Alternet
Vice-President Joe Biden's first detailed remarks about the package
of gun control reforms he intends to present next Tuesday to President
Obama are solid first steps.
Speaking Thursday in Washington in between meetings with various gun
control constituencies -- from pro-control victims groups and public
health physicians on one side to the NRA on the other side -- Biden laid
out seven proposals that would more or less reset the federal clock on
gun control laws to where it was in 1985, a year before Congress started
loosening decades of laws under the Reagan administration and NRA
lobbying. Biden repeatedly earned an F rating from the NRA during his tenure in the Senate.
Here are the seven agenda items, which Biden said had near-unanimous support from gun control groups.
1) Close the so-called gun show loophole. In 1986,
Congress passed a law allowing people to buy a firearm at one of the
thousands of gun shows held each year across the country. These sales
require no licensing of the gun buyer, no background checks, no waiting
periods before getting the gun, no reporting sales to local or federal
authorities. Today, 40 percent of gun sales annually across the county
occur at gun shows, and by some estimates 80 percent of weapons used in
crimes are bought at gun shows.
“There is a surprising—so far—a surprising recurrence of suggestions
that we have universal background checks, not just close the gun show
loophole but totally universal background checks including private
sales,” Biden said.
2) Universal background checks for gun buyers; and 3) improve background check database.
These two proposals are connected and face significant political,
technical and legal hurdles. Congress has barred certain groups of
people from owning guns for decades, starting with felons in 1934. In
1968, Congress expanded that list to include the mentally ill and drug
addicts. In 1993, Congress passed the Brady Bill—named after Ronald
Reagan’s press secretary who was shot—which instituted a federal system
of background checks for gun buyers, and extended the waiting period to
five days before buyers could get their guns.
The background check system has been in shambles for years, as AlterNet has reported,
with three-quarters of the states choosing not to share court
information about felons and the mentally ill with federal authorities,
and the Supreme Court ruling in 1997 that states didn’t have to comply
with the reporting requirement.
Even though Congress passed a 2007 law creating federally
administered grants to states to overcome technical hurdles with sending
information to the Justice Department (some states submit information
electronically; others infrequently mail a CD) only a dozen states
account for most of the data six years after that became law. Biden
complained about this non-compliance Thursday. However, the solution
doesn’t appear to be a quick fix if past is precedent.
“It doesn’t do a lot of good when in some states they have a backlog
of 40, 50, 60,000 felons that they never registered here,” Biden said.
“So we have got to talk about, there is a lot of talk about how we
entice, or what is the impediment keeping states from relaying this
information.”
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Police Station Shooting
CBS Detroit reports
Please leave a comment.
Investigators say the gunman who opened fire inside the Inskter Police Station late Friday night was found dead just moments after the shooting.Pretty wild story. What do you make of it?
Police say the incident happened around 11:50 p.m., when several individuals walked into the station to file a police report. Lt. Jeffery Smith said the residents were reporting that their dog had been stolen by a man who tried to run them off the road.
As police were collecting details, the man who allegedly stole the victims’ dog entered the station and fired two rounds in the lobby before fleeing the scene. No one was injured.
Smith said the suspect was found a short time later in a neighboring city.
“Garden City police ended up spotting a vehicle that matched the description and attempted to stop that vehicle for investigative purposes. The vehicle came to a slow, rolling stop and officers discovered when they approached that the driver was deceased from an apparent gunshot wound, self-inflicted,” Smith said
Please leave a comment.
More on the Taft High School Shooting
A Taft Union High School student targeted and shot by a classmate was on life support and in intensive care Friday but is expected to recover, hospital officials said, as law enforcement authorities sought to discern a motive for the attack.An UNARMED teacher talked him down. Get it?
The 16-year-old boy, whom authorities have not identified, suffered injuries to the lungs and liver after shotgun pellets hit his chest and abdomen, officials at Kern County Medical Center said.
Law enforcement officials said the suspect, also age 16, would be charged with attempted murder. They did not give his name because he is a minor.
They said they were investigating what role bullying may have had in motivating him to fire a 12-gauge shotgun at students in his science class. In addition to the hospitalized victim, the suspect tried to shoot a second student and missed before the teacher was able to talk him down, authorities said.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Accidental Shooting Death in Illinois - Felon Arrested
Local news reports
That's the deal. In order to get arrested for negligently shooting someone you must be a felon in possession of the gun.According to a release from the Champaign Police Department, officers interviewed both the victim and the suspect after responding to Carle Hospital for a report of a shooting. Preliminary information provided to police indicated 20-year-old Champaign resident Antonio Brown accidentally shot Indiana resident Sydni Kay Blackwell, his 20-year-old girlfriend.
Blackwell was wounded at the Super 8 Motel at 3:01 a.m. after Brown accidentally discharged a round while improperly handling a gun. Blackwell died at 12:45 p.m. at Carle Hospital.
Brown was arrested on the charge of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and aggravated discharge of a firearm after officers recovered the gun used in the shooting. He is currently being held at the Champaign County Jail.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Missouri 12-Year-old Dead Mishandling a Gun - No Arrests
Local news reports
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
A 12-year-old child died Saturday after suffering a gunshot wound while mishandling a handgun in Breckenridge, Mo., Friday evening, deputies said.I know, I know, the investigation is ongoing. But, for me that's not good enough. It should not take too long to determine whose gun it was or who the responsible adult was. That person should be arrested immediately just like the author of a DWI or a murder.
Caldwell County deputies said they were called to a home on West Maple Street about 8:45 p.m. and found the injured child.
The victim was flown to a Kansas City-area hospital and was pronounced dead there.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Ammoland's Take on the Proposed VA Gun Laws
Bad ones so far include:
* Forcing gun show promoters to provide background checks on private sales (making gun shows impractical to have)
* Misdemeanor domestic violence conviction to disable a person from owning firearms
Now that's pretty interesting. Apparently, in spite of what we keep hearing, Virginia does not remove guns from domestic abusers if they're convicted of a misdemeanor.
The best part is their rationale for not extending the background check requirement.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)