The tipping point draws ever closer. Get your guns and ammo now.
Obama to unveil gun violence measures Wednesday
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s broad effort to reduce gun violence will include proposed bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines as well as more than a dozen executive orders aimed at circumventing congressional opposition to stricter gun control.
Obama was to announce the measures Wednesday at a White House event that will bring together law enforcement officials, lawmakers and children who wrote the president about gun violence following last month’s shooting of 20 young students and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
The broad package Obama will unveil will also include efforts to stop bullying and boost availability of mental health services.
But Congress would have to approve the bans on assault weapons and ammunition magazines holding more than 10 bullets, along with a requirement for universal background checks on gun buyers. Some gun control advocates worry that opposition from Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as the National Rifle Association, will be too great to overcome.
“We’re not going to get an outright ban,” Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., said of limits on assault weapons. Still, McCarthy, a leading voice in Congress in favor of gun control, said she would keep pushing for a ban and hoped Obama would as well.
White House officials, seeking to avoid setting up the president for failure, have emphasized that no single measure — even an assault weapons ban — would solve a scourge of gun violence across the country. But without such a ban or other sweeping, congressionally-approved measures, it’s unclear whether executive actions alone could make any noticeable difference.
“It is a simple fact that there are limits to what can be done within existing law,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday. “Congress has to act on the kinds of measures we’ve already mentioned because the power to do that is reserved by Congress.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed into law the toughest gun control law in the nation, and the first since the Connecticut school shootings. The law includes a tougher assault-weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people who make threats.
According to a lobbyist briefed Tuesday, Obama will present a three-part plan focused on gun violence, education and mental health. He’ll call for:
_ A focus on universal background checks. Right now some 40 percent of gun sales take place without background checks, including by private sellers at gun shows or over the Internet, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
_ A ban on assault weapons and limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds or fewer.
_ A federal statute to stop “straw man” purchases of guns and crack down on trafficking rings.
_ More anti-bullying efforts; more training for teachers, counselors and principals; and funding for schools for more counselors and resource officers.
Obama also will order federal agencies to conduct more research on gun use and crimes, the lobbyist said, something Republican congressional majorities have limited through language in budget bills.
On mental health, Obama will focus on more availability of mental health services, training more school counselors and mental health professionals, and mental health first aid training for first responders, according to the lobbyist, who was not authorized to discuss the plan publicly before the president’s announcement and requested anonymity.
The president’s framework is based on recommendations from Vice President Joe Biden, who led a wide-ranging task force on gun violence. The vice president’s proposals included 19 steps that could be achieved through executive action.
Obama also may order the Justice Department to crack down on people who lie on gun-sale background checks; only a tiny number are now prosecuted. Such a step has support from the National Rifle Association, which has consistently argued that existing laws must be enforced before new ones are considered.
And Obama may give schools flexibility to use grant money to improve safety.
Gun control proponent Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who met with Biden on Monday, said the president is also likely to take executive action to ensure better state reporting of mental health and other records that go into the federal background check database. But he, too, acknowledged there were clear limits to what Obama can do without Congress’ say-so.
“You can’t change the law through executive order,” Scott said.
White House officials signaled that Obama would seek to rally public support for the measures he puts forward, perhaps holding events around the country or relying on Organizing for America, his still-operational presidential campaign.
During his announcement Wednesday, Obama will be joined children from across the U.S. who wrote letters to him about gun violence and school safety.
One of those children, a Maryland 8-year-old named Grant, wrote: “It’s a free country but I recommend there needs (to) be a limit with guns. Please don’t let people own machine guns or other powerful guns like that.”
It’s unclear how much political capital Obama will exert in pressing for congressional action.
The White House and Congress will soon be consumed by three looming fiscal deadlines. And the president has also pledged to tackle comprehensive immigration reform early this year, another effort that will require Republicans’ support and one in which Obama may be more likely to get their backing.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has warned the White House that it will be at least three months before the Senate considers gun legislation. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said immigration, not gun control, is at the top of his priority list after the fiscal fights.
House Republican leaders are expected to wait for any action by the Senate before deciding how — or whether — to proceed with any gun measure.
wip says:
Don’t tread on me?
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16th January 2013 at 7:58 am
card802 says:
Molon Labe?
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16th January 2013 at 8:13 am
card802 says:
My father is very liberal, and ardent watcher of msnbc, a Korean Conflict Vet, and a obamanista.
I brought him over some fish chowder last night and the conversation of gun laws/bans came up because he was watching his favorite Ed Schultz.
Dad is all for it. When I explained that his M1 Carbine would be considered a Assault Weapon under the new laws and in the future could be considered for confiscation, he replied “No fucking way.”
I said, “Oh, so these new laws you are in favor of, are for the other guy?”
He said, “That’s right, it’s for the criminals.”
“You know dad, these new laws all revolve around guns, and not criminals right?”
“Listen, they ain’t taking my fucking gun.”
Ever call your father a hypocrite? I did, mom was not happy, wife was not happy, dad was not happy.
Fish chowder was great.
