Senator rips his colleagues, 'No one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing'

[G_j]

http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-murphy-texas-church-shooting-sutherland-springs-2017-11


Hours after a gunman killed at least 20 people in a Texas church, Sen. Chris Murphy issued a scathing statement blasting his colleagues in Congress for accepting money from gun lobbyists and what Murphy charged was not doing enough to prevent the attack.

"The paralysis you feel right now - the impotent helplessness that washes over you as news of another mass slaughter scrolls across the television screen - isn't real," Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said in the statement. "It's a fiction created and methodically cultivated by the gun lobby, designed to assure that no laws are passed to make America safer, because those laws would cut into their profits."

He continued: "As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets."

"Ask yourself - how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents," he said.

..more..

[Jim Beard]

1. This paragraph has all the ways to stop this type of violence..........

Here’s the simple truth: We have too many guns and it’s too easy for people who shouldn’t have them to get them. We can address that right now. We can expand the background check system, which blocks sales to people who shouldn’t have guns. We can close loopholes that allow people to get guns without background checks. We can have a whole new conversation about what kinds of guns should be available to civilians and whether different regulatory schemes should be in place for obtaining different kinds of guns. We can start regulating the all-but-currently-unregulated sale of ammunition. We can ban things like bump stocks that make already deadly weapons even more efficient killing machines. And we can erect a system that notifies law enforcement when people are amassing arsenals of weapons and ammunition in a short time frame.

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/texas-shooting-sutherland-springs-gun-violence-20171106.html

[aikoaiko]

21. None of these measure will "stop" this type of violence -- reduce it, maybe, but not stop it.

Here is my take on these "simple truths":

"We have too many guns,..."

When someone starts off with this value-laden statement, it's easy to dismiss the writer as someone who wants to remove guns from gun owners.

"...and it’s too easy for people who shouldn’t have them to get them."

I agree.

"We can address that right now. We can expand the background check system, which blocks sales to people who shouldn’t have guns."

Easier said than done. Defining who shouldn't have guns and by what process (i.e., due process) should they be found to be prohibited is not trivial? People like to throw around the phrase "mentally ill", but most of those who are mentally ill are not dangerous.

"We can close loopholes that allow people to get guns without background checks."

We could do this, but it will have limited success because of a thriving black market of stolen guns and smuggling.

"We can have a whole new conversation about what kinds of guns should be available to civilians and whether different regulatory schemes should be in place for obtaining different kinds of guns.

We already have such a system. Nothing to stop one from having that conversation. You'll be hard-pressed to get federal laws that make semi-automatic rifles and handguns more difficult to own. Still, I'd be happy to converse.

"We can start regulating the all-but-currently-unregulated sale of ammunition."

You could, but that would do nothing to reduce gun violence. Recreational shooters often buy by the 500 - 1000 round case. I do. I have a 1000-round case in my car right now.

"We can ban things like bump stocks that make already deadly weapons even more efficient killing machines."

You could but that won't stop bump firing or anyone using bump firing to spray bullets like in LV because the manufactured bump stock isn't needed to do it.

"And we can erect a system that notifies law enforcement when people are amassing arsenals of weapons and ammunition in a short time frame."

This will do no good or little good. Most mass shootings involve one gun (based on my recollection). And even then, what would be the probable cause for doing anything more than asking some questions that wouldn't have to be answered?

Simple truths, indeed.

[boston bean]

38. just accept these massacres as part of our daily life, which it was not before recent history.

No thank you.

I would like to live in a world where I don't have to fear going to the grocery store, movie theater, fast food, church, concert, work.. where some deranged mad man decides he wants to go out in a blaze of glory and take tens of others with him.

Enough with this thinking that nothing can be done. There is a hell of a lot that can be done.

[aikoaiko]

39. I didn't say nothing can be done.

I pointed out some weaknesses and obstacles to what some think are easy and obvious cures to our gun violence problem.

[HughBeaumont]

37. "a system that notifies law enforcement when people are amassing arsenals of weapons and ammunition"

Apparently, one would be the worst person in the world for merely asking such a thing.

I guess the right to kill supersedes the right to not be murdered by a gun nut.

[aikoaiko]

40. No one thinks that.

There is a right to keep and bear arms but No right to kill without justification.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Broken tRump campaign promise: I'll make you safe Jan 20, 2017. . . . . nt

[Botany]

3. Don't you know that his wall with Mexico is gonna stop these shootings?

n/t

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Didn't know that. Would his anti-religious extreme vetting of muslims have prevented this & Vegas?

[world wide wally]

4. Do the words "well regulated" ring a bell?

[TNNurse]

6. So this most recent shooter should not have been able to legally buy his gun.

Is the gun store where he bought it still in business? Should every one that has been proven to have made an illegal gun sale be closed????

