President Obama announced Wednesday he will ask Congress to pass legislation requiring universal background checks for anyone attempting to buy a gun, restore a ban on military-style assault weapons, and limit magazines to seven bullets.
What do you think of the president's proposals? Tell us in the comments section below.
Obama also said he will sign 23 executive orders to enhance background checks, give mental health professionals more options for reporting threats of violence, and providing additional funds to schools to hire 1,000 school resource officers.
He also called for training to help teachers identify the signs of mental illness, and research into any links between violent images in video games and media and in real life.
Repeatedly mentioning mass shootings in Newtown, Conn.; Clackamas, Ore.; and Aurora, Colo., Obama said significant enhancements in gun control will come only if people from all parts of the country—including current gun owners—support the changes.
"We have to examine ourselves and our hearts, and ask ourselves, what is important?" he said. "This will not happen unless the American people demand it.”
Locally, Senator Leland Yee (D-San Mateo) has commended both President Obama and Vice President Biden "for their swift action and common sense measures to reduce gun violence."
"As the President said, it is our first task as a society and our top responsibility as a nation to care for our children and to keep them safe," Yee said. "In California, we are prepared to do that by strengthening our state laws and eliminating loopholes in our assault weapon ban."
Yee’s SB 47 will prohibit the use of the bullet button and other devices that allow for easily changeable magazines on all military-style assault weapons, such as AR-15s. Under SB 47, featured weapons would only be allowed to have low capacity (10-round) ammunition magazines that could not be changed without dissembling the weapon.
Essentially, bullets could only be loaded one-by-one from the top of the gun.
More details on Obama's proposals can be found in the attached PDF or on a new White House website dedicated to the topic.
There will be background checks for every gun buyer and there should be liability insurance as a condition of sale, publicly and privately. Assault weapons are called that because they have NOTHING to do with defense. They have no place in a supposedly advanced, civilian society. Stop the macho posturing. And the compensating. Protect children, not guns.
There are simple written personality tests that are well recognized and able to flag possible psychos. They could easily be read by computers and kick out likely "unstable" persons who would then have to be looked at more carefully before allowed to purchase a gun. It wouldn't be perfect but at lease it could stop some of these horrific crimes.
Millions of what are called "assault rifles" have been sold in the US. Only .001% have been used in crimes. 99.999% of people buy them for home defense, hunting, target practice, not to commit a crime. Regular handguns are used to kill far more often. Look at the 100's of children being murdered in Oakland every year. So if people are really serious about stopping gun violence why target a weapon that is rarely used?
We don't have gangs running around with $1000 assault rifles shooting up neighborhoods. Most crimes are committed with cheap $100 illegal handguns. Just look at Oakland for an example. 100's of children killed there mostly with handguns right in our back yard. Going after the type of weapon isn't the problem. We need stiffer penalties for anyone caught with a gun they are not supposed to have. We also need better background check to TRY and screen out crazy people. And close the gun show loophole.
Guns are too easy to access in this country. We have to do much better with diagnosis and treatment of the mentally ill. More guns is not the answer. The most paranoid/fearful people I know are the ones with the most guns.
A heavy Pacifica Police presence (the entire force??) seemed to be needed to insure that domestic tranquility didn't spill out of the parking lot and into the unarmed parts of Pacifica -- which begs the question - is KSFO paying for all this police time, and if not why not? This was KSFO's party on private property, surely they can afford rent-a-cops? Were these highly trained gun folk in danger of being attacked by peaceniks and placard waving grandmas - or perhaps there was a fear a fight might break out amongst them Hatfield and McCoys and sundry other hill folk? Inquiring minds want to know - how much did all the flag waving cost us?
Fort Hood – Registered Democrat – Muslim Columbine – Too young to vote – both families were registered democrats and progressive liberals VA Tech – Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff. Registered Democrat Colorado Theater – Registered Democrat, staff worker on the Obama campaign, occupy wall street participant, progressive liberal Connecticut School Shooter – Registered Democrat. Perhaps we should control the flow of guns to Democrats! lol. I'm kidding regarding this type of control but perhaps if your register Democrat you should have your brain examined to see if you are sane. ...pretty funny as I most folks around here link these last mass killings with folks who are very different then they are. News flash....you guys have a lot in common.
Listen Bhatman, while I've got you here, is there anything you do like other than yourself and doing compassionate deeds with other people's money? As an aside, I'll bet you that 99.9% of the attendees at today's NRA rally have more teeth than you do.
