Tag: Gun Control

  • Watch are living: Actor Matthew McConaughey joins White Space press briefing on weapons

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    Actor and gun-policy recommend Matthew McConaughey will sign up for White Space press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday for the Biden management’s day-to-day press briefing.

    His White-Space look comes an afternoon after McConaughey, identified for his roles in motion pictures like “The Marriage ceremony Planner” and “Dallas Consumers Membership,” wrote an op-ed within the The Austin American-Statesman titled “It is Time to Act on Gun Accountability.”

    The actor referred to as upon lawmakers to comprehend the variation between gun “regulate” and “duty” within the wake of a grotesque mass capturing in Might that left 19 youngsters and two lecturers lifeless in Uvalde, Texas, the place McConaughey was once born.

    “I consider that accountable, law-abiding American citizens have a 2d Modification proper, enshrined by means of our founders, to endure palms. I additionally consider we’ve a cultural legal responsibility to take steps towards slowing down the mindless killing of our youngsters,” he wrote.

    “There’s no constitutional barrier to gun duty,” McConaughey persevered. “Retaining firearms out of the arms of unhealthy other people is not just the accountable factor to do, it’s the easiest way to offer protection to the 2d Modification. We will do each.”

    The Biden management has referred to as upon Congress to go gun regulate measures within the wake of 2 high-profile mass shootings closing month: The fundamental faculty killings in Uvalde and a separate, racist assault at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York that left 10 slain.

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  • Republican Who Represented Uvalde, Texas Calls for ‘Extra Than Ideas And Prayers’

    Will Hurd, a former U.S. congressman who represented Uvalde, Texas, desires “greater than ideas and prayers” in addressing the country’s gun violence factor on Monday.

    “Final month, a fourth-grade study room in Uvalde, Texas, a small, quiet group that I represented in Congress, turned into a warfare zone. Nineteen stunning, blameless kids and two devoted, courageous lecturers are long past ceaselessly as a result of a vicious bloodbath,” Hurd wrote in an op-ed in The New York Occasions. “It’s infuriating. It’s heartbreaking. It was once preventable.”

    Within the wake of the bloodbath at Robb Fundamental Faculty, and some other mass taking pictures in Buffalo, New York that left 10 lifeless final month, a bipartisan workforce of senators are running on a gun keep watch over invoice. However GOP lawmakers have argued that no new regulations would save you other people from committing gun violence and blamed the shootings on an array of different components. Many had been criticized for providing “ideas and prayers” as an alternative of significant answers.

    “I consider within the simple language of the 2d Modification. In Congress I had an A score with the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation, they usually supported my re-election campaigns,” Hurd famous. “I additionally consider it’s ridiculous that any try to reform regulations to stay deadly firearms out of irresponsible arms is met with outrage and stonewalling.”

    Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) is calling for gun reform laws, including universal background checks, red flag laws and raising the age to purchase high-caliber semiautomatic weapons.
    Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) is looking for gun reform regulations, together with common background tests, crimson flag regulations and elevating the age to buy high-caliber semiautomatic guns.

    Hurd known as for a multifaceted technique to The united states’s gun violence factor, together with more potent social protection nets in communities and out there, high quality psychological well being care amenities.

    “However we additionally will have to be ready if our makes an attempt are unsuccessful — and that suggests fighting attainable mass shooters from gaining access to guns and sufferers,” he wrote.

    Hurd was once one among 8 Republican lawmakers to vote in want of H.R. 8, a invoice handed by way of the Space final 12 months that might’ve required common background tests for gun purchases.

    Expenses like H.R. 8 will have to be signed into legislation, Hurd stated, and the age to buy a high-caliber semiautomatic weapon will have to be raised. Crimson flag regulations that permit legislation enforcement to briefly confiscate firearms from people who might pose a threat to themselves or others will have to even be constructed at a federal stage, he stated.

    “Mass shootings don’t need to be a reality of existence. They’re preventable. Alternatively, we will’t retreat to our political corners and repeat the similar drained speaking issues,” Hurd mentioned.

    Learn the total article in The New York Occasions.

  • New York Governor Indicators 10 Gun Reform Regulations After Spate Of Mass Shootings

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed 10 gun-related expenses Monday that can bar the ones more youthful than 21 from purchasing or proudly owning semi-automatic rifles, ban the acquisition of frame armor for many civilians and support the state’s crimson flag regulations, amongst different provisions.

