Gun Control Laws

Senator Dianne Feinstein: A Massively Significant Figure For Three Decades!

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California and the nation have lost a massively significant figure in US Senate History, in the three decades contribution of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who passed away yesterday at the age of 90.

One of only three Jewish women to have served in the US Senate, and the longest serving woman Senator in American history, Feinstein was a very significant force on many issues, including gun control, national security, civil liberties, the environment, and many other issues, and knew how to work across the aisle with Republicans.

She was also the longest serving California Senator, sadly going into rapid decline in the past year, which made many observers think she should resign, but she refused to do so.

She became only the fifth Senator to reach the age of 90 in office, joining Strom Thurmond (100), Theodore Green (93), Robert Byrd (92) and Carl Hayden (91), and Chuck Grassley has just reached the age of 90 this month, as the sixth Senator to reach 90 in office.

She was Chair of the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee at different times, and had been Mayor of San Francisco after the assassination of Mayor George Moscone in 1978, making gun regulation her most lasting commitment, and promoting the Assault Weapons Ban passed in 1994, but allowed to expire in 2004!

When the history of the Senate in the late 20th century and early 21st century is written, she will shine as a major star for her impact on American history!

247th Anniversary Of American Independence, And Nation’s Democracy Is Endangered!

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Today is the 247th Anniversary of American Independence, and with only three years until the Semiquincentennial of our nation’s history, American democracy is in great danger!

The threat that Donald Trump might return to the White House and promote revenge and fascist demagoguery is horrifying, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also presents a “clear and present danger” to our nation, with his attacks on the rights of women, racial minorities, gays and transgender people, and his promotion of an extremist Christianity and authoritarianism that represents great harm!

The Supreme Court is the most extreme in a century, taking away basic human rights that were extended by earlier Supreme Courts, but now effectively robbing Americans of rights they have worked so hard to attain!

Many state legislatures are undermining the right to vote, and interfering with education, health care, and at the same time expanding gun rights leading to mass murders with no regulations of who can have what firearms in their possession!

Just as Abraham Lincoln was in the right place at the right time in the 1860s; and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the right place at the right time in the 1930s and early 1940s; so is Joe Biden today’s equivalent of what is needed to preserve democracy!

The efforts must be made to assure that Biden can continue his good deeds after two and a half years in office, and overcome the many crises the nation faces, the most dangerous since the 1960s, and in many ways on the level of the 1860s and 1930s-1940s!

9th Anniversary Of Sandy Hook Massacre, And “Pro Life” Republicans Have No Concern!

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It has been nine years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Connecticut, whick killed 26 young children and teachers.

In February, it will be four years since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Massacre in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and teachers.

Most recently, we had the Oxford High School Massacre in Michigan that killed four and wounded seven others.

And the list goes on, and not only with educational institutions, but also with all public places imaginable over many years!

But “Pro Life” Republicans who are consistently anti abortion have no concern about the massive loss of life due to the reality that there are no guidelines or regulations on gun purchase and ownership!

The hypocrisy is massive, and there is a need for commitment to change!

Carl Levin Of Michigan, A Giant In The Senate, Dies At 87!

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Former Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, a true giant of the Senate, has passed away at age 87.

Levin had a distinguished 36 year career in the Senate from 1978 to 2014.

He was rated one of the top ten US Senators in a Time Magazine article in 2006.

He was the fourth longest serving incumbent at his retirement in 2015, and was the longest serving Senator in Michigan history.

He served alongside his Congressman brother Sander Levin, both of them outstanding Senators of the Jewish faith, and both had a great impact on Michigan and the nation.

Carl Levin was Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, and served alongside Republicans and worked well across the aisle with them, promoting civil dialogue.

He supported the revival of the auto industry, and supported efforts to address pollution and other environmental issues affecting the Great Lakes.

He promoted a crackdown on offshore tax havens, and was an advocate for stem cell research and gun control laws.

He gained respect for his attention to detail and deep knowledge of policy.

Levin came across as a “regular guy”, who was unassuming and unpretentious.

His kind will not be easily found in the future, as he was, in many ways, one of a kind.

Rest in Peace, Carl Levin, you will be well remembered in the annals of history!

The National Rifle Association Answer To Gun Violence: More Guns And In All Schools! Absolutely Insane!

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The National Rifle Association answer to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre, and others that have happened on a regular basis, is that there should be more guns, and that all schools should have a uniformed police officer on campus to prevent bloodshed.

What insane ideas, as expressed by Wayne La Pierre, who could be regarded by many as our leading domestic terrorist with his refusal to recognize the need for the banning of assault weapons, background checks, waiting periods, and the prevention of buying firearms on line or at gun shows, without any check into the mental stability of the purchaser of weapons.