"Timothy McVeigh, domestic terrorist, registered Republican, NRA member, gun nut. In 1993, he drove to Waco, Texas during the Waco Siege to show his support. At the scene, he distributed pro-gun rights literature and bumper stickers, such as "When guns are outlawed, I will become an outlaw." He told a student reporter: For the five months following the Waco Siege, McVeigh worked at gun shows and handed out free cards printed up with Lon Horiuchi's name and address, "in the hope that somebody in the Patriot movement would assassinate the sharpshooter." He wrote hate mail to the sniper, suggesting that "what goes around, comes around," and later considered putting aside his plan to target the Murrah Building to target Horiuchi, or a member of his family instead.[25] McVeigh spent more time on the gun show circuit,[when?] traveling to 40 of the 50 states and visiting about 80 gun shows in all." Wikipedia
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/23/ca-school-district-buys-14-military-grade-weapons-to-defend-against-shootings/#.UQAq98pzhwM.twitter
Mark Mattioli on Monday in Hartford, Connecticut speaking in front of a gun violence task force. Mattioli receives a standing ovation at the end of his testimony in which he declares that more gun laws are not the solution--the massacres are only the "symptom" he says. (video) http://townhall.com/tipsheet/greghengler/2013/01/28/father-of-6yrold-sandy-victim-gives-powerful-testimony-the-problem-is-not-gun-laws-n1499689
"The Second Amendment!" was shouted a couple of times by as many as a dozen gun enthusiasts in the meeting room as Neil Heslin, holding a photo of his slain 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, asked why Bushmaster assault-style weapons are allowed to be sold in the state. "There are a lot of things that should be changed to prevent what happened," said Heslin, who said he grew up using guns and was undisturbed by the interruption of his testimony. "That wasn't just a killing, it was a massacre," said Heslin, who recalled dropping off his son at Sandy Hook Elementary school shortly before Lanza opened fire. "I just hope some good can come out of this." So do I. Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Father-of-Newtown-victim-heckled-at-hearing-4228992.php#ixzz2JL90inHD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDDNlOhFCbQ&feature=youtu.be
NB Publisher Bozell Slams MSNBC for Demonizing Gun Owners with Phony 'Heckler' Story Was Newtown Dad Neil Heslin Heckled at Hearing? Watch and Judge for Yourself (skip to 13:30 mark): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nvT9peqTM5E#!
You definitely didn’t hear about the pro gun rights testimony to state lawmakers by Newtown, Conn., resident Bill Stevens, whose daughter survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. No, the mainstream media only reported on the “more gun control” testimony of Neil Heslin, a victim’s dad, who wasn’t heckled by pro-gun activists as was broadly and falsely reported. Stevens absolutely slammed lawmakers over proposed gun control legislation and pointed out his right to bear arms was protected under both the Second Amendment and the Connecticut Constitution. He said that “right” was “inalienable and endowed by our creator, not you politicians.” Three cheers, sir! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uRpYHzWiU8s
If guns make us safer, the U.S. would be the safest developed nation in the world, since we have almost 300,000,000 guns--but as we know, our gun violence is much higher than most developed nations. Looking at our nation's gun violence problem, we see that the top five states with the highest gun violence have the highest gun ownership, the five states with the lowest gun violence have the lowest gun ownership. How does that square with "more guns make us safer"?
A comparative analysis of UK and US murder rates. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HCzCJzTRtPc Rising Voice of Gun Ownership Is Female: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/us/rising-voice-of-gun-ownership-is-female.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& British Want Their Guns Back : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mKdBxpKqUvs
After a school massacre, the U.K. banned handguns in 1998. A decade later, handgun crime had doubled. The results have not been what proponents of the act wanted. Within a decade of the handgun ban and the confiscation of handguns from registered owners, crime with handguns had doubled according to British government crime reports. Gun crime, not a serious problem in the past, now is. Armed street gangs have some British police carrying guns for the first time. Moreover, another massacre occurred in June 2010. Derrick Bird, a taxi driver in Cumbria, shot his brother and a colleague then drove off through rural villages killing 12 people and injuring 11 more before killing himself. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323777204578195470446855466.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRjxEAWwagc&feature=player_embedded
Country with highest murder rate has low gun ownership rate (at least if you believe the silly Small Arms Survey) If you believe the left wing, pro-gun control, error filed Small Arms Survey, Honduras had a well below average gun ownership rate in 2007 but a murder rate of 82 per 100,000. That is about 17 times greater than the US rate that year. Canada recently got rid of its costly "long-gun" registry for rifles in part because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Chiefs of Police could not provide a single example in which tracing was of more than peripheral importance in solving a gun murder.
March 2013 survey of police officers covered proposed legislation and attitudes about arming citizens SAN FRANCISCO – PoliceOne.com, the leading online resource for law enforcement, today released findings from a national survey of police professionals that provide insight into the opinions of American law enforcement regarding gun control policies and the root causes of and potential solutions to gun crime in the United States. The survey, which was conducted in early March 2013, received 15,000 responses from law enforcement professionals. It found that the overall attitude of law enforcement is strongly anti-gun legislation and pro-gun rights, with the belief that an armed citizenry is effective in stopping crime. Response percentages varied only slightly when analyzed by rank and department size. http://www.policeone.com/corporate-profile/press-releases/6188461-PoliceOne-com-Releases-Survey-of-15-000-Law-Enforcement-Professionals-about-U-S-Gun-Control-Policies/