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16th January 2013 at 8:24 am
flash says:
I posted this on the SEPARATION OF GOVERNMENT FROM THE PEOPLE thread and KB posted back that the link was dead.
Hopefully this link will work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nF098HtY-s
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16th January 2013 at 8:57 am
card802 says:
The media and politicians are all gushing over how the polls reveal that Americans agree with the president on all points.
METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone Jan. 10-13, 2013, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including design effect. Partisan divisions are 33-24-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by Abt-SRBI of New York, N.Y.
According to the 2010 census there are 311,591,917 americans, 76% of those are over the age of 18, or adults.
1,001 adults polled represent the will of the people?
Somebody help me with the math here.
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16th January 2013 at 8:58 am
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
Mercifully, I will be in the midst of my Wed killer, ha ha, clinic and will miss this grotesque spectacle of this POS dancing on the graves of dead children to advance his agenda. (Otherwise I will need to be sedated lest I shoot the TV in my chemo room, lol.)
Just like EVERY SINGLE TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT IN HISTORY.
Matt Bracken has totally nailed it. As has Denninger: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=216135 is just one of many recent outstanding articles by him.
This video was posted on Rawles’ site this am. I listened to it on my smart phone during my morning perambulations. It is well worth 1 hour of your time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nUmKT43j4Tc#
“Innocents Betrayed”. It was released by JPFO several years ago but is even more germane today.
HELL NO TO UNIVERSAL GUN REGISTRATION.
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16th January 2013 at 9:02 am
Eddie says:
I don’t think he’ll go too far on the decrees at this point. I think there’s a line of people waiting to impeach him. Alex Jones is already trying to get him impeached. I hope he gets that going.
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16th January 2013 at 9:15 am
ThePessimisticChemist says:
“Assault weapon.”
I’ll show them an assault weapon
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16th January 2013 at 9:19 am
flash says:
The Revolution is nearly over and those many on the right never knew it had begun.
It was waged in stealth, festering in the back rooms of Congress and traded in the currency of votes.
It was sold to the bland and the dull as bail-outs for the “greater good” while a corporate elite seized the reigns of state and person-hood.
There is no I in collective.
No singular in corporate.
Ask not ,but receive, or be denied all.
Obama will seal the deal with a stroke of the pen.
And the grandest experiment ever conceived in Christendom succumbs to the inevitable as foretold:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747–1813).
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16th January 2013 at 9:37 am
Makati1 says:
Flash, you are correct. He can declare war on any country anytime he wants. At that point, he can also suspend the Constitution and Bill of Rights and elections. No? Better re-read both documents and the powers of the President under war time conditions.
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16th January 2013 at 9:42 am
Mark says:
The Repulican response should be stated forcefully
“We don’t give a damn about what the president proposes” “it’s neither in his power or our power to change the constitution”
If he want’s to ratify the constution he should go through the legal process.
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16th January 2013 at 9:50 am
Maddie's Mom says:
“Remember, there is no such thing as coercion. The government CANNOT disarm you. Only YOU can disarm you by capitulating to them. Buy a flag with an AR-15 on it and fly it outside your house. Post pictures of yourself with your weapons on the internet. QUIT COWERING. The fact that you people cower is the one and only reason these assholes in D.C. have any power at all – you GIVE IT TO THEM.”
– Ann Barnhardt
http://barnhardt.biz/
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16th January 2013 at 9:52 am
flash says:
some will abide…
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16th January 2013 at 10:14 am
Baltimore_Buch says:
This(or the results of this) is going to be the spark that gets this 4th turning moving. Civil wars, race wars, class wars – take your pick.
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16th January 2013 at 10:14 am
DaveL says:
“Mark says:
The Repulican response should be stated forcefully.”
The saddest truth in what you say is that you only mentioned Republicans. The Legislative branch of government is supposed to be separate but equal to the Executive branch. It appears that the majority of Senators and a large minority of Representatives have joined forces with the executive to bring this country toward a dictatorship. Fucking traitors all.
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16th January 2013 at 10:57 am
KaD says:
The governor of the state of Texas is passing a law saying any Federal agent trying to confiscate guns from legal owners will be arrested: http://www.naturalnews.com/038693_Firearms_Protection_Act_Texas_gun_control.html
Wyoming is doing a similar measure.
Eddie: I was thinking the same thing. Isn’t it time to impeach this piece of shit?
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16th January 2013 at 11:31 am
Administrator says:
“… America stands on the verge of domestic war precisely because America stands on the verge of dictatorship. A corporate-flavored variety of fascism has reared its ugly soul, where corporations and government conspire in dark rooms to rob from the American people their health, their paychecks, their voices and their rifles. The face of that fascism is unimportant because it is the same face that fascists have presented throughout history: the face of a talented orator, a handsome, even noble-looking gentleman, a man of the people who explains that his acts of power usurpation are only pursued with great reluctance and at the desperate demand of his constituents. This is the well-worn justification of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Teng, and now Barack Obama.”
Mike Adams
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16th January 2013 at 11:43 am
Thinker says:
President’s press conference has begun. Feel like we’re watching a tipping point in history.
