Obama Calls For More Steps To Curb Violence, Including Gun Control

[Purveyor]

By Michael A. Memoli

July 25, 2012, 6:52 p.m.
NEW ORLEANS -- President Obama vowed Wednesday night to “leave no stone unturned” in seeking ways to curb the growing challenge of violence in American cities, including reasonable restrictions on gun ownership.

The president offered his most extensive comments in some time on the issue of gun control in a speech to the National Urban League, which came at the end of a four-day trip that began in Colorado, where he met with victims of the movie theater shooting that claimed a dozen lives. After that meeting, he reflected on the lives affected by the shooting, but did not suggest a refreshed attempt to restrict gun ownership.

Obama said Wednesday that every day and a half, the same number of young people die as a result of violent crime as were lost in that Aurora massacre.

“For every Columbine or Virginia Tech, there are dozens gunned down on the streets of Chicago and Atlanta, and here in New Orleans. For every Tucson or Aurora, there is daily heartbreak over young Americans shot in Milwaukee or Cleveland,” he said. “And when there’s extraordinary heartbreak and tragedy like the one we saw there’s always an outcry immediately after for action. There’s talk of new reforms and there’s talk of new legislation. And too often those efforts are defeated by politics and by lobbying and eventually by the pull of our collective attention elsewhere.”


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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-colorado-shooting-gun-control-20120726,0,7980432.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fpolitics+%28L.A.+Times+-+Politics%29

[krispos42]

1. So he's going to legalize pot? n/t

[PoliticAverse]

3. End - The - War - On - Drugs. n/t

[DCBob]

4. This will certainly rattle the cages of the RW.

Risky, but this needed to be said and I suspect in the end the President will win this argument because hes right.

[steve2470]

5. minority opinion here, I suppose...

I'm all about winning elections. If we can't win elections, we cannot accomplish much of the progressive agenda.

"Gun control", or however you wish to phrase it, is a LOSING issue for Democrats. It simply whips the RW, NRA members, and "gun enthusiasts"/owners/etc into an angry frenzy, and we end up losing elections.

Perhaps one day there will be an overwhelming demand from the public for "gun control", but I don't see it right now. The anger and dismay over Aurora will go away and things will go back to normal.

I'm not against reasonable and logical tweaks to existing laws and strong enforcement of existing laws, but "gun control" is code for Democrats losing elections.

If President Obama loses in November, I would not be surprised if this statement was one of the reasons. I do hope I'm wrong. I desperately want him to win.