    The landmark bundle is without doubt one of the first main efforts by means of a state to move new gun keep watch over regulation after a spate of mass shootings around the country, together with the fatal bloodbath that left 21 other people lifeless — 19 of that have been babies — in Uvalde, Texas, remaining month. New York had a mass capturing simply days ahead of when a gunman opened fired at a grocery retailer in a predominantly Black group in Buffalo. The shooter killed 10 other people in what government described as “hate-filled home terrorism.”

    Democrats within the New York Legislature authorized the 10-bill bundle of gun regulation remaining week. The regulations can even mandate microstamping on some new firearms to assist government clear up gun-related crimes.

    “I’m talking to you these days because the Governor of a state in mourning and the citizen of a country in disaster. For over the last few weeks, we’ve been triumph over by means of grief, by means of heartache, by means of anger,” Hochul stated Monday. “In New York, we’re taking daring, robust motion. We’re tightening the crimson flag regulations to stay weapons clear of bad other people. And we’re elevating the age of semi-automatic guns so no 18-year-old can stroll in on their birthday and stroll out with an AR-15. The ones days are over.”

    The regulation’s passage was once hailed by means of gun reform teams.

    “Those expenses are commonsense,” Kris Brown, president of Brady: United Towards Gun Violence, stated in a commentary. “They’re going to cope with gun violence in all of its paperwork and achieve this whilst respecting citizens’ 2d Modification rights. This bundle of regulations will assist to stay New Yorkers secure and are a transparent instance for the remainder of the country to behave to forestall gun violence.”

    Democrats in Congress were looking to move some semblance of gun reform for the reason that string of mass shootings, however have struggled to box any main proposals that may move the Senate with Democrats’ slim, 50-50 majority there (for which Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tie-breaking vote). A bipartisan staff of senators is operating on a modest effort that would come with watered-down background exams for gun purchases.

    Hochul stated Monday that New York would proceed to paintings to rein in gun violence, urging Congress to practice the state’s lead “and take speedy motion to move significant gun violence prevention measures.”

    “Ideas and prayers received’t repair this,” she stated. “However taking robust motion will. And we’ll do this within the title of the lives which have been misplaced.”

  • ‘What Are You Speaking About?!?’: John Oliver Nails The Madness Of GOP’s Take On Weapons

    John Oliver tore into Republicans on Sunday evening for his or her same old reaction to mass shootings.

    “Everyone knows what the important thing drawback is right here: It’s weapons,” Oliver stated. “It’s as a result of we let principally whoever needs to shop for a gun on this nation have one, which has ended in tragic penalties.”

    Maximum mass shooters ― together with the gunman who killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers at an basic faculty in Uvalde, Texas, final month ― download their guns legally.

    “So, we all know what the solution to this drawback is, too: It’s gun regulate,” the host of “Ultimate Week This night” stated. “It’s significant, efficient gun rules.”

    But Republicans are “desperately pitching” different answers. Oliver then performed clips of conservatives calling for the whole lot from faith to “ballistic blankets” in colleges.

    “What are you speaking about?!?” Oliver requested. “Use a blanket isn’t a method for preventing deaths right through a faculty taking pictures. It’s slightly a method for ‘a hen were given in the home.’”

    However some of the not unusual speaking issues ― particularly from the appropriate ― comes to placing extra police into colleges, even though there are few cases of law enforcement officials preventing would-be mass shooters. And in lots of cases, those self same officials finally end up hurting the very youngsters they’re sworn to give protection to, particularly youngsters of colour:

  • Fox Anchor Asks Steve Scalise If GOP Is ‘Out Of Step’ With Electorate On Gun Keep an eye on

    Area Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-L. a..) deflected when faced on Fox Information Sunday over whether or not the GOP is “out of step” with citizens on proposed gun regulate regulation.

    After stating that the U.S. “a long way and away leads each and every different country” within the evolved global on the subject of gun violence, Fox Information anchor John Roberts pointed to polling that confirmed 89% of American citizens make stronger background tests for gun homeowners and 74% make stronger pink flag regulations.

    “You and different Republicans have perspectives about background tests and pink flag regulations that appear to run counter to what public sentiment is,” Roberts informed the Louisiana Republican. “So are the perspectives that you simply and your colleagues grasp out of step with the place the country is?”

    Scalise argued that the questions within the ballot had been deceptive and known as pink flag regulations “unconstitutional.”

    “Below the guise of ‘pink flag,’ they remove due procedure,” he argued.

    “They actually come into your home and remove your gun with out you even understanding that there was once some roughly continuing the place anyone stated, ‘Oh, I believe that [person] may well be a risk,’” the lawmaker stated.

    In maximum cases national, a pink flag regulation permits regulation enforcement to briefly take hold of firearms from people who are observed as a risk to themselves or folks, if given a court docket order to take action.

