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.

The Gun Control Debate Tackles First Vote

Kennedy Prewitt

Gun Control Debate in the Senate

The Senate voted 68 to 31, according to this article, to allow this debate to continue. Many spectators believe that prohibiting guns and the selling of guns will solve the problem of these random shootings. The Senate is thinking about doing the opposite. The are in the works of coming up with a bill for gun control, but it is still up in the air on what the bill will say about gun control. This article is speculating that the Senate will put less restrictions on guns. This is not what the families of the victims of any mass shootings want to hear.
My opinion is that loosening or tightening the gun laws is not going to stop some people from trying to get a gun. Either way the Senate votes and whatever the bill says in a couple of months, people will be upset by it. Many people also believe that if the Senate doesn't do something soon people will forget what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary.

Kennedy Prewitt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gun-rights-advocates-see-senate-debate-as-an-opportunity-to-weaken-current-law/2013/04/12/c43c5290-a38a-11e2-be47-b44febada3a8_story.html
http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/11/senate-ready-to-launch-gun-control-debate/

Media hides the truth

There are horrible stories floating around the media about guns for example the Georgia baby killer. A 17 year old boy and his partner just the age of 14 were arrested for shooting a 13 month baby in the face with a hand gun. The reason you may ask was for just some money, yes the only motive was to get some pocket change from the mother. Unfortunately she had nothing on her so the boy named De'Marquise Elkins turned the gun on the baby and shot him in the face after already shooting the mother in the left leg. Now the media is trying to connivence everyone that if guns were outlawed that this would of never happened. That statement alone is false; the boy is 17 so he already proses a gun illegally so outlawing guns won't stop criminals from buying them. It would only help them know that innocent  people have nothing to protect themselves with. The media only shows the bad and shocking stories of how guns are bad but under the cover we find double the stories that counteract that. There are more stories of guns saving lives then destroying them. For example there was a man in Rockwall Texas who saved a women from her angry ex boyfriend from being shot down. The reason was that the man who saved her was carrying a concealed weapon which he used to stop the ex boyfriend in his tracks. Another story was the Oregon Gun Owner Stops Clackamas Shooting Spree, Proving Guns Save Lives. The media only showed the bad of this story and have no credit to 22-year-old Nick Meli who stopped the murder from killing 29 people. If Nick Meli didn't have a concealed  hand gun then those 29 lives in clouding  himself would have been dead. So remember guns don't kill people, people kill people. And you can't always believe the media for they hide the  positive and flaunt the evil in the world, but don't get me wrong the media is very important to the world but they just need to focus more on the truth instead of viewer ranks. 

Anna Dignam 

Congress May Be Late

       According to this article, Congress may have been too late to make a move on gun control. Since all of the recent shootings interest in gun laws have dropped. The article continues to say that when Congress does introduce a new gun law, they will not have as much support as they did when the shootings first happened. Some Congress men have started to make a movement on restraining guns in their states, but are worried that people will protest them. The Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that killed 20 children and 6 adults has sparked this new idea to control guns in the United States.
     
In the photo to the right is Gabby Giffords, former Representative of Arizona, who was shot in the head at a rally. Giffords made a miraculous recovery and she has since resigned as Representative but is involved the gun control debate.
-Kennedy






http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/politics/gun-control-polls
http://www.ryot.org/gabby-giffords-makes-impassioned-plea-on-gun-control/64734

3/31/13 - This morning on NBC's Meet The Press the roundtable 
-Kennedy