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16th January 2013 at 11:59 am
Administrator says:
23 Executive orders
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16th January 2013 at 12:04 pm
AWD says:
Great quote above admin. Says it all.
Considering blacks commit most violent crime with guns, what exactly will Obama do about the real problem? Probably exempt them from the gun-grabbing laws.
The socialist states (like Illinois) have already tried to pass gun-grab laws, and failed so far. The public outcry was overwhelming for the chickenshit criminal politicians. Yet, if you buy a gun in Illinois, it is registered. They have lists of all gun owners.
Obama would love a civil war or a race war, or whatever other type of domestic conflict he could foment. Then grab power, fulfill his dictatorship aspirations, and finish off the Constitution and Bill of Rights. He has the weight of the 128 million people getting government handouts behind him. Truly scary. An economic collapse is our only hope of avoiding what he is trying to do.
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16th January 2013 at 12:04 pm
Administrator says:
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16th January 2013 at 12:05 pm
AWD says:
Here they are:
Obama’s 23 Executive Gun Control Actions
The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence.
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 rulemaking 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 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.
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.
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16th January 2013 at 12:08 pm
Stucky says:
I am a soldier. I know what war looks like, what it sounds like, smells like, what it feels like in my soul.
I stand today in the twilight of my nation’s grace, looking into the darkness of impending war.
My sleep is troubled, knowing what awaits, yet the ignorant and the ‘true believers’ sleep easily in their delusions, and I am saddened by it.
Daily, I see the Blackhawk and Apache helicopters flying over my city, the military vehicles which appear so frequently now on our roads, often with ‘guns up’ in violation of Posse Comitatus, and I know why they prepare, that it is not far off.
Nightly I hear the report of gunfire near my home, the noise angry men make as they prepare to boil over. These are not soldiers – they are but angry men. And though I share their well-justified anger, I am cautious with them, for they are not disciplined, and they know not the face of war, nor the burdens it imposes upon mind, body, and soul. Because of this, they are dangerous, and I am saddened by this – that dangerous men should roam the streets near my home, full of anger and the lust for vengeance.
All about me are the ceaseless murmurs of soulless politicians and media propagandists, who wear their agendas on their sleeves as a badge of superiority, and the boundless echoes of their contrived ‘message’ assaults me from all sides, even repeated from the mouths of dear friends, and I am saddened by it.
I bear witness to the fact that throughout my lifetime, the lifeblood of my republic has been drained away by greedy and self-serving men, from high to low, who contrive nought but deception against their neighbors and countrymen, and who fail to consider that their children and mine shall share the same fate, the same future, and I am saddened by it.
But I am a soldier, and I know what must be done; and so I shall put away my sadness and I shall harness up the bitter steed of war, and gird myself up for the battle; and I shall ride out to meet the enemies of Liberty; not in rage, not for anger sake or the hope of vengeance; but because I swore an oath before God, to jealously guard our Republic and its Constitution against all enemies; Him I shall not disappoint, for He is my Hope and my Trust.
Therefore, as much as my soul laments against the harsh truth before me, I make this declaration to my enemies who press me into this battle, that none shall be able to afterwards say “I did not know, you did not warn me”;
I do not care why you took that job with the government, or why you continue to hold it. I only know that you have become Judas and sold yourself to an oppressive state – your government office buildings and vehicles are part of the battlefield, and as a soldier I shall act accordingly.
I do not care why, as a journalist, you choose to spin and corrupt the news, rather than report the plain truth and let the people judge for themselves. I only know that you have violated the public trust in the most vile and seditious manner, and thus your homes, offices, studios, vehicles, and any other place you may find yourself are part of the battlefield, and as a soldier I shall act accordingly.
I do not care why you signed that union card. I only know that you pay dues to a communist organization which conducts treasonous works against my Republic daily – and so your union hall and your work-sites are part of the battlefield, and as a soldier I shall act accordingly.
I do not care that you only voted for the traitor because you are elderly/disabled or otherwise dependent upon government largess. Are you so ignorant and/or disinterested that you could not see through their propaganda, to the fact that your sustenance was assured either way? What have you gained now that the public housing areas you live in, and the public facilities you depend on are part of the battlefield? Though I am a soldier, I can afford you little protection, for you have placed yourselves on the battlefield.
I know that all of these places and all of these people are part of the battlefield ,not just because I am a soldier, and have experienced a few battlefields in my day; but also because our President declares that even our own homes are on the battlefield, whether we wish them to be or not, and I have no choice but to believe him; it’s not just that the NDAA passed – a battlefield is not defined by law; it’s the profound build-up of martial power and resources across my once-great nation which tells me a battle is being prepared here. Over two billion rounds of ammunition procured by DHS and its sub-agencies in the past 18 months, plus machine guns in the tens of thousands, armored vehicles, combat aircraft, drones, and other implements of war being staged throughout our nation, our home – how do you explain that except as the preparation for battle?
I will fight not because I desire it, but because I cannot justify any other course of action – when the enemy attacks, you must fight – you must kill or you will die.
