tagged w/ The Right to Bear Arms
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On Thursday nights edition of "The Young Turks," Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told guest host Michael Shure that dangerous people are given access to guns "all in the name of an industry."
There's no argument that the gun industry is well funded. In 2010, gun rights lobbyists spent more than $5 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. While gun control lobbyists only spent $290,000.
"Make no mistake: the gun lobby and the politicians who do their bidding wanted George Zimmerman — a man with an arrest record and a history of violence — to be able to carry a load, hidden gun on the streets on Sanford, Florida that night," Gross said.
Where do you stand on gun control? Is there any way to make gun control a national conversation?On Thursday nights edition of "The Young Turks," Dan Gross, president of the... more
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Despite a recent spate of killings, the president and fellow Democrats choose not to wage war on assault weapons.
On the morning of April 4, Richard Poplawski had a quarrel with his mother. It was over a dog urinating on a carpet. Mom called the police to have her 22-year-old son evicted from her house, a brick ranch with a dirty aluminum awning in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Two officers responded to the call, figuring it was a typical domestic dispute. Margaret Poplawski greeted them by saying, "Come and take his ass." But the younger Poplawski, who had been laid off from his job in a glass factory recently, had other plans. He went to a private arms cache in the house, retrieved his guns and strapped on a Kevlar bulletproof vest.
Poplawski shot officer Paul J. Sciullo II, 37, inside the house and hit 29-year-old Stephen Mayhle on the stoop. Both men fell dead. Poplawski calmly stood in the doorway and fired two or three more bullets into Mayhle's body, according to a police affidavit from a witness. Then he retreated into the house and fired hundreds of rounds, using an AK-47 assault rifle and other weapons to fend off a police SWAT team for four hours. He killed one other cop, 41-year-old Eric Kelly, and wounded yet another.
It was the deadliest day in the history of the Steel City's police department. When police finally apprehended and questioned Poplawski, he was without remorse. "He said he wishes he could have killed more Pittsburgh police officers," says a cop who was on the scene but asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing case. (Poplawski's lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment last week.)
There was a time when a creep like Poplawski would have become a potent symbol in the debate over gun control. He wasn't your run-of-the-mill malcontent. A white supremacist, he frequented the chat rooms of racist Web sites, where he posted screeds about a "Zionist occupation" bringing the country to economic ruin. But Keith Savage, manager of the Braverman Arms Co., where Poplawski got many of his guns (but not the AK-47, Savage claims), says nothing seemed amiss when he filled out Form 4473—the standard questionnaire for federally required background checks. The gun-shop staff had no way of knowing, for instance, about Poplawski's January 2005 discharge from the Marines for what Lt. Josh Diddams, a U.S. Marine Corps spokesman, tells NEWSWEEK was a "psychological disorder" (he had assaulted his drill sergeant during basic training, says Poplawski's mother). They probably also didn't know that Poplawski's former girlfriend had gotten a restraining order against him, later in 2005, after he grabbed her by the hair and threatened to kill her.
In the past, national political leaders might have raised troubling questions about how such an unstable character could obtain easy access to high-powered weapons. They might have been even more motivated given that Poplawski's cop-killing spree was part of a near epidemic of mass homicides that have left 58 people dead over the past month. Or given that Mexico's insanely violent drug cartels are arming themselves with high-powered assault weapons purchased at U.S. gun stores and later smuggled south of the border. Yet many past champions of stricter gun-control measures are silent. These include top Obama White House officials who have squelched any talk within the administration about pushing further gun-control measures."It's weird," says Peter Hamm, the communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "When you see people like [Attorney General] Eric Holder or Hillary Clinton or [White House chief of staff] Rahm Emanuel become muted on this issue, you feel like you want to call up a friend and say, 'What's up?' "Despite a recent spate of killings, the president and fellow Democrats choose not to... more
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click on the link- very compelling testimony from a woman who barely escaped a massacre in a Texas cafe......left a lump in my throatclick on the link- very compelling testimony from a woman who barely escaped a... more
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Citizens of America, we have to stand up now and tell Barack Obama and the Legislators that they are not going to take away our guns. If we allow the Government to do this, we will only suffer the effects of what is happening in England as shown in this video.Citizens of America, we have to stand up now and tell Barack Obama and the Legislators... more
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The debate over gun laws has been going on for a long time. Personal freedom, safety, and crime are all very important things to the American public. Now in case you didnt know American public is Joe Hansons middle name so it seems only fair to let Joe take on this tough issue.The debate over gun laws has been going on for a long time. Personal freedom, safety,... more
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This young lady explains it best.
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One thing that has been overlooked this election cycle is Obama’s stance on gun rights. In my opinion he has been given a free-ride by the liberal “old media” and without independent organizations the issue would pretty much a non-issue.One thing that has been overlooked this election cycle is Obama’s stance on gun... more
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