Sunday, January 23, 2011

Bloomberg Promises Announcement

Mayor Bloomberg's office issued a statement that on Monday there would be a major announcement on "illegal guns and the federal background check system."

"The more we learn, the more it becomes clear that this case is fundamentally about a mentally ill drug abuser who had access to guns who shouldn’t have," Bloomberg said of the Tucson shooting at the Jan. 11 meeting.

"As this case makes terribly clear, deadly gaps [in the nation's gun laws] still remain."
Yes, indeed "deadly gaps" exist not to mention a couple of loopholes.

What's your opinion?  Any guesses as to what the statement will be.

Please leave a comment.

4 comments:

  1. So few people realize (apparently including politicians) that the states participation in the NCIS background check data base is OPTIONAL, not mandatory.

    Twenty Eight states have not provided a single name of a person in their jurisdictions that have been declared too dangerously mentally ill to own a gun.

    http://www.openleft.com/diary/21439/28-states-virtually-ignore-mental-health-gun-database

    Check out the link and see where your state ranks, if you live in the U.S.

    More than half of the U.S., even if you throwin in D.C. as a separate jurisdiction.

    Millions more names of crimnals, and others who legally are not allowed to buy guns aren't in that data base either.

    We have the NRA to thank for that.

    That optional thing, that needs to change to mandatory AND funded.

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  2. MikeB: “Any guesses as to what the statement will be.”

    I’ll tell you what the statement won’t be. It won’t be, “we need to open the NICS for private use”.

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  3. TS, I'm sure you're right, but as one who keeps pushing for that, what do you think about the shabby quality of the data. The more I hear, like what Dog Gone just cited, it seems practically useless as a tool for screening.

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  4. MikeB: “I'm sure you're right, but as one who keeps pushing for that, what do you think about the shabby quality of the data.”

    There is a procedure in place to disqualify people on a list. If disqualified people are not getting on that list for reporting reasons, then it has nothing to do with the NRA. I am sure improvements can always be made in that regard. The NRA backed and helped write the 2007 legislation to help that effort- conveniently forgotten by those who perpetually bash the NRA.

    If you think our current background system is useless because of holes, then I have a proposal: Abolish the background system immediately. Develop a new background system that still protects private sales and fills all the reporting holes. Reinstate new background check system. Compare violent crime and murder rates under our current system, no system, and new system.

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