I smell you, my enemy; I can feel the ambush you have laid for me and my true countrymen, all about like a sticky spider’s web, yet we will not back down; and though you will kill some of us, you will not get us all before we have finished with you.
I stand here, ready, on the eve of battle, and I ask God why I have been brough to the threshold of this battlefield, about to be thrust in, when I though my soldiering days were through; and I am reminded that there is by His decree, a Time to Kill, as well as a Time to Die… who am I to question why?
http://ncrenegade.com/editorial/a-time-to-kill/
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16th January 2013 at 12:11 pm
Stan says:
As I watched our Leader hold forth, I was overcome with a sense of awe and pride. He is at once both the greatest man on earth and also the most caring.
I am not ashamed to say that I had to wipe a tear from my eye and a thrill went up my britches leg when Obama single handedly put an end to gun violence and solved yet another problem which has perplexed mere mortals for centuries.
Thank God for Barack Obama !! Live Forever!!
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16th January 2013 at 12:20 pm
Eddie says:
The devil is in the details.
Some of these so called “actions” are so obtuse as to be meaninglessto the casual reader.
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16th January 2013 at 12:24 pm
Administrator says:
What a load of horseshit.
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16th January 2013 at 12:26 pm
Stucky says:
Truly a Must See video. Should be it’s own thread, actually.
“America, Flirting with the Dark Side of History” …. about disarming citizens and the coming bloodshed if it’s attempted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nh1rZIzPm0
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16th January 2013 at 12:26 pm
Administrator says:
24. Ask Eric Holder to stop giving out machine guns to drug cartels in Mexico.
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16th January 2013 at 12:39 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
#1, #3, #6 are probably an attempt at an end run around private gun sales between private individuals. It will likely mean that if you want to sell a firearm, you have to sell it to a gun dealer FIRST.
This is essentially UNIVERSAL GUN REGISTRATION which MUST BE FOUGHT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
#4 is also worrying as the AG, that would be Eric “The Red” Holder, to determine “categories of individuals” that should not get guns. Hmmm, would that be the same list as “domestic terrorists”?
Doctors already report to the police anybody that might be direct and credible threat to themselves or others. The problem is how to define “direct and credible” moving forward and what abuse that will be open to.
I will await the feds instructions on how I am supposed to discuss gun ownership with my patients, but as of right now, I assure you, ain’t nobody ’round here got a firearm, no sir.
As Eddie said, the devil is in the details. The Obama Admin has been absolutely brilliant in hiding their true (malignancy) intentions in pages of gobblydegook that takes $400/hour attorneys to decipher.
Meanwhile, the financial situation of the country continues to deteriorate.
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16th January 2013 at 12:40 pm
Administrator says:
By JEFFREY SCOTT SHAPIRO
In the wake of the horrific elementary-school shootings in Newtown, Conn., last month, many Americans, desperate to do something in response, have decided that much stricter gun control is the answer. Democrats have proposed reinstating the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein has proposed legislation that would even restrict the use of some semiautomatic handguns.
As a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who enforced firearms and ammunition cases while a severe local gun ban was still in effect, I am skeptical of the benefits that many imagine will result from additional gun-control efforts. I dislike guns, but I believe that a nationwide firearms crackdown would place an undue burden on law enforcement and endanger civil liberties while potentially increasing crime.
The D.C. gun ban, enacted in 1976, prohibited anyone other than law-enforcement officers from carrying a firearm in the city. Residents were even barred from keeping guns in their homes for self-defense.
Some in Washington who owned firearms before the ban were allowed to keep them as long as the weapons were disassembled or trigger-locked at all times. According to the law, trigger locks could not be removed for self-defense even if the owner was being robbed at gunpoint. The only way anyone could legally possess a firearm in the District without a trigger lock was to obtain written permission from the D.C. police. The granting of such permission was rare.
The gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454.
The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department also waged a war on firearms by creating a special Gun Recovery Unit in 1995. The campaign meant that officers were obliged to spend time searching otherwise law-abiding citizens. That same year, the department launched a crackdown called Operation Cease Fire to rid the District of illegal firearms. But after four months, officers had confiscated only 282 guns out of the many thousands in the city.
Civil liberties were endangered. Legislative changes empowered judges to hold gun suspects in pretrial detention without bond for up to 100 days, and efforts were made to enact curfews and seize automobiles found to contain firearms. In 1997, Police Chief Charles Ramsey disbanded the unit so that he could assign more uniformed officers to patrol the streets instead, but the police periodically tried other gun crackdowns over the next decade—with little effect.
In 2007, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the city’s gun ban was unconstitutional. Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman wrote in the majority opinion that “the black market for handguns in the District is so strong that handguns are readily available (probably at little premium) to criminals. It is asserted, therefore that the D.C. gun control laws irrationally prevent only law abiding citizens from owning handguns.”
The ruling was affirmed the following year by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller. Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion said that citizens were guaranteed a right to keep firearms that were in common use in their homes for self-defense, but that the government could pass reasonable regulations concerning firearms and ammunition.
