Musings of someone who is tired of that joke

Aug. '12

President Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney, echoed each other in embracing the role of national grief counselor in the wake of the deadly rampage in Colorado last week, offering stirring words of condolence and comfort.

But neither has responded to calls for a renewed debate over how to prevent gun violence. Asked on Sunday whether Mr. Obama favored new gun control initiatives, his spokesman, Jay Carney, twice said the main focus of the president — who four years ago called for an assault-weapons ban — was to “protect Second Amendment rights.”

“He believes we need to take steps that protect Second Amendment rights of the American people but that ensure that we are not allowing weapons into the hands of individuals who should not, by existing law, obtain those weapons,” Mr. Carney said on Air Force One as the president flew to Colorado to meet with survivors of the mass shooting.

“If he had said almost anything else it would be used in a fund-raising appeal by the N.R.A.,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon. “There are very few political leaders that think there is any opportunity in a constructive way to do something in this political climate.”

For his part, Mr. Romney reiterated Monday that he saw no need to renew the federal ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004.

“I still believe that the Second Amendment is the right course to preserve and defend and don’t believe that new laws are going to make a difference in this type of tragedy,” Mr. Romney told CNBC.

Both candidates have supported gun control in the past, but their views shifted as Americans have backed away from stricter gun laws, and both men have felt a political sting from earlier positions.

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The New York Times, “Obama and Romney Do Not Change Course Over Outcry on Gun Violence.”

For shame. Mr. President, for shame. Your campaign is on Tumblr, and sooner or later, someone on that campaign will read this, via reblog or on their Dashboards. They will read this, and they will see the current and recent outrage on Tumblr, that one man was allowed to purchase assault rifles and handguns and 6,000 rounds of ammunition and body armor and gas masks at will, unchallenged, and also that a 4-year-old girl in New York City was wounded for the crime of being in the vicinity when a fight broke out, and read day in and day out about another victim of gun violence, and Mr. President, how, just how can you and your advisors continue to ignore the problem, even after Gabby Giffords and those others in Arizona, even after life after life is getting wiped out because of some strange notion that our country needs a “well-regulated militia” — a deliberate misreading of the Constitution if ever there was one?

Mr. President, there is plenty that can be done without taking guns out of the hands of responsible owners — to start. A nationwide ammunition sales registry. A nationwide gun sale registry that would require an in-depth background check. A nationwide gun sale registry that would alert local authorities to multiple gun sales to the same person or persons. And it’s ironic that the same folks who are now talking about James Eagan Holmes’s alleged mental illnesses are the same ones who want to do away with universal healthcare — the very thing that might allow for more mental health screenings and services that, yes, could help prevent tragedies like what happened in Aurora.

Mr. President, I realize that this is an election year, and that you need votes to keep office, but sir, I don’t think that allows you to continue to ignore a scourge that continues to claim the lives of American men and women, boys and girls. Children, Mr. President. Young Americans. Many of them surely the same ones who voted you into office years ago.

You fought the good fight on healthcare, sir, on the premise that it would save more lives.

Please do the same here.

(via inothernews)