As I said on a Facebook post, after massacres in elementary schools, music concerts and churches and nothing is done by our elected officials, they just must not care. My husband says it is because they love the money from the NRA and gun manufacturers more. But I believe they just really do not care when people are gunned down in this country.

[Cosmocat]

7. They 101% believe their own bullshit

they have been bullshitting so virulently, for so long, they don't even know reality any more.

[Still In Wisconsin]

11. THIS

Tell a lie enough times and you believe it yourself. It's just simple stimulus -> response now.

Massacre happens. The sane call for common-sense restrictions on assault weapons, modifying accessories, high-capacity mags, etc. Then like Pavlov's dogs, they bleat about the Second Ammendment, good guys with guns, only the criminals will have them etc. etc. It's like pulling the string on the back of some old doll that only says one thing.


Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

[Cosmocat]

13. Yep

[EL34x4]

8. Did the store make an illegal sale after the background check flagged him as prohibited?

Or did he pass the NICS background check despite being prohibited?

[sarge43]

10. No, he shouldn't have.

He was court martialed for spousal/child abuse and given a Bad Conduct Discharge. However, getting a gun in this country - know someone who knows someone and have the money ready.

They didn't even care when a fellow congress creep got gunned down.

[3catwoman3]

31. And getting shot hasn't changed...

...Representative Scalise's mind a bit. Figure THAT out, if you can. I can't.

[sarge43]

33. Nope, don't want to wade into that swamp. n/t

[NastyRiffraff]

16. Actually thanks to Trump it WAS legal for him to buy a gun

Trump signs bill reversing Obama rule to ban gun purchases by mentally ill

[Stonepounder]

17. They were talking about this last night.

Apparently, the laws only prohibit those who get a Dishonorable Discharge from buying guns. A Bad Conduct Discharge is not the same as a Dishonorable Discharge. Also, apparently the military doesn't automatically share their criminal database with civilian law-enforcement.

[Jim Beard]

19. I think it is still legal to buy a gun from another individual like a friend. I think there is......

also a "Gunshow" loop hole.

[Initech]

9. If a Congressman has an NRA A+ rating, it's time for them to go.

Vote every one of their sorry asses out. They apparently care more about the rights of guns than they do the lives of innocents. Time to make the NRA irrelevant.

[billh58]

14. Exactly!

Get rid of NRA-endorsed politicians -- both Republicans AND Democrats at all levels of government. That's the only way to make the NRA/ILA/ALEC/GOA criminal cabal powerless.

[Enoki33]

12. Spineless repugnant people like Ryan still think prayer

is the answer. Maybe Ryan and his kind should wipe the blood off their hands long enough to realize the full impact of their greed, cowardice and abdication of their duty to the national good. And yes, this makes me very sad.

[lillypaddle]

15. Chris Murphy

rising star.

[DFW]

18. It's a simple mathematical formula

pro-gun ? pro-life

[Jim Beard]

20. There will come a time when there will be enough people to become really sick of it......

I don't know how many more slaying it will take but it is getting closer.

[aikoaiko]

22. The fear or grief cards won't lead to new gun regulations.

If anything all the mass shootings and killings over the last 20 years should be enough evidence of that.

Another way may be to negotiate with the NRA by giving up some of the less meaningful gun laws in exchange for laws that might actually reduce harm.

[billh58]

23. Now there is a novel idea.

Negotiate with terrorists.

[aikoaiko]

24. Alternatively, you can keep winning, billh58.

[billh58]

25. Thanks for the encouragement. n/t

[Sneederbunk]

26. The Texas senators will remain silent.

[Binkie The Clown]

27. I can't help but wonder what would happen if a crazed gunman...

...walked into Congress and started shooting the place up. I hope nothing like that ever happens, but I can't help wondering if gun control would become important to them if their own precious hides were at risk.

[billh58]

28. You mean that the

NRA wouldn't protect their investment?

[SoCalMusicLover]

29. Not One Bit Of Difference

It didn't matter when it happened at a Congressional Baseball game. Heck, the guy who almost died came out and said he was still very pro-gun, so there's that bit of proof.

[3catwoman3]

32. It didn't change Steve Scalise's outlook.

eom

[SoCalMusicLover]

30. They Do NOT Care One Bit

It's already happened to their own. Giffords & Scalise almost both died due to guns. But they'll be sure to send "Thoughts & Prayers." (TM)

[Maraya1969]

34. I'm not advocating this but if someone shoots up the NRA headquarters

and causes the kind of destruction that we see all around this country I bet they will do something.

Again I am not advocating this, just stating a fact.

[oasis]

35. Give 'em hell, Sen. Murphy.

[spanone]

36. his colleagues couldn't care less as long as they get their high nra rating

it's all they care about