Heller created a panic among gun-control advocates because it condoned the ownership of semiautomatic handguns, which are among the most common firearms in use but also the target of many restriction efforts. Supporters of the District gun ban maintained that because a semiautomatic handgun could potentially be converted into a machine gun—a class of firearms not expressly protected by Heller—they were in fact machine guns and therefore not protected by the Second Amendment. In response, Congress threatened to pass a law that specified the legality of semiautomatic handguns in the District. To avoid the embarrassment of being dictated to by Congress, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation in September 2008 amending the gun ban to allow ownership of semiautomatic handguns for home defense.
Since the gun ban was struck down, murders in the District have steadily gone down, from 186 in 2008 to 88 in 2012, the lowest number since the law was enacted in 1976. The decline resulted from a variety of factors, but losing the gun ban certainly did not produce the rise in murders that many might have expected.
The urge to drastically restrict firearms after mass murders like those at Sandy Hook Elementary School last month and in Aurora, Colo., in July, is understandable. In effect, many people would like to apply the District’s legal philosophy on firearms to the entire nation. Based on what happened in Washington, I think that would be a mistake. Any sense of safety and security would be a false one.
Mr. Shapiro was a criminal prosecutor for the District of Columbia from 2007-09.
A version of this article appeared January 16, 2013, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Gun Ban That Misfired.
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16th January 2013 at 12:44 pm
AWD says:
Gun registration is the first step. They’re already doing it in the socialist state of Illinois. You can’t buy ammo or anything without your “FOID” card. So, the law abiding citizens are all on lists. Then they sneak a gun seizure law into effect, or limit your guns to 2 per person, or God knows what.
Obama and the democratic despots will remove our guns in a step-wise fashion, just like they’ve destroyed the Constitution and Bill of rights one small step at a time until it’s a meaningless concept. It really, really helps the MSM is owned by the democrats. They’ll make it all socially acceptable with 300 different talking heads nodding in approval 24/7.
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16th January 2013 at 12:48 pm
Anonymous says:
And now that folks are riled up over dead kids and gun grabs – I have to wonder what they are really up to. Why now? Is this smoke and mirrors to hide something else?
(Apologies in advance if my cynicism offends)
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16th January 2013 at 12:49 pm
sangell says:
To me this is a major victory for gun owners. Most of the EOs are what I would and did suggest here. That the problem is madmen getting guns because of medical privacy laws. Obama is going to take some heat from the left but that is better, in his mind, than causing millions of unregistered ( as in unregistered to vote) on the right to register and vote out of office any and all liberal gun control advocates in 2014!
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16th January 2013 at 12:49 pm
AWD says:
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16th January 2013 at 12:50 pm
Dorkus Maximus says:
This list is typical Obama — most of it looks somewhat sensible on the surface – but it’s way more ominous than it looks.
I have not seen the actual text of these “actions” but the list Stucky posted looks clearly like a precursor to some kind of national database of guns and gun owners. People on this database will be the first ones rounded up and shipped off for “re-education.”
Particularly troubling is number 5. Notice the lack of the word “lawful” before the reference to a siezed gun. It may work like this
1. you and your gun get placed on database
2. they use a pretext to find you and “sieze” your gun (remember: there’s no requirement the siezure be” lawful”)
3. you then have to “voluntarily” place yourself on their permanent radar screen (reporting requirments, written waiver of rights permitting future searches without prob. cause, maybe even tracking devices) to get your gun back.
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16th January 2013 at 12:52 pm
Olga says:
The above cycicism was mine.
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16th January 2013 at 12:53 pm
AWD says:
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16th January 2013 at 2:00 pm
AWD says:
Dear Comrades,
The official Party Spokesman, Comrade J. J. Carney, has offered the People’s Congress the opportunity to renounce the USSA Constitution in favor of a more progressive direction for the State in keeping with the November People’s Revolutionary Election, in which the workers and peasants of the USSA unanimously acclaimed Comrade Party Chairman Barack Barackovich Obama as President of the State.
While Party officials have been working diligently to amend the Constitution so that our Glorious Leader may serve a lifetime appointment rather than a mere four years, the Party is also entertaining the idea of abolishing the reactionary and decadent document which is seen as an impediment to real Progress.
The Comrade Spokesman stated:
Because Congress has retained for itself this responsibility and obligation, they have to act. If they want to pass it to a more willing actor, the President of the United States, he will gladly ensure that we do not default. But the fact of the matter is Congress has that responsibility and Congress has to act. We can’t do it for them.
By offering to assume the duties of the People’s Congress, Comrade President Barack Barackovich will not only help the State accrue much needed debt in order to continue vital spending in Social Programs and pensions for State workers, but also help the Party finally put the outdated, archaic, and retrograde ‘US Constitution’ out of its misery. This old horse needs to be euthanized and sent to the Collective Smokehouse to be made into sausage. The People do not need a Constitution… they need Social Benefits!
Notice in the art of the Comrade Spokesman’s presentation, he states that the People’s Congress has ‘retained for itself’ budgetary authority. Comrades, what the People’s Congress can retain, it can also release! Let them release this authority to our Glorious Leader, so that we no longer have to have these prolonged processes. The People’s Deputies should vote immediately to cede all budgetary authority to the President!
