Tag Archives: guns

Republicans Vigorously Oppose Imaginary Obama Gun Proposals

by Myrna Posted on January 17, 2013

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Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) knew that President Barack Obama’s proposed ban on guns wouldn’t work, saying as much to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Wednesday night.

“What the President is proposing is problematic for a couple of reasons, but primarily because it doesn’t work…” Rubio said. “These ideas don’t work. It’s not just Chicago. Washington, DC had a very similar gun ban. And it didn’t work. In fact violent crime and murder and all these things skyrocketed in Washington during the time of those bans.”

There’s only one problem: Obama hasn’t proposed gun restrictions that resemble anything like those in Chicago or those that were overturned in Washington DC. It’s possible Rubio hadn’t actually looked at what the White House proposed before reacting. If so, he wouldn’t be the only Republican to make that mistake. Senator Rand Paul (R-Tenn.), speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, vowed to “nullify anything the president does that smacks of legislation,” adding that “there are several of the executive orders that appear as if he’s writing new law. That cannot happen.” Paul’s staff might want to inform him that Obama signed no executive orders Wednesday. He did sign several presidential memorandums directing relevant agencies to alter their behavior regarding gun tracing, health research, and criminal background checks, in addition to issuing a list of other executive and administrative actions that he will take on guns.

Obama’s legislative proposals on guns, meanwhile, still have to get through a Republican-controlled House of Representatives that is unlikely to greatly restrict gun rights. They include a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, but nothing as restrictive Chicago or DC laws. Despite this, Republicans have already brought up impeachment, including Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.), and Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.), who didn’t even wait for Obama to unveil his plan and pretend to read it before deciding the president had met the threshold for removal from office.

Republicans were primed to expect a gun grab. Prominent conservatives like Matt Drudge have made historically obtuse warnings that Obama, like Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, is bent on disarming the population (presumably prior to building a gulag and engaging in genocide). But rather than of banning guns by fiat, the White House’s list of executive actions consists mostly of practical or symbolic measures, containing lots of phrases like “release a letter,” “start a national dialogue” and “provide incentives.” It’s not exactly the stuff dictatorships are made of, but Obama’s imaginary executive actions on guns are certainly more exciting than the ones he actually proposed.

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Republicans Vigorously Oppose Imaginary Obama Gun Proposals

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The NRA’s anti-Obama Ad Is Not Only Tasteless But Also Totally Unrealistic

by dig1iti43 Posted on January 16, 2013

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Some people are calling the NRA’s new anti-Obama ad a thinly veiled threat against the president’s children. I doubt that this was its intent, but nonetheless, it’s well beyond poor taste to use Obama’s kids to make a point. (And it’s absurd on its face: like Jenna and Barbara Bush before them, Sasha and Malia get protection at school, as do all US presidents’ children. It’s called the Secret Service.) Between this and the Shooting Range app recently released by the NRA on iOS devices, the public relations wing of the gun lobbying group is failing miserably.

Now let’s take a look at the substance of the ad itself: The NRA wants to staff every school in America with armed guards, and the president is “an elitiest hypocrite” for being skeptical of the idea.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2009-2010 there were 98,817 public schools, 33,366 private schools, and 6,742 2-year and 4-year colleges in America. Assuming that many of the colleges and at least some of the schools already have security and that private schools would require private funding for private security, that still leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 schools with no armed security staff.

Hiring an armed guard for each of these would be enormously expensive, especially since these guards would need extensive background checks and would require expensive equipment and training, as well as benefits, pensions, and so forth. While many Americans have indeed expressed support for this sort of measure in recent polling, the public often supports expensive plans with little attention to the cost.

With its argument for getting rid of all “gun-free zones” in the country—which relies on fallacy rather than real data—the NRA has also recommended staffing these 100,000 public schools with armed volunteers: Retired police officers or ex-military types who would bring their guns to schools across the country each day; vigilantes of a sort, with the power of life and death just a trigger finger away.