    “If that had’ve came about in terms of the Buffalo shooter, ten folks can be alive these days,” Roberts identified.

    “Smartly once more, due procedure is a constitutional proper,” Scalise spoke back.

    His feedback come amid renewed force on Congress to move gun reform regulation within the wake of an alarming spate of mass shootings, together with a bloodbath in Buffalo, New York, that left ten folks useless closing month and a college taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two lecturers.

    A bipartisan workforce of senators started discussions closing week on attainable gun regulate regulation that may most likely come with pink flag regulations and stricter background take a look at measures for gun purchases.

    Scalise is amongst a lot of GOP lawmakers who’ve vehemently defended gun rights and blamed different components for the violence. He’s a sufferer of gun violence himself; he was once struck within the hip on the 2017 congressional baseball taking pictures.

  • Sen. Chris Murphy: ‘We are Nearer Than Ever Prior to’ On Bipartisan Gun Regulation

    Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has been main bipartisan talks within the Senate on gun keep an eye on regulation, stated extra Republicans are on the desk operating towards converting gun rules and making an investment in psychological well being than “at any time since Sandy Hook.”

    “I’ve by no means been a part of negotiations as critical as those,” he stated in an interview Sunday with CNN’S “State of the Union.”

    “We’re speaking a few significant exchange in our gun rules, a significant funding in psychological well being, possibly some cash for varsity safety that might make a distinction. At the desk is pink flag rules, adjustments to our background test device to enhance the prevailing device, a handful of alternative pieces that may make a distinction,” he stated.

    Murphy on Friday instructed CNN that there are numerous “exceptional” problems that also had to be hammered out, together with whether or not to boost the minimal age to buy a semi-automatic rifle to 21.

    “I don’t know but whether or not there’s sufficient make stronger to get to 60 votes on that,” Murphy stated of elevating the buying age. “There’s numerous exceptional questions that we’ll have to respond to subsequent week.”

    Murphy, who has been an outspoken suggest of gun keep an eye on because the 2012 Sandy Hook Fundamental College taking pictures in Newtown, Connecticut, has been assembly with senators about attainable adjustments to present gun rules within the wake of a spate of mass shootings, together with remaining month’s violence by way of gun-wielding youngsters in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

    Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a rally with fellow Senate Democrats and gun control advocacy groups outside the U.S. Capitol on May 26 in Washington, D.C.
    Sen. Chris Murphy speaks all the way through a rally with fellow Senate Democrats and gun keep an eye on advocacy teams out of doors the U.S. Capitol on Would possibly 26 in Washington, D.C.

    Chip Somodevilla by the use of Getty Photographs

    Murphy stated Sunday that the gang’s discussions had been across the clock, with Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) giving him till the tip of this week to strike a compromise.

    “As overdue as remaining evening we had been engaged in conversations about looking to put a bundle in combination. I believe Republicans notice how scared folks and youngsters are around the nation. I believe they notice that this time can’t be not anything,” he instructed CNN’s Jake Tapper.

    Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was once tapped by way of Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell to steer the negotiations for his celebration, instructed Politico that if the Senate can’t agree on a legislative reaction after the new taking pictures in Texas “it’ll be embarrassing.”

    A man is comforted by a Texas Department of Public Safety officer at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School on Friday in Uvalde, Texas.
    A person is comforted by way of a Texas Division of Public Protection officer at a memorial out of doors Robb Fundamental College on Friday in Uvalde, Texas.

    “It might feed the narrative that we will’t get issues completed within the public pastime,” he stated.

    Cornyn, in an interview with The Washington Publish on Thursday, stated the taking pictures has “given us a way of urgency that possibly we haven’t had prior to now.”

    He stated he’s “no longer naive” however as a substitute “hopeful.”

    Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), some of the GOP participants within the staff, additionally expressed optimism of their development Wednesday.

    “We’re making speedy development towards a common sense bundle that would garner make stronger from each Republicans and Democrats,” Collins stated in a observation.

  • Republican Congressman Quits Race After Backlash Over His Gun Stance

    A Republican congressman is losing his bid for reelection after backlash from his personal birthday celebration over his stance on more potent gun law.

    Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.) stated he would enhance a ban at the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle following the white supremacist mass capturing in Buffalo closing month that left 10 folks lifeless and the college capturing in Uvalde, Texas, wherein a gunman killed 21 folks.

    “If an attack guns ban invoice got here to the ground that will ban one thing like an AR-15, I might vote for it,” Jacobs informed newshounds closing week.