End the Imperialist and Decadent Constitution!
Centralize all budgetary authority with the President!
(ctr/alt/sarc)
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16th January 2013 at 2:04 pm
AWD says:
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16th January 2013 at 2:06 pm
Maddie's Mom says:
Olga,
I share your cynicism.
“executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence”
*plans*
Plans? Just do it already! What is he waiting for?
I still think this crap is going to be used as a future bargaining chip somehow.
And still the questions about Sandy Hook linger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9GxXYKx_8&sns=em
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16th January 2013 at 2:09 pm
ragdouche says:
Now we’re getting ‘advice” from 8yr olds. Grant thinks machine guns should be off limits to citizens. Fuck you, ya little shit! Think of yourself as ragdouche’s sex adviser. When I need yer fuckin’ advice, I’ll axe for it.
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16th January 2013 at 2:22 pm
Administrator says:
Sturm Ruger stock up 6% today
Smith & Wesson stock up 8% today
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16th January 2013 at 2:53 pm
Eddie says:
High capacity magazines are probably trading like deep in-the-money call options on Ruger and S&W stocks.
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16th January 2013 at 3:02 pm
sangell says:
The share prices of Ruger and S&W are probably the best indicator that Obama has proposed nothing ‘meaningful’. His proposals, nominate director of the ATF for gawdsakes, are trivial and his legislative proposals are mostly calls for more federal spending for studies and training programs.
Yeah, having to conduct background checks for private sales of firearms is inconvenient ( but how do you enforce it?) but is really less onerous than transferring title to an automobile. From what I see so far even that requirement has a big loophole as it mentions only the SALE of a firearm. Can I trade two Glocks for a AR-15 or trade a AK-47 for a yard tractor? Gifts of firearms would also seem to be exempt as would bequeathing them.
Everything else has to pass Congress and as the furor over Sandy Hook dies down so will the momentum for ineffective legislation like banning the possession of armor piercing ammo. I’m no gun expert but what exactly is armor piercing ammo? If I am a hand loader and want to put
industrial diamonds on the tip of my bullets or embed a steel rod in a slug to, hopefully, allow my bullet to penetrate kevlar or penetrate steel more easily whose to stop me?
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16th January 2013 at 3:36 pm
Administrator says:
‘Assault’ rifles are not involved in many U.S. murders: A look at the data
January 16, 2013, 3:23 PM
The number of murders in the U.S. in 2011 committed with rifles: 323.
The number involving handguns? A whopping 6,220. Or 49% of the 12,664 homicides committed in the U.S. in 2011, according to FBI data. And that’s a longstanding pattern. See murder statistics by weapon.
The huge gap suggests President Obama’s call for new firearm restrictions would do little to reduce the number people murdered each year – even if a reluctant Congress were to pass all his requests. His proposals don’t really addresss handguns.
Obama on Wednesday asked Congress to reinstall a lapsed ban on so-called assault rifles and set a 10-bullet limit on the size of magazines, among his more far-reaching proposals. He also implemented a series of minor measures by executive order. Obama seeks overhaul of U.S. gun laws.
Obama cited the recent shooting in Newtown, Conn, in an emotional appeal asking Americans to support fresh gun-control measures. The Newtown killer, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, used a Bushmaster AR-15 to kill 26 people at Sandy Hook elementary school, including 20 children.
The very popular Bushmaster is considered by gun-control advocates to be an assault weapon. Assault weapons are usually shorter than regular rifles and can look like a machine gun, but they only fire a single bullet with each pull of the trigger. In effect, they function like the millions of regular semi-automatic rifles and pistols already in possession of American gun owners.
Yet assault rifles have also been used in several recent mass shootings, including Newtown and Aurora, Colorado. They are easier to conceal than traditional rifles and some can handle much larger magazines with as many as 100 bullets.
A 10-bullet limit on magazines might help to limit the number of people killed in mass shootings, but it probably wouldn’t do much to reduce total murders. Most are committed with handguns using magazines of 10 bullets or less.
The irony is, the U.S. has experienced a dramatic and long-term decline in murder since 1980, even as mass shootings seem to have increased. Social scientists aren’t entirely sure why.
The number of murders per 100,000 people has shrunk from a peak of 10.2 in 1980 to 4.7% in 2011.
The FBI also reports “murder and non-negligent manslaughter” has fallen from 23,760 in 1992 to 14,612 in 2011 – a 39% decline. (The FBI uses different categories to classify murders). See FBI data here.
As for rifles, they are used even less than body parts, blunt instruments or sharp objects to commit murder.
In 2011, more murders were committed by knives (1,694), hands, fists and feet (728) and blunt weapons such as clubs and hammers (496), according to FBI data.
- Jeffry Bartash
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16th January 2013 at 3:51 pm
AWD says:
Data, shmata, all that matters is we are unarmed when they come to get us for the FEMA camps.
The two million people in jail are unarmed, and being worked like slaves by private industry. Worked like prisoners in a Gulag.
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16th January 2013 at 3:57 pm
AWD says:
Yeah, doctors have been given increased rights by our masters. We are free to snitch and turn people in to the Gestapo (I mean DHS/TSA/ATF). Until such time as I am financially compensated for being a snitch, I will decline. I recommend a snitch tax added to healthcare costs to compensate me for turning you people in (for forced re-education camps, sterilization, or euthanasia).
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16th January 2013 at 4:04 pm
AWD says:
Dear Comrades,
Today, Comrade Party Chairman and President Barack Barackovich Obama issued a formal declaration from the White Fortress upholding the rights of all Doctors and Medical Personnel to inform on their patients if they are engaging in counter-revolutionary activities, such as possessing weapons. Doctors should feel free to denounce patients to State Security apparatuses for further treatment, via Therapeutic Incarceration and Medicinal Arms Seizures, which are covered under the Affordable Healthcare Act passed by unanimous vote of the People’s Congress.
The Department of Mandatory Health and Human Services has recently defined gun ownership and the ideation of gun ownership rights to be a form of mental illness, and has vested the Department of Social Justice’s various enforcement apparatuses with the responsibility of treating sufferers with the required treatment regimens (i.e. pacification counseling, therapeutic incarceration, weapons seizures, removal of children and minorities from the home, etc.).
Therefore, doctors would be negligent for not referring patients for the appropriate State Security treatment, and could potentially be held liable if such patients became violent or were found by some other means to be in possession of weapons. Medical professionals are advised to perform diagnostic interrogations on all patients on their views regarding weapons ownership, so that the State can cure these patients under the Universal Pacification Plan.
It is expected at a later date that professional educators will also be given similar rights of denunciation, so that they can report this form of mental illness through diagnostic interrogations.
Full Civil Rights to Doctors to Protect Citizens from Gun Violence!
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16th January 2013 at 4:04 pm
John A says:
Trotting out grade schoolers today ‘for the cameras’ is a new low, even for Obama and Biden. Despicable politics. There are mulitple fronts pushing Obama impeachment as I type. This boy is just causing more and more problems for himself.
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16th January 2013 at 4:10 pm
Llpoh says:
I think Hope is right. This will mean you will be unable to buy or sell a gun privately without assuming severe risk. It is effectively going to mean full gun registration.
And we all know how that tends to end.
I did not think I could hate that son of a bitch more. I was wrong. He surprises me over and over.
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16th January 2013 at 4:24 pm
sangell says:
Come on AWD, the only ‘doctors’ who are going to be affected are psychiatrists and psychologists who may lose some patients if they are required to notify local police they have a madman in their care.
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16th January 2013 at 4:26 pm
AWD says:
What a surprise. Obama attached $4.5 billion in spending with executive actions. Fucking politicians:
Obama proposed 23 “gun controling” executive actions, which do little to actually control guns – that part falls to Congress, where the proposal will be promptly killed – but which will add some $4.5 billion to US spending, and which will “push for further action on his health care law, including insisting on the kind of mental health coverage states must provide under their Medicaid programs.”
The breakdown of the spending is as follows, per Weekly Standard:
$4 billion for the president’s proposal “to help keep 15,000 cops on the streets in cities and towns across the country.” (That is roughly $266,000 per police officer.)
$20 million to “give states stronger incentives to make [relevant] data available [for background checks] … “$50 million for this purpose in FY2014”
“$14 million to help train 14,000 more police officers and other public and private personnel to respond to active shooter situations.”
“$10 million for the Centers for Disease Control to conduct further research, including investigating the relationship between video games, media images, and violence.”
$20 million to expand the National Violent Death Reporting System.
$150 million to “put up to 1,000 new school resource officers and school counselors on the job.”
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16th January 2013 at 5:56 pm
AKAnon says:
Sangell-Armor piercing ammunition is rifle ammunition in military calibers with a projectile with a hard insert rather than a soft lead core. Most AP ammunition has a tungsten insert-in a .30 cal projectile, the insert is roughly the diameter of a .223 projectile. AP rounds are typically identified by a black tip. In 50 cal, there are a few variants, including the SLAP round which has a roughly 30 cal tungsten insert and a plastic sabot rather than a copper jacket. These rounds are intended to penetrate metal, and (in part) because the insert does not deform, they can go through a lot thicker steel than a conventional full metal jacket projectile.
There was a proprietary teflon coated pistol round (or at least, so goes the urban legend) that folks said was especially effective at penetrating soft body armor, i.e., the bulletproof vests LEOs typically wear. That ammunition was called armor piercing by the media, although I’d consider that a misnomer. To my knowledge, it has not been available for years.
As far as loading your own, obviously anything you do in your own home that no one knows about, no one knows about. Armor piercing ammunition is not (yet) illegal in most states (CA being among the exceptions), and last time I checked, you could purchase AP 30-06 through the Civilian Marksmanship Program in all but a few states. AP ammo tends to be less accurate than high quality conventional ammo, as the core needs to be perfectly concentric top stabilize as well as a premium bullet. But it was available surplus from armies using the 30-06 round, and was relatively economical to shoot.