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The NRA’s anti-Obama Ad Is Not Only Tasteless But Also Totally Unrealistic

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Obama Announces 23 Executive Actions to Limit Gun Violence: Here’s the List

by oks23po Posted on January 16, 2013

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President Barack Obama unveiled his proposal for responding to gun violence Wednesday, issuing a list of 23 executive actions he intends to take to try to reduce gun violence in the United States. Many of these steps, such as appointing a director of the ATF and improving background checks, resemble those gun control advocates mentioned to me and my colleague Tim Murphy earlier this week. The 23 executive actions can happen right away, but other parts of Obama’s plan, such as a new assault weapons ban, will require congressional approval.


EXCLUSIVE: Unmasking the NRA’s Inner Circle


Meet the NRA’s Board of Directors


Does the NRA Really Have 4 Million Members?


The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys


How the NRA Pushed the Right to Pack Heat Anywhere


How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide

Read our special report on the rise of mass shootings in America.

Here’s a list of the executive actions Obama has said he has taken or will take:

1. Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rule making to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a presidential memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

More MoJo coverage on guns:


More Guns, More Mass Shootingsâ&#128;&#148;Coincidence?


The NRA Surge: 99 Laws Rolling Back Gun Restrictions


A Guide to Mass Shootings in America


How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide


Mass Shootings: Maybe What We Need Is a Better Mental-Health Policy


How the NRA Pushed the Right to Pack Heat Anywhere

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship, and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental-health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental-health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

Most of these recommendations, such as getting the CDC involved in research on gun violence, will rankle the gun lobby. (The National Rifle Association has long opposed such research.) Obama has, however, included ideas from gun control critics in his plan. Shortly after the Sandy Hook shootings, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre gave a rambling speech in which he blamed violent movies and video games for gun violence and called for more armed guards in schools. The White House proposal not only includes more armed protection of public schools, but also directs the CDC specifically to “explore the impact of violent media images and video games” on gun violence.

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Obama Announces 23 Executive Actions to Limit Gun Violence: Here’s the List

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Corn on MSNBC: Right-Wingers Warn of "Civil War" Over Second Amendment

by f45 Posted on January 16, 2013

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As President Obama got ready to release his proposals on gun reform Wednesday, the right wing was continuing its freak-out over alleged “threats” to the Second Amendment. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Obama is acting like a “king” by proposing executive orders on firearms, and there have been multiple threats to impeach Obama for such action, and calls for “civil war” from the right-wing talk show people.

Mother Jones‘ DC bureau chief David Corn joined The Daily Beast‘s Bob Shrum on MSNBC’s The Ed Show with Ed Schultz to talk about the dangers of this kind of rhetoric.

For more of David Corn’s stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on MSNBC: Right-Wingers Warn of "Civil War" Over Second Amendment

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WATCH: The Gun Lobby Keeps Chalk Outlines Working Overtime Saunders Cartoon

by johnsmithwindows Posted on January 14, 2013

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Editors’ note: Mother Jones illustrator Zina Saunders creates editorial animations riffing on the political news and current events of the week. In this week’s animation, chalk outlines from a crime scene dream about being on a blackboard instead of a sidewalk. The animation, as always, was written and animated by Zina Saunders.

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WATCH: The Gun Lobby Keeps Chalk Outlines Working Overtime Saunders Cartoon

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Corn on Hardball: Will the Far Right Keep Congress from Acting on Gun Control?

by olikellopas Posted on January 12, 2013

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The Obama administration’s gun task force is set to deliver its recommendations next week. But if gun control legislation gets to Congress, even a moderate bill could run up against hard opposition from today’s Republican leadership, who are worried about catering to their supporters on the far right. DC bureau chief David Corn and The Grio‘s Joy Reid talk about what will happen when the gun control debate hits Congress on MSNBC’s Hardball.

David Corn is Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He’s also on Twitter.

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Corn on Hardball: Will the Far Right Keep Congress from Acting on Gun Control?

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GOP Rep.’s Gold Standard for Gun Stores Was Sued for Negligence

by iscciaglewstrone123 Posted on January 11, 2013

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On Thursday, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) stopped by the Cobb County chamber of commerce to explain his views on gun control. But it wasn’t just any gun store—Gingrey, the Marietta Daily Journal reported, “took the time to praise Adventure Outdoors owner Jay Wallace as the gold standard for running a responsible gun retail business.”

The problem: Adventure Outdoors is anything but. In 2006, New York City sued the firm for negligence in preventing its guns from falling into the hands of criminals. Between 1996 and 2000 alone, 256 guns sold at Adventure Outdoors were connected to crimes—21 in New York City alone. “ATF has established that a very small percentage of retail gun dealers—about 1%—are responsible for approximately 57% of the illegally-possessed guns nationwide,” the city explained in its lawsuit. “The Defendants are among this small group of gun dealers who arm illegal gun possessors. As such, the Defendants cause, contribute to and maintain a public nuisance within the City of New York.”

The city specifically singled out Adventure Outdoors for selling guns to what are known as “straw purchasers.” Based in part on the work of two investigators the city hired, the complaint charged that “upon information and belief, Defendants intentionally or negligently sell handguns to prohibited persons through ‘strawman’ purchases, in which an individual legally able to buy a handgun purchases the gun from a licensed gun dealer, intending to transfer it immediately to a prohibited person.”

Here’s the lawsuit:

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A default judgment was issued against Adventure Outdoors in 2008, and in 2011, a federal court ordered that an independent outside expert be appointed to oversee the company’s sales practices and ensure it didn’t sell guns to straw purchasers (a federal appeals court later struck a portion of the “special master” mandate, but still subjected the company to an outside monitor*).

Gingrey’s comments came at the same chamber of commerce breakfast in which he defended his former colleague Todd Akin’s suggestion that women who have been raped have special mechanism to prevent a pregnancy, citing his own experience as an OBGYN. Gingrey is chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus.

h/t James Carter IV

*I’ve clarified the language here.

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GOP Rep.’s Gold Standard for Gun Stores Was Sued for Negligence

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NRA’s Armed Security Guard Proposal Kind Of Popular

by trasze2aja Posted on January 10, 2013

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The National Rifle Association’s proposal to eliminate school shootings by putting an armed guard in every public school was greeted with ridicule when it was unveiled last month. (MoJo was no exception.) After all, armed guards hadn’t prevented massacres at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and as I reported on Monday, the push seemed all the more dubious given that the NRA’s point man on the issue was on the board of a private security company.

But the NRA may have been on to something—at least insofar as public opinion is concerned. According to a new poll released by Quinnipiac on Thursday, Virginians favor putting armed police officers in schools by a more than two to one margin. The proposal has bipartisan support, with 79 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Democrats backing it.

The most revealing finding in the poll may be this: Although voters broadly favor many forms of gun control—59 percent support banning high-capacity magazines; 62 percent think assault weapons “make the country more dangerous”—most Virginians aren’t necessarily prepared to do anything about it. Just 24 percent of those surveyed said that a candidate’s position on gun control would be a deal-breaker come election time.

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NRA’s Armed Security Guard Proposal Kind Of Popular

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WATCH: Owlie and Hootie Explain the Push to Deregulate Gun Silencers Saunders Cartoon

by ansonsten Posted on January 7, 2013

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Editors’ note: Mother Jones illustrator Zina Saunders creates editorial animations riffing on the political news and current events of the week. This week’s animation debunks the gun lobby’s recent push to de-regulate silencers. The animation, as always, was written and animated by Zina Saunders.

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WATCH: Owlie and Hootie Explain the Push to Deregulate Gun Silencers Saunders Cartoon

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CHARTS: Gun Buybacks Probably Won’t Prevent the Next Newtown

by olikellopas Posted on January 7, 2013

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Weeks after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 children and six teachers dead, the American public is still demanding that lawmakers say how they plan to stop future gun violence. One anti-gun measure that is picking up steam is community gun buyback programs, where people can turn weapons into the police for a couple hundred bucks or shopping discounts. These events have already been going on for years, but in the last week alone, at least six cities have scheduled new buybacks. Proponents say that they get guns off the streets and slash local crime rates. But critics point out that coaxing people into selling their weapons for cheaper groceries won’t do much to stop mass shootings.

“It would be hard to imagine a shooter like Adam Lanza not being able to obtain a weapon because of a local gun buyback program,” says Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “Lanza’s Bushmaster was purchased legally.” (By his mother, Nancy.) Everitt also points out that the number of guns bought in these events is “piddling” compared to the number of guns in the United States. “It’s just not going to make a dent.”

Since Newtown, there have been at least 27 buybacks held or planned. The shooting appears to have had an impact on cities’ decisions to hold gun buyback events as well as people’s decision to turn up. The largest buyback, which took place in Los Angeles, was scheduled for an earlier date because of the shooting; it ended up netting over 2,000 firearms. A buyback in New Albany, Indiana, held two weeks after Newtown, was so popular that $50,000 in buyback funds were spent in 90 minutes. New buyback events were scheduled in Ithaca, New York, Pueblo, Colorado, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Piedmont, California, because of Newtown. And places that scheduled gun buybacks before the mass shooting, like Oakland, San Francisco, and Camden, New Jersey, saw record numbers of guns turned in.

Gun buyback programs have even drawn the attention of federal lawmakers. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) cowrote a letter with Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) on December 21 requesting that $200 million in federal funds be set aside for gun buyback programs in the fiscal cliff deal. George Burke, a spokesman for Connolly’s office, told Mother Jones that increasing funding could go a long way towards encouraging communities to start new buyback programs. Buybacks, which can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, are usually funded by eclectic sources, ranging from supermarkets to state criminal forfeiture funds to, in one case, a medical marijuana group.

City officials remain enthusiastic that these events work. The Los Angeles Police Department claims violent crime has decreased 33 percent since the city’s buyback program began in 2009. Lester Davis, a spokesman for the Baltimore City Council, says that buybacks “take dangerous weapons off the street” and pointed to a buyback on December 15 as an example. “We received more than a dozen firearms that violated federal statues,” he says.

But experts argue that all this political momentum could be better directed elsewhere. A 2004 report released by the National Research Council found that the theory underlying gun buybacks is “badly flawed” for an obvious reason: Criminals who actively acquire guns generally don’t want to give them to the police department to destroy, even if it’s done anonymously. Neither do pro-gun types, who tend to vehemently oppose the events. After a July buyback in Chicago, a pro-gun group called Guns Save Life sold old, junk weapons and used the earnings to fund a shooting camp for kids. As Daniel Polsby, dean of the George Mason University School of Law points out, it’s “silly” to think that “making a market in a commodity will make that commodity scarcer.”

Jon Vernick, codirector of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, told the Daily Beast that gun buybacks are a political cop-out. While buybacks give communities “a visible thing to do” after mass shootings occur, he said that “conducting buybacks is much easier than fighting the political battle.” And as illustrated in this chart, Congress can’t even get that accomplished. Although Connolly’s letter had the support of more than 40 House members, it ultimately wasn’t included in the deal, as “many Republicans were not conducive to the provision,” according to Burke.

Burke adds that he doesn’t view gun buybacks as “the be-all end-all” to stopping mass shootings, but says that “you want to do everything you can to minimize gun violence, and this is one piece of the puzzle.”

While a national gun buyback program isn’t on the table for now, if you want to see what one might look like, head down under. Australia, which saw several mass shootings in both the ’80s and ’90s, successfully bought back and destroyed 650,000 guns after an especially violent shooting in Tasmania in 1996, effectively ending mass shootings in the country. There was one tiny difference: The buyback was mandatory.

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CHARTS: Gun Buybacks Probably Won’t Prevent the Next Newtown

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