    “I will be able to’t in excellent judgment of right and wrong take a seat again and say I didn’t attempt to do one thing,” he added.

    However on Friday, Jacobs introduced he would abandon his bid for reelection after intense backlash from his personal birthday celebration, together with from native birthday celebration leaders who pulled their enhance, The Buffalo Information reported.

    “This clearly arises out of closing Friday, my remarks, statements on being receptive to gun controls,” Jacobs informed the newsletter. “And because that point, each Republican elected [official] that had counseled me withdrew their endorsement. Birthday celebration officers that supported me withdrew, maximum of them, and people who have been going to [support me] stated they wouldn’t. And so clearly, this was once now not neatly gained via the Republican base.”

    Although he scored a 92% score with the gun rights crew Gun Homeowners of The us and was once counseled via the NRA in 2020, Jacobs stated the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings modified his standpoint on simple get admission to to attack guns.

    “Being a father and having babies and visualizing what the ones folks are going via and, I suppose, with the ability to really feel it extra individually indisputably has had an have an effect on as neatly,” Jacobs informed The Buffalo Information.

  • Foreigners Shred GOP’s ‘Door’ Resolution To Mass Shootings In ‘Day by day Display’ Bit

    “The Day by day Display” quizzed foreigners about gun violence of their house international locations to determine find out how to care for “The united states’s door drawback.”

    The comedy program went to Instances Sq. to talk with vacationers within the wake of a couple of mass shootings, together with a bloodbath at an basic college, that has positioned renewed power on lawmakers to enforce gun regulate. Many elected Republicans, corresponding to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have claimed that the problem comes all the way down to too many or too few doorways in faculties.

    “The Day by day Display” correspondent Michael Kosta requested passersby from India, Poland, Eire, France, Colombia and the U.Okay. in regards to the U.S.’s uniquely prime charges of mass shootings.

    “All they sought after to speak about was once weapons,” Kosta stated.

    Watch their reactions under after Kosta proposes the door resolution:

  • Biden Exhorts Congress To Go Gun Keep watch over Regulations

    WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden delivered simply the second one night deal with of his presidency on Thursday night time, virtually begging Congress to go gun keep an eye on law following but every other wave of mass shootings stretching from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Buffalo, New York.

    “Sufficient,” Biden mentioned again and again, invoking the handfuls of faculty shootings that experience swept The united states over the last decade. “We will be able to’t fail the American other folks once more.”

    Biden delivered his 15-minute speech, knowledgeable via his contemporary journeys to each Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, from the East Room of the White Area after strolling down an aisle coated with small candles.

    He referred to as on Congress to go a set of gun keep an eye on measures: common background take a look at law, a ban on attack guns, a countrywide “crimson flag” legislation to take weapons clear of the mentally sick, elevating the age to shop for a gun to 21 and the repeal of a legal responsibility defend for gun producers.

    “It’s time to behave for the kids we’ve misplaced, the kids we will save, the country we adore,” Biden exhorted, noting that the Facilities for Illness Keep watch over and Prevention now says gun violence is the main killer of American kids, surpassing site visitors injuries. “Allow us to after all do one thing.”

    Maximum of Biden’s pleas will fall on deaf ears in Congress, drowned out via common GOP opposition to just about any measure to rein in gun violence or prohibit the gun business’s energy.

    Whilst Democrats and Republicans within the Senate are positive a few deal to struggle faculty shootings within the wake of the dying of nineteen scholars and two academics in Uvalde, best some of the deal’s provisions — a strengthening of the federal background take a look at machine — would limit gun possession.

    Shirish Date contributed reporting.

  • Rules Are Needless: Republicans Say No Gun Legislation Can Forestall A Mass Shooter

    WASHINGTON ― Requiring gun patrons to be no less than 21 gained’t prevent 18-year-olds from shopping weapons and hastily killing other people, in line with a number of Republicans at the Area Judiciary Committee.

    Their argument rests on their trust that people who find themselves intent on doing hurt will achieve this without reference to whether or not there are rules in opposition to it ― a mind-set that calls into query all of the endeavor of writing rules.

    Democrats referred to as the listening to Thursday to advance a bundle of gun keep an eye on regulation in accordance with fresh high-profile mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York by which 18-year-olds killed greater than 30 other people blended.

    A key a part of the bundle would lift the federal minimal age for purchasing maximum shotguns and rifles, together with the AR-15 attack rifles that had been utilized in each the shootings, to 21.

    Present regulation underneath the Gun Keep an eye on Act simplest calls for somebody to be 21 to shop for a handgun from an authorized broker, however any person no less than 18 years of age can buy shotguns, rifles and ammunition. The gunman in Uvalde who killed 19 schoolchildren legally purchased attack rifles from an authorized broker simply days after his 18th birthday.

