Former Congress woman Gabby Giffords led a chant of “fight” at a rally organized by vocal majority.
Giffords, who was seriously wounded by a gunman while she was greeting constituents 5 years ago, was joined by Congressmen John Lewis, and mothