Gillibrand: Congress 'too weak and too cowardly' to stand up to gun industry

[alp227]

Source: Albany Times-Union

COLONIE — U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand urged voters to hold their representatives in Congress accountable if they refuse — yet again — to pass what she calls "common-sense" gun reforms after the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

The massacre that left at least 58 people dead and more than 500 wounded at a country music concert in Las Vegas is a "disturbing and painful example" of a Congress that's "too weak and too cowardly" to stand up to the gun industry, the Democratic representative from New York said at an event Monday in Colonie to promote vocational education.

"There's so many things we could work on," she said. "We could work on banning assault weapons. We could work on making sure we have better background checks. We could work on ending the trafficking of guns into states like ours from states that don't have good gun laws. We should do these kinds of bipartisan things together. But doing nothing is unacceptable."

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Gillibrand-Congress-too-weak-and-too-cowardly-12246800.php

[vkkv]

1. Sorry Kirsten, that all makes too much sense for Republican lawmakers to understand.

Perhaps, if you thrown in some private prisons and military armory for police depts in largely Black municipalities ?

[maddiemom]

2. Rifles,shotguns, handguns, stopping at semi-automatics,

provide all the firepower needed for hunting and self-defense, as continually cited as reasons for gun ownership. NO ONE needs the firepower of the sort of weapons that can slaughter crowds of people at a time. I don't care how much fun that gun nuts have with them at a range. We don't even need to join most of the civilized world in banning nearly all guns, we just need to stop the legality of owning these "weapons of mass destruction." BTW, I have held and fired guns at targets (never into hunting animals). I did quite a bit of this type of shooting at one time in my life due to a former husband. I'm not an anti-gun person, just an-anti assault-weapon person.

[MosheFeingold]

6. Concur

But the guy was using a FULLY AUTOMATIC. They've been pretty-much illegal in the USA since the 1920s.

My assumption is he made the thing -- which is pretty easy to do, sadly.

And there is no way to stop someone in their garage from doing that.

[More_Cowbell]

22. But Nevada allows unlimited large capacity magazines

If he had had to keep stopping to reload, maybe some people would have been saved

[Red Mountain]

23. It's as easy as common sense.....

You ask the simple question......'if I was a criminal/terrorist/insane and wanted to kill as many people as possible what weapon would I choose?'

Then you start banning. Easy to convert to full auto?

Ban it. Force the company to redesign or stop selling that weapon. Make it illegal not to own that weapon but to carry it in public or sell it.

Keep tightening the rules until the mass shootings stop. When a mass shooting occurs......make a public spectacle of tightening the rules.

The gun rights folks have no shame. Give them some.

[MosheFeingold]

29. Better start banning shovels

There is literally a YouTube post where a guy takes a garden shovel, a hammer, and done charcoal fire and forges an AK-47 fro it.

Machine guns are not exactly Rolex watches. They are exceedingly easy to make. Not a thing a law can do to stop people unless we plan on repealing the 1st amendment and taking away books that tell you how.

[maddiemom]

30. Yeah, making machine guns like that is a major problem in other countries...

to be fair, however, U,S. attitudes about guns are different, so it could be a problem here.

[bdamomma]

24. probably went on you tube to find out how to do it

nt

[Lokilooney]

36. Apparently he used a bump stock

?v=1507030615

It uses recoil to allow the trigger to be pulled as fast as an automatic, it's wildly inaccurate but it doesn't have to be when shooting into a dense crowd.

[red dog 1]

17. + 1

[Rhiannon12866]

3. K&R for my senator and former congresswoman!

She continues to make us proud in NY-20!

[ananda]

4. Too corrupt and bought off.

The Reeps in Congress literally have lost
their souls and their humanity.

[ffr]

5. Correction, the REPUBLICAN controlled congress and whitehouse ARE TOO COWARDLY

You can just associate gun deaths with them, as they're the ones condoning this type of activity.

You're either for responsible gun ownership or you're for unrestricted gun ownership. When voters begin kicking REPUBLICANS out based on mass killings by the use of guns, that will be the day they change their vindictive tune. Otherwise, they'll say something stupid like we need more facts before jumping to any conclusions.

[red dog 1]

16. I agree!

[Yavin4]

7. If children being massacred in their school didn't move them to action

Nothing will. They're bought and paid for.

[Rebl2]

10. And

folks at bible study, a congressman at ball practice and the list goes on. You're right, they are bought and paid for and blood is on their hands because of their cowardice.

[Bettie]

18. I hear enough money will

make you think your hands are clean. Seems to work for the congresscritters out there, then they mouth some platitudes about thoughts and prayers and wait for the next shooting.

[world wide wally]

8. America has become the land of the stupid being led by the cowardly

[bdamomma]

25. sorry to say but I agree

but there are more of us who have not lost our minds or just being compassionate/humane.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Absolutely correct.

[gopiscrap]

11. sadly she's right

[SunSeeker]

12. K & R

[Skittles]

13. cowards need their guns

[MrPurple]

14. Can you imagine what Trump would be launching us into now if the shooter had been Muslim?

If this was a deranged person latching onto extreme Islamic ideology as their rationale instead of a redneck American, what rabbit hole would Trump use this as an excuse to send us down?

[bdamomma]

26. probably to a start a

jihad with isis.

[Paladin]

15. Tell us something we don't already know, Rep. Gillibrand. (nt)

[red dog 1]

19. We can help prevent gun violence by donating to one or more of these non-profit organizations!

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
https://www.bradycampaign.org/

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
https://www.csgv.org/

Americans for Responsible Solutions (co-founded by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords)
https://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/

Everytown for Gun Safety
https://everytown.org/

There are other worthwhile anti-gun violence organizations as well, including:
- Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
- Violence Policy Center
- The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
- States United to Prevent Gun Violence

[Still In Wisconsin]

20. Doesn't she know that the only thing to protect us from a heavily armed bad guy in a highrise hotel

is an even more heavily armed good guy in a bigger hotel?

It's time to allow honest law-abiding citizens who stay in hotels to carry RPGs.

[maddiemom]

31. LOL, even though it really isn't funny.

[leanforward]

21. I'm with the good Senator.

We have to do something. Full automatic weapons have no place in our society. It'll take time, but we have to start.

Ban automatic weapons. Background checks. Mental evaluations. I'm all for revolvers, lever action, bolt action or pump action all of this for hunting.

Impeach pRezident dRumpf.

Watching the news tonight, made me think of something I saw in RVN. A fellow soldier wanted this type of action, then later (as described to me) did a complete about face. The guy in Vegas, maintained a public facade, but collected 28 weapons, ammo and explosives. Then cut loose. Someone or something was threatening to him to the point he did what has happened.

Watching the news lately, makes me think of reading casuality reports.

[LovingA2andMI]

27. She's Right.....

As In Senator (and Hopefully 2020 Presidential Candidate to be) Kirsten Gillibrand is right on the money, with this statement.

[Thor_MN]

28. The right wing refuses to anything, because they insist any laws fix every last aspect of a problem.

If it doesn't solve 100% of the problem, it's not worth doing.

But when they propose laws with no details, they say they will work that out later, just trust them...

[riversedge]

32. yup.

[HAB911]

33. 'too weak and too cowardly' to stand up to Trump as well

[yorkie77]

34. Thought many on the right were pro-life

I guess it is just pro-life in the womb. Once a human is born, the right to buy and carry weapons of mass destruction (and possibly use them) overrules that. Guns are much more important.

[ileus]

35. You want change.....term limits.

As long as our elected officials have to answer for their votes at the ballot box they won't do anything useful. (gun control or otherwise)


Term limits would allow them to vote on items their voters don't like in a way their voters don't want.

[alp227]

37. sorry, term limits make the lobbyist problem even worse

They'll be even more influential on new, native legislators

[Beartracks]

38. And none of those reforms would help infringe on 2nd Amendment rights.

Banning assault weapons does not keep you from bearing arms.

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