Congressmen, senators react to Obama gun control proposals
Members of Congress representing the Roanoke region and Virginia’s U.S. senators issued statements reacting to President Obama’s new gun control proposals.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, wants to take a careful look at them.
“I’m a big defender of the Second Amendment, and I generally don’t favor new gun control legislation,” Griffith said. “But I reserve the right to look these over and see if there’s merit.”
Obama outlined a sweeping series of proposals to curb gun violence, including proposed legislation to require universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
He also enacted 23 measures that don’t require Congressional approval, including ordering federal agencies to make more data available for background checks and directing the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, meanwhile, said:
“House Republicans welcome the recommendations of this task force and will consider them as the House continues to examine ways to prevent tragedies like the one in Newtown. However, good intentions do not necessarily make good laws, so as we investigate the causes and search for solutions, we must ensure that any proposed solutions will actually be meaningful in preventing the taking of innocent life and that they do not trample on the rights of law-abiding citizens to exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. We will take these recommendations into consideration as we continue to conduct our own inquiries into how to prevent these tragedies from happening.”
And 5th District Rep. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, said in a new release:
“As our nation continues to heal from the horrific tragedy in Newtown, Congress must take a serious look at how we can help prevent future tragedies. I look forward to reviewing the proposals set forth by the President as Congress works toward keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill while protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Fifth District Virginians.”
On the other side of the Capitol, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va, said this:
“I applaud President Obama and Vice President Biden for putting forward a well-considered and comprehensive package of proposals to curb gun violence. Thanks to their prompt efforts, we now have concrete ideas on the table for debate.
“I’ve long advocated universal background checks, including closing the gun show loophole, to ensure weapons do not fall into the hands of dangerous individuals. I am encouraged by proposals to increase security in our schools, including preparing and training school officials for emergency situations. I strongly support improvements to our mental health system. In the coming weeks I look forward to reviewing the details of proposed limits on killer magazines and combat weapons and believe we should adopt reasonable restrictions.
“The Senate must take action on this issue and I look forward to working together to achieve common sense reform that will keep our children and communities safer while preserving the Second Amendment.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., meanwhile, said Obama had outlined “a comprehensive, far-reaching proposal to address the issues of gun violence and public safety.”
He said the proposals will get serious consideration in Congress.
“The Sandy Hook shootings compel all of us to think anew about these issues, and I believe the status quo is not acceptable. Some of the President’s proposals are controversial, but there appears to be growing bipartisan consensus around improvements to the mental health system and broadening background checks,” Warner said.
– David Ress
January 16, 2013 - 3:04 PM
They’re not going to do anything about the problem.
I for one am not in the least against looking at reform and making some changes but in this situation I am more than a bit concerned about opening up, even if just a crack, the door that protects our 2nd amendment rights. History has proven that one thing leads to another and if you look closely at the bills our politicians court and pass many have things attached that are completely irrelevant or practical…yet they typically go thru unapposed. This situation, at least to me, is more than just absurd. First, guns don’t kill men, women and children……people do. Blamming the guns and instituting laws that will only inhibit law abiding citizen from the freedoms our constitution is supposed to provide is similar to blaming the planes that hit the world trade centers for those events. Did we blame the planes or try and ban them from the airways. Absolutely not!! We looked at the true cause. The sick, demonic individuals who carried out those attacks. This is no different except that those taken were our most innocent which has led this country, and our vote hungry leaders, to rush to inaffective decisions based solely on emotions. Again, I am not agaist reform and I certainly agree that much, much more needs to be done to keep this from ever happening again. But honestly…are we really so nieve to think that some long list of new restrictions is going to prevent this from happening again. Address and enforce the laws already on the books, take better care of our mentally ill, and stop feeding our children a steady diet of killing and distruction. Until we do these things we are doing nothing but hiding behind our own ignorance. It’s not guns, bullets, or high capacity magazines that drive this madness. It’s our society. All of us are to blame.
Does anyone know if the NRA makes contibutions to any of our Congressional reps?
Hopefully not anymore than we will outlaw spoons for making Opra fat.
Should Congress elect to do nothing to rid our society of weapons of mass killings”, each and every Congressman will be stained with the blood of innocent children and adults that have been killed with assault weapons.
My right to live without fear of being gunned down should outweigh the gun huggers rights to own military style killing machines. They are so paranoid that everyone is out to get them that they can’t see they in fact are what causes the deaths of so many by the machines they love more than life itself.
They’re not doing “nothing”. However, it’s quite clear that the sum total of emotional responses calling for swiftly-enacted gun control legislation will not act to fix the actual root causes of violence; gun violence or any other kind. It is patronizing to say the least that controlling guns will prevent the next atrocity.
And the reason they “not going to do anything about the problem” is that “they”, as well as many citizens, fail to recognize what the root cause of the problem is. Warners statement is a joke. A “far reaching anc comprehensive program! CRAP-PO! Why does one need an executive order for law enforcement agencies, for example, to simply do their jobs! What you have here is a prez who is a mental light weight jumping off a cliff trying to make a big splash along with a VP who is a flaming idiot.
Correct – they will do nothing! I wish we didn’t have the two parties. I wish we had leaders that cared about “The people” and not the select rich few. I hate to see what my granddaughter has to deal with in the future.
If there was something new in the proposals then I missed it. It seems like the same old mantra and proposals that have been tried before. The only difference is that now they have a new tragedy to ride toward their goal. As Rahm Emanuel says-Never let a crisis go to waste.
I saw Judy Woodruff’s piece on PBS Tuesday night that something like 78,000 felons attempted to buy guns last year (which IS a crime), and of those, 70 were prosecuted.
Why not try enforcement of existing laws before enacting new ones…
Now that would be NEW, and a change……
89,999,987 gun owners of the USA killed nobody yesterday.
#1…What problem, Dan…Mental Health ?
Please support:
1. Assault weapon ban
2. elimination of high quantity ammunition clips
3. gun registration improvements
These seem like very easy decisions to me.
Obviously it is not for our country.
Please make it happen!
Please support:
1. Sport shooting by not implementing an assault weapons ban.
2. No magazine limitation.
3. No gun registration. Keep Virginia gun laws the way they are.
These seem like very easy decisions to me.
Obviously it is not for our country.
Please make it happen!