A rifle, a shotgun, and one other weapon killed 12 innocent theatergoers in Colorado this morning, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York is one of the few who has had the courage and common sense to identify the perpetrators. NYT:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, who has waged a national campaign for stricter gun laws, called on President Obama and Mr. Romney to more concretely address the issue of gun violence in their campaigns.
“You know, soothing words are nice,” Mr. Bloomberg said during his weekly radio program, “but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country.”
No guns in the hands of a homicidal maniac in Colorado, no mass murder in a movie theater. Gun control is legal, sensible, and should be implemented immediately nationwide, and far more vigorously in Massachusetts so that we can reduce the chances of a similar tragedy here.
Discuss
14 Comments . Leave a comment below.Maybe it’s time to regulate that militia out there, starting with a ban on assault weapons (cue JP Sousa, wave many flags.)
…by proclamation of the President. For the record, this means they are to be flown one flag width from the top and NOT literally halfway down the poll.
As for gun control, I’d love to open up that debate again, but it’s hard to have an adult conversation when the head of the NRA insists that the President has a secret plan to confiscate all the guns in his second term despite poor grades from the Brady Campaign.
We also need to do something about mental health diagnosis and treatment in this country – something beyond a handful of pills at an outpatient clinic.
I will pray for all these victims, both the dead and the living. I hope they are recover and I hope we all can cope with the insane person. I also hope he never sees the light of day again.
Very sad.
folks like Northeastern University’s James Alan Fox, who blogs at boston.com, encourage the “it’s sad but there’s nothing we can do about it” reaction.
That makes no sense to me. Of course we cannot rid the land of guns. But part of what makes people like the Colorado assailant able to kill and injure so many people so fast is the kind of weapons to which they have easy access. Yes, he would have been able to get hold of a gun even if there were better laws. But maybe it wouldn’t have been one (or three) that let him squeeze off round after round in rapid succession.
I’m sorry, but nobody in America needs access to weapons like that to vindicate their constitutional rights. Nobody.
In what scenario is it rational for civilians to be able to buy 100-round magazines for semiautomatic rifles firing a military bullet? The only hunting use for such a device is the one this guy put it to – hunting people. These things were illegal under the late lamented assault-weapon ban. They should be again.
If somebody wants the guns they can have per a generous reading of the Second Amendment, they are restricted to the guns that were available when it was written.
Sad to wake up to this story. I was out in Colorado many moons ago, everyone I met seemed to own some sort of rifle, I think for hunting deer or elk.
The second amendment does need to be protected as a right to own a gun, but not all guns. However, people like me don’t want to be rolled by some a-hole or end up like the pizza delivery guy who was knifed to death a few years ago. Most gun owners abide by the spirit of the law and support the right to carry a gun for protection/hunting and use guns as such.
I hope Colorado has capital punishment, too bad we don’t in our enlightened commonwealth.
and have entered outrage!
Kill this bastard. Have a trial, find him guilty and then kill him. What a useless piece of garbage.
Where else in the first world do killers wreak mayhem like this? We already kill and incarcerate Americans at a higher rate than any other western nation — is it working?
I know you’re going to reject this, but I’m going to say it anyway. Watch “Bowling for Columbine” again. This most recent episode happened thirteen miles away from Columbine High School.
Unless you want to argue that something in the water causes this, surely we can ask the questions that Michael Moore asks in his film — and pay attention to the answers.
Both parties support American exceptionalism and the notion that we can’t adapt the best practices of other countries. Britain had a terrible public school shooting with worst casualties than Columbine, incidentally tennis star Andy Murray survived it, but afterward they passed the most stringent gun control laws and we have seen no mass murders there since then on the same scale as the ones that are becoming routine here.
My cousin sells guns at the Kittery Trading Post up in Maine and owns several himself, but we both echo David’s concern that no civilian should have legal access to military grade equipment like automatic and semi automatic weapons. If your a deer hunter like cousin Chris, selling to NH and ME sportsmen, none of whom buy automatic weapons, gun control is not something to fear but something to embrace as a way to protect that way if life while ending killings like this.
or perhaps mental illness in America?
I have gone on record here as being a big gun hater (yes HATE, not dislike). I have never liked guns or even being around them. Never let any of my five kids near them.
Having said that I do support the second amendment. However, I believe in strong gun laws and posted here in the past how amazed I was at Vermont’s gun laws which are basically nonexistent. You don’t even have to show an ID in Vermont… Do you need anything special to buy guns in Vermont????
Rifles and Shotguns
Permit to purchase rifles and shotguns? No.
Registration of rifles and shotguns? No.
Licensing of owners of rifles and shotguns? No.
Permit to carry rifles and shotguns? No.
Handguns
Permit to purchase handgun? No.
Registration of handguns? No.
Licensing of owners of handguns? No.
Permit to carry handguns? No.*
* No permit necessary to carry concealed.
I want people’s background to be checked, I want their criminal record to be checked, I want to find out if they’re mentally ill or have any outstanding warrants or court orders. And no I don’t want military assault weapons to be sold to people. But I have no problem with guns being owned by people who pass all the checks and follow the rules.
I think this is a totally non-partisan issue about efficacy in
Public safety and supporting law enforcement. To me it seems fairly straightforward that criminals or potential criminals do not have access to weapons that are equivalent or better than those used by law enforcement.
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