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16th January 2013 at 9:52 pm
AKAnon says:
Admin-As the stats you post show, rifles are not the “problem” in murders, not even in firearm-related murders. But military and LEOs are equipped to defend against pistol rounds quite effectively. Not so much against rifles, which are much more likely to be used in the context of the intent of the 2nd Amendment. Bottom line, the goal here is not to protect the masses, it is to protect the thugs.
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16th January 2013 at 9:55 pm
AKAnon says:
Card-While I appreciate your sentiment, and calling your Dad a hypocrite is priceless, in point of fact, his M-1 Carbine may well not qualify as an “assault weapon”. In California, more or less the blueprint for the Feinstein plan, M-1 Carbines and Mini-14s are still legal, as long as they are not modified. In stock form, there is no flash suppressor, pistol grip, collapsible stock, etc. and they can be sold and owned in CA (with 10 round max mags, of course. Which are available for both). In contrast, any AR-15 variant is expressly verboten. All that said, the rules are made by the rulemakers, and we won’t know for sure what is or is not an “assault weapon” until the legislation is passed (or not).
On the same subject of which guns are or are not “AW”s, the M-1 Garand is a relatively safe bet. There is no practical way to load more than 8 rounds, it doesn’t have a pistol grip or a black plastic stock, no flash suppressor, it is long and heavy, and it doesn’t look especially “scary”. Probably the last semi-auto service firearm to trigger the “AW” definition. Yet a pretty damn fine rifle. Ask GS Patton.
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16th January 2013 at 10:11 pm
ecliptix543 says:
Sangell – Umm… next time you’re at the hardware store, pick up a few .125 drill bits, a drill press (if you don’t already have one), and several packs of replacement Zippo flints. Figure the rest out on thine own….
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16th January 2013 at 10:29 pm
sangell says:
I did not know they had Sabot rounds all the way down to .50 caliber. Yeah, tungsten was the metal I was looking for when I mentioned putting a steel rod in rifle round to improve penetration into armor.
I am kind of flummoxed though as to why ‘anti-armor’ rounds made the ‘list’. Where have they been shown to be a problem…anywhere in the US? I guess a few people have .50 cal rifles but, to my knowledge, none have been used to in criminal activity… anywhere. If ruining some police departments armored vehicle is the worry, anyone who can afford a .50 caliber rifle can probably do more damage with 5 gallons of gasoline.
Tell you a story from my days in the army in Panama. We had M-113 APC down there in those days.
Our company was on patrol when one of them hit an ‘ant tree’, i.e, a tree infested with these red ants about one inch long. Millions of them rained down onto the lead APC and seconds later you never saw a rifle squad bail out of their APC faster. The driver opened his hatch and lept out screaming as he ripped his uniform off! Sometimes being on foot is a lot better than being sealed inside a vehicle.
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16th January 2013 at 10:46 pm
llpoh says:
Patton preferred this rifle:
Just saying.
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16th January 2013 at 10:52 pm
AKAnon says:
Re Sabot rounds-Remington made a saboted 30 cal line, heck, probably 30 years ago. I think it is still available. 30-06 with what appears to be a 55 grain .223 bullet, at over 4,000 fps. Also available in 308 and 30-30 (but single feed in a tube magazine-the recoil is very light, but why take a chance?). They were fun, and pretty accurate, but not varmint-grade accurate, which would be their ideal application. They are loaded w/ soft points, not AP. Aside from the novelty, I have no interest-when I shoot a 30 cal, I want a 165+ grain bullet. If I’m shooting anything smaller, I usually wish it was bigger.
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16th January 2013 at 10:58 pm
sangell says:
Germans called American tanks ‘Ronsons’ after the lighter. Patton probably would have rather been equipped with these
but, as they say quantity has a ‘quality’ of its own. As per my story about the APC. one lbs of ants can make a 22,000 lbs armored personel carrier uninhabitable.
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16th January 2013 at 11:00 pm
AKAnon says:
Nope. He loved his tanks, but: “George S. Patton, Jr. proclaimed it (the M-1 Garand), “the greatest single battle implement ever devised by man.”"
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16th January 2013 at 11:02 pm
Gary lester says:
They killed JFK and used it for an excuse to pass anti gun
Laws…
Do we trust the government?
If we do, we are mentally retarded.
Can you think of any government worth trusting
Anywhere on the planet?
Government is definitely an evil but no longer necessary.
I can protect myself just fine with available tech.
Has anybody thought about the fact that representitive government
Was an expedient in an era when communication was
Limited to horses?
Its had no valid logical reason to continue to exist since
The invention of the telephone…
Get rid of the present form of government. Replace it with 100%
referendums..
Obama makes black people look bad. I feel sorry for them
He’s just a professional liar.
No more, no less…
Civil war on the horizon…
Sad but true.
Which side are you on?
The constituion is the governments legitamacy
Contract with the people. They have breached the contract repeatedly and
Willfully…
They are therefore enemies domestic.
Funny how they never mention psychotropic drugs
In these mass shootings cases…
G
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16th January 2013 at 10:27 am