    “This invoice would no longer deal with the tragedies we’ve observed spread across the nation within the remaining couple weeks,” Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the committee’s most sensible Republican, mentioned all over the Thursday listening to.

    “It will no longer prevent the horrible occasions we noticed, wouldn’t harden faculties,” Jordan added, relating to Republican proposals to extend faculty safety, akin to by means of including armed guards, arming academics and lowering the selection of doorways on faculty constructions.

    Within the wake of the shootings, many Republicans have described Democratic proposals as futile, arguing Congress is powerless to prevent mass shooters with the exception of by means of giving extra firepower to their meant goals. The futility argument used to be out in pressure at Thursday’s listening to.

    “Those expenses which were offered… shouldn’t have averted what came about within the remaining 3 shootings and plenty of different shootings,” Rep. Ken Dollar (R-Col.) mentioned.

    “We’ve a major problem involving households, involving medication, involving psychological well being on this nation,” Dollar endured. “We’ve long gone the improper course within the remaining 40 or 50 years. We’ve transform a much less protected society in most cases. Blaming the gun for what’s taking place in The united states is small-minded.”

    Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) mentioned the next age restrict wouldn’t prevent “decided” youngsters from turning into mass shooters. “I don’t suppose that those other people wouldn’t wait a yr or two” to shop for their weapons, he mentioned.

    Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) prompt that any effort to put in writing a regulation lowering gun crime could be a waste of time, as a result of all gun crimes are dedicated by means of criminals.

    “Each and every any such expenses is unserious and unconstitutional and suffers from the issue ― the inherent downside that the majority gun keep an eye on suffers from,” Massie mentioned. “This is: Criminals don’t obey the regulation. They don’t observe the regulation.”

    By no means thoughts that the similar argument may well be made in opposition to any proposed regulation with prison consequences.

    Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) identified {that a} upper age requirement would, in reality, have made a distinction in Uvalde and in Buffalo.

    “For each and every time somebody sits on this assembly and says not anything we’re doing right here would have averted this, smartly in truth, if we had a regulation it mentioned you must be 21 to shop for, then those two AR-15s shouldn’t have been bought,” Deutch mentioned.

    Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) mentioned the upper gun-buying age would even have averted mass shootings in Santa Fe, Texas; Parkland, Florida; Newtown, Connecticut; and Columbine, Colorado.

    “The ones shouldn’t have been ready to occur if the ones killers couldn’t get the gun as a result of they weren’t sufficiently old but,” Cicilline mentioned. “Forestall announcing not anything on this regulation would have modified the rest. That may be a lie.”

    Although the shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo were not able to shop for their rifles from approved sellers, the proposed regulation shouldn’t have blocked them from shopping the weapons from an unlicensed supply, akin to from a hobbyist at a gun display or some random individual on the web. Democrats have proposed increasing background assessments to hide such unlicensed transactions however no longer elevating the age restrict for them.

    Even though the federal age requirement for purchasing shotguns and rifles is eighteen years of age or older, Florida raised the age restrict for gun purchases to 21 after a young person gunman killed 17 other people at a highschool in Parkland, Florida. However Republicans from Florida, together with Sen. Rick Scott, who signed the age restriction into regulation as Florida’s governor on the time, have no longer supported the next age restrict nationally.

    No longer all Republicans agreed concerning the uselessness of a better age restrict. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) uttered that the proposed age restriction will have made a distinction in Uvalde and New York.

    “In the event that they couldn’t gain them legally, and also you think they wouldn’t have got them differently, it will have stopped that individual incident,” Bishop informed HuffPost all over a damage within the listening to.

    However Bishop and different Republicans had some other argument in opposition to the upper age requirement: that it may well be unconstitutional since the Ultimate Court docket has mentioned the 2nd Modification of the Charter protects a person’s proper to possess a gun.

    A federal appeals courtroom dominated remaining month {that a} California regulation disallowing gun gross sales to other people underneath 21 used to be unconstitutional. Some other federal courtroom remaining yr mentioned the federal regulation banning handgun gross sales to these underneath 21 used to be unconstitutional, despite the fact that the verdict used to be later vacated as moot since the plaintiffs had been not 21.

    Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Col.) countered that an appeals courtroom determination isn’t “the ultimate at the constitutionality of a given provision.”

    Different new gun keep an eye on measures Democrats are taking over come with a ban on high-capacity magazines, necessities that each one weapons be traceable and regulations for storing weapons in properties with kids.