Thursday, January 17, 2013

Josh Horwitz' Response to the President's Announcement

With the tearful parents of 7-year-old Sandy Hook victim Grace McDonnell looking on, President Obama announced a bold new plan to reform our gun laws at the White House today and urged Americans nationwide to call their Members of Congress to demand immediate action.

The President's bold and ambitious plan includes 23 different executive orders to reduce gun violence and major legislative proposals, including:
  • A renewal of the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
  • Universal background checks on all gun purchases.
  • The elimination of restrictions on federally-funded research into gun violence.
You can read CSGV's official statement on the press conference here.

It was my distinct honor to attend this event. I have never heard our President sound more determined, more resolute. His message about our response to this tragedy was simple and clear: "This time must be different ... If parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, if hunters and sportsmen, if responsible gun owners, if Americans of every background stand up and say, 'Enough; we’ve suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue'—then change will come. That’s what it’s going to take."

Ready to do your part? Call your Members of Congress today, and every day, through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you demand immediate action on the President's proposals to end gun violence.
 
We've all waited for this moment, and now it has arrived. Don't hold back. Let's move forward, together, and make sure that days like December 14, 2012 are not part of America's future.

Sincerely, 
 
Josh Horwitz
Executive Director

11 comments:

  1. Sad. Spree killers are not dependent upon any give specific weapon or class of weapons. As a result, using the horrific events of CT is dishonest and appears designed to garner support through the deliberate use of a logical fallacy (misleading vividness). To prostitute that event, and more than that, the unspeakable hurt of those who lost loved ones, for political gain is beyond disgusting. This is taking advantage of the pain of others to pursue an agenda. And, just as sadly, those who do it are most likely completely unaware of what they're doing. They probably truly believe this is an appropriate action, that they're helping the hurting to heal and preventing such pain for others in the future.

    I know. I've heard it before. "We need to use this event, and those who suffered from it, before the public forgets". But that's a lie. We don't need to do that. Why? Because it diminishes the individual to being the face of a group and little more than an object to be used. People are not objects. Each and every one of them has real worth, real value and their pain is not political capital to be used. And no one gives a damn.

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    1. I agree the political theatrics are stupid, but you're going way over the top. No one is diminishing the individual.

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    2. Treating individuals as potentially insane or criminal and thereby restricting their choices before the fact diminishes them--not in their inherent worth, but in the range of possibility. That's what your side wants, Mikeb. Your side wants us to choose only things that have been approved from on high.

      Unlike many of my fellow commentors here, I don't mind having a government that spends money--when we pay for it, rather than borrow--on grand ideas. I see a healthcare system that many other first world nations have as expanding choice for the individual. My guiding principle is to expand choice for each person.

      What's yours?

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    3. Really? What shall we call it when we use other people and their pain to further an agenda? Shall we call it elevating them? Bogus. By definition, any time we use people to further our own ends we have treated them as objects. The nobility of the cause is irrelevant. There are really only two ways to view people: As people who have real worth and value greater than any cause or goal, or as objects, things to be used at will. I've counseled people on both sides of the coin. I've yet to see a third view that doesn't reduce to one or the other.

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    4. People who are trying to do something about the gun violence are honoring the victims not using them. You gun-rights advocates are guilty of not only the problem in the first place, but of dishonoring the victims after every tragedy by fighting so hard to keep the status quo.

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    5. Bullshit, Mikeb. How to honor the victims is one point of debate among many. You believe yourself to be on the side of righteousness, but we don't agree with that assessment. To us, honoring the victims would be to make sure that no good citizen ever has to be only a victim again by being armed.

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  2. typo note: "give" should read "given"

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  3. So, this seems as good a place as any to leave this information:

    New York ramrodded its law through so quickly, and without reviewing it, that they didn't even realize it didn't exempt cops. That's right--Cops are not allowed high capacity magazines in New York State until they get around to fixing it.

    http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fnew_york&id=8958116

    What an example for the Country to follow!!!


    By the way, Mike, I'm curious; Why is it that retired police are always given an exemption under gun control laws? They aren't enforcing the law or confronting criminals anymore, so why are they more special than the rest of us?

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    Replies
    1. Ooops! Typical for control freaks and bureaucrats--look busy and meddle without understanding in the lives of others.

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    2. Thanks for the link, T. I posted it today. I wouldn't mind if retired cops should go back to civilian status.

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  4. By the way, Mike, I'm curious; Why is it that retired police are always given an exemption under gun control laws? They aren't enforcing the law or confronting criminals anymore, so why are they more special than the rest of us?

    Your answer in two words: "POLICE UNIONS"

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