was the most difficult because we wanted to respect everyone's view and did not want to offend anyone.

Gun Control Rection

-Kennedy
http://news.yahoo.com/video/gun-control-vote-reaction-032708443.html

With all the recent news of the Senate's debate and vote over new gun control laws, we have forgotten one important thing. The victims' families. They want justice for their loved ones. All of the shootings that have happened in our country, especially the most recent ones need justice. Personally I think the government should put some type of restraint on who and how guns are handled so it can lessen any terrible events. I know some of my co-bloggers would feel different but we need to come up with some kind of control so this does not happen again. I understand some people have guns to protect themselves but if a gun gets into the wrong hands, it's very dangerous. People need to think before they act. Guns aren't toys and should be handled with the utmost care. Since it took Congress awhile to decide what they were going to do, the public have slowly forgot about this problem we have in our country. We need to keep them in mind during these debates and until Congress reaches a decision.
-Kennedy

Photo Credit: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/24/poll-less-than-half-of-americans-upset-about-senate-gun-vote/

Agree or disagree?

       As of yesterday, April 17, 2013, the Senate decided that they were refusing tighter background checks those who buy firearms and also they are not going to ban assault weapons, despite the efforts put forth by the families of those who were affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Another proposal to loosen restrictions on concealed weapons carried across state lines also was not accepted. The biggest concern was that of the background checks because the people think that having tighter background checks for those who buy firearms will stop gun violence when in reality that is not necessarily true because those regulations would only fall in effect for those who buy firearms from only federally licensed dealers, and those potential assailants ever rarely buy from licensed dealers, so in order for that to remotely work, those regulations would have to extend out to those buying firearms on the Internet and even those buying guns at gun shows. I personally think that those regulations should be placed on background checks because I think that would cut down significantly on people buying guns that shouldn't be. Every person is entitled to their right of wanting to protect themselves and I think only those who are mentally and emotionally balanced and capable of owning a gun should. Below is the article that discussions all of the voting issues that occurred during this proposal and all of the arguments set forth by the senate and the citizens.

 

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/04/gun-control-2013-senate-rejects-gun-control-measure--87654.html 

WASHINGTON -- It could last several weeks, but family members of victims and survivors of gun violence are planning to hold a round-the-clock vigil on Capitol Hill until the Senate passes gun policy reform.Demonstrations, spearheaded by allied progressive groups and faith-based organizations, have already precede ended  the senate vote  Thursday to allow a bill to enter debate and amendment period. Over 32 hours and 40 minutes, volunteers read the names of individuals killed in firearm-related instances since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December.Now that the Senate has begun debating the bill, which includes a compromise on expanding the background check system, the demonstration will begin again. Starting when the Senate reconvenes on Monday and continuing until senators vote on the final passage of a bill, volunteers will once again read the names of gun violence victims, regardless of time or weather.Arkadi Gerney, who is running the "NoMoreNames" vigil for the Center for American Progress, acknowledged that the action could go on for weeks. The amend-and-debate process is expected to feature a number of contentious items, and each could mean prolonged consideration and difficult vote gathering.Demonstrators, nevertheless, will be on the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill reading the names of victims in 20-minute shifts. Guerney said there will be several prominent figures participating. Eddie Weingart, who witnessed his mother being shot and killed by her ex-husband when he was just two-and-a-half years old, will lead the vigil.Groups participating in No more names include the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Coalition To Stop Gun Violence, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, chapters of Million Mom March, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Newtown Action Alliance, PICO National Network, Project to End Gun Violence, Protest Easy Guns, and Sojourners.

Anna 

Brianna Nunez: Check Before You Sell

In New York times on April 11, 2013, repoters found a way that people can get guns off the internet illegaly. A woman named Zina Haughton, 42, put a reatraining order on her ex-husband. She had told reporters that his being threaten her every moment. With the restraining order he was unable to purchise any gun, but he found a loophole from a friend who had told him about buying one off the internet. Going by this certain website they were not obliged to do a background check on Haughton's ex-husband. This is how he was able to buy a $500 dollar gun in a parking lot. He then later went to the spa that his ex-wife worked at and shot her until he killed her and two other employes, he then killed himself. I'm not saying to deny everyone from buying a gun, but every business should do a bacground check that tells them who can purches a gun or not.