The Columbine Massacre of 1999 occurred despite the fact that an armed police officer was on the high school campus. No police officer can automatically be on site of the location of a shooting rapidly enough, and the danger of innocent victims being killed in the act of challenging a gunman is not being considered at all.

Also, the whole concept that a school should be an armed camp is a terrible message to send to young children, that with all of the anti terrorist actions of the US government overseas, we need to have guns everywhere to protect ourselves domestically,

Why not have uniformed police officers in every house of worship, every shopping mall, every movie theatre, every restaurant, every location in the nation? The cost, and the efficacy of such a move is clearly, something not considered by gun advocates.

Meanwhile, without regulation of any kind, we have 11,000 to 12,000 people murdered each year by guns, a lot more than died on September 11, and a lot more than killed in our wars in iraq and Afghanistan combined.

The NRA is not concerned about our welfare, but only about their profits for the Board of Trustees and officers, and the profits of the gun industry, which should be regarded as the death industry, as lives are not saved, but shed–including parents and children–the horrors of matricide and infanticide–as in the case of Adam Lanza.

Republican Solution To Jobs Crisis: Promote Importation Of Dangerous Snakes, Including The Burmese Python, Already A Major Threat To Everglades!

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In the midst of the jobs crisis in America, members of the House of Representatives Republican majority are holding hearings trying to prevent an end to the transportation and importation of nine varieties of snakes, including the Burmese Python, Boa Constrictors, and Anacondas, that have become to inundate the Florida Everglades, posing a risk to other species, and ultimately, to humans! We have the report of a Burmese Python swallowing a live alligator whole and then exploding from the effect of doing it!

A snake breeder testified that the ban proposed by Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson and Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar, would interfere with the right of snake owners and snake breeders to purse their hobby and livelihood, and prevent them from moving interstate!

Are we living in an insane society, which already allows the abuse of gun ownership, to the detriment of thousands of innocent victims every year, by saying that there should be allowance for BREEDING of snakes that are dangerous to all of us, and come from tropical climates in Asia, Africa and Latin America? Is it necessary for one to pursue his hobby or livelihood in an “industry” which already is laying havoc in the Everglades, killing various species and threatening Floridians who go into that national park?

It is guaranteed that the snakes, particularly the extremely dangerous Burmese Pythons, which number 100,000 in the Everglades by reckless breeding and escapes from captivity, will start to spread not just through all of Florida, but eventually be a threat all over the United States!

This is a clear and present danger to our security, and yet the Republicans latch onto this insane proposal as an interference to job growth! It makes one wonder about their ethics, their sense of right and wrong, their understanding of human needs!

We do NOT need to engage in such dangerous “commerce” in order to revive our economy, and if such a law passes by some looney reasoning that it is necessary, President Obama needs to veto it and send it into the dustbins of history, making the Republicans who sponsored it look as what they are: CRAZY LUNATICS!

DC Voting Rights Bill Shelved: Lack Of Representation Tied To Gun Rights

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The nation’s capital, Washington, DC, has always been denied a voting member of Congress, despite its having the population of a small state, but there was hope in recent years that a compromise would allow a House member, with Utah also gaining an extra congressional seat because of rapid growth.

But the struggle over loosening gun control laws has led to the idea being shelved, denying people in the District the best opportunity in a long time to gain voting rights. Gun rights advocates wanted to loosen the gun laws in a city with a high crime rate, and that ultimately killed the possibility of a voting member in the House of Representatives for Washington, DC.

This is a sad commentary, that the gun advocates could prevent a movement toward democracy, giving DC the same status as a state, but it is nothing new, as a previous DC amendment to make it the state of Columbia failed to pass more than a few state legislatures.

So it will be a continued battle for who knows how many more years before Washington, DC is treated equally with the 50 states! 🙁

Gun Insanity: Liquor And Guns As Dangerous As Liquor And Driving!

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Arizona has just put into effect a law that allows gun owners to bring their concealed guns into bars!

What could be more crazy than that? Liquor and guns are just as dangerous, if not more so, than liquor and driving an automobile.

It is a guarantee that there will be drunks in bars who will lose their temper and pull out their guns and cause mass loss of life.

Arizona has to be insane to allow this! America is already the most violent society in America, and the Supreme Court has already permitted the end of gun control laws in the District of Columbia, and has now agreed to consider the constitutionality of similar state and local laws around the country. On top of this, AMTRAK is about to lose federal funding if it does not permit concealed guns in luggage on its trains in the Northeast Corridor.

It looks likely that there will soon be no gun control laws, and that the National Rifle Association will be controlling a majority of Congress, along with the Supreme Court majority.

This is a terrifying thought, and does not bode well for the future tranquility of the United States, particularly at a time when there is so much stress and so many problems that divide America. At a time of turmoil, this is the absolutely worse message for the long term stability of the American experiment in democracy!