Where is the gun control debate going?

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Is there any solution that can really protect us from mass shootings or the Jock's, Dunn's and Zimmerman's?

[ProblemAgain]

13 News-WVEC Hampton Roads Videos - WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is sitting down with gun owners groups -- including the National Rifle Association -- as officials look at ways to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading an administration-wide review of gun safety laws, has vowed urgent action in the wake of last month's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. The meeting with the NRA is one of three Biden has scheduled for Thursday as he prepares to make recommendations on gun policy by the end of the month. Besides the NRA, Biden and other officials are meeting with sportsmen and wildlife interest groups, as well as people from the entertainment industry. The NRA, the nation's largest gun-rights group, has blocked gun-control efforts in the past and is opposing any new ones. Shortly after last month's shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama tasked Biden with heading a commission to come up with recommendations on gun policy by the end of January. Obama supports steps including reinstating a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and closing loopholes that allow many gun buyers to avoid background checks. Biden, who met with representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations Wednesday, said officials are considering steps that could "take thousands of people out of harm's way" and improve the safety of millions more. "I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything, we're going to do nothing," Biden told groups including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "It's critically important we act." Biden faces a tougher audience when the NRA joins other gun-owner groups and retailers including Wal-Mart. NRA officials didn't return messages for comment Wednesday, but the group's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, has dismissed the assault weapons ban as "a phony piece of legislation" and has recommended putting armed guards in all schools as a way to stop another school shooting. Biden said he wanted to hear from "all parties, on whatever side of this debate you fall." In a nod to political realities that could imperil sweeping gun-control legislation, Biden said the administration is weighing executive action in addition to recommending legislation by Congress. Recommendations to the Biden group include making gun-trafficking a felony, getting the Justice Department to prosecute people caught lying on gun background-check forms and ordering federal agencies to send data to the National Gun Background Check Database. The Brady Campaign says that some 40 percent of gun sales are made without background checks, such as at gun shows and over the Internet. The shootings in Newtown, in which 20 children and six adults were killed by a man with a military-style semiautomatic rifle, have prodded the administration to act. Obama had remained largely silent on gun control after the 2011 shootings in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six people and wounded 12 others, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and the Colorado movie theater killing of a dozen people and wounding of many more last July. Biden, referring to the Newtown shootings, said at the White House, "Every once in a while, there's something that awakens the conscience of the country, and that tragic event did it in a way like nothing I've seen in my career." Biden said he and Obama are determined to take action. "We can affect the well-being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm's way if we act responsibly," he said. The president hopes to announce his administration's next steps to tackle gun violence shortly after he is sworn in for a second term. AP-WF-01-10-13 0758GMT

[LoveLife&Laughter]

[Dennis Barsten]

Makes sense...?

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Missouri has terrible sex ed, high teen pregnancy and STI rates, but they want an NRA sponsored gun safety class for FIRST GRADERS.

[Saltie]

Why is there this idea that if we get rid of assault rifles, all will be well. I'm not even sure that most people can describe what an assault rifle is. Most of the gun violence is in inner cities like Chicago where over 40 were killed last month alone and they were killed with illegal hand guns. Where's the outrage about that? Where is the President on the violence in his home town?

 

If the discussion is truly about banning guns because they kill people, shouldn't we ban swimming pools? There are more children that die in swimming pools than are killed by guns. Where is the outrage of people driving drunk?

 

Why is it that we are so focused on banning certain weapons when other things kill more of us every year? 

[Dennis Barsten]

Because we only like Violence....

[LoveLife&Laughter]

There are all kind of regulations regarding swimming pool safety, including costly insurance premiums for owning one, especially with a diving board.  Why would anyone think their should be no regulations of guns?

[Saltie]

But there are thousands of regulations on guns. Of course there should be regulations on guns. Perhaps we'd be better off enforcing the existing regulations instead of a knee jerk reaction to pass more regulations.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Yes, and swimming pool deaths, even drunk driving deaths, are accidents.

Buying or borrowing an assault weapon with high capacity magazines to murder as many people as possible is not an accident.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

I understand your point. Mine is drunk diving is for a-holes, but those a-holes don't deliberately set out to murder somebody(s).

As for clips holding more then three rounds; not very many hunters ever get a second shot after taking their first.  Lots of firepower is for Rambo-Wannabes and tin cans that can't run away, and a good psych test regulation should weed them out of gun ownership.

[Ioruach]

Lots of debate up here in Minnesota at the legislature as it discusses gun related issues following Obama’s visit to the Twin Cities.  

Many gun-rights supporters wore buttons that said, “Self Defense is a Human Right.”  Now I have no argument with the idea that everyone has a right to defend themselves.  But with assault rifles?  

I think the one that really fogs up my brain is embedded in a quote from one person who said that citizens need military-style weaponry, because “unless citizens are effectively armed, tyranny will occur.”  On second thought, though, if individuals such as that one ever take control of the country, tyranny would very likely occur.

[ProblemAgain]

one little bitty problem with trying to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill....

NRA likens universal checks to gun registry

By KEVIN FREKING | Associated Press – Sun, Feb 3, 2013

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association's executive vice president continued to oppose background checks for all gun purchases despite polls indicating that most NRA members don't share his position.

The NRA's Wayne LaPierre said on "Fox News Sunday" that background checks for all gun purchases would lead to a national registry of gun owners. Critics say such a registry could lead to taxes on guns or to confiscation.

http://news.yahoo.com/nra-likens-universal-checks-gun-registry-1535...

"yeah we want to keep guns out of the hands of them folks but we oppose any actual regulations and laws that might accomplish that...them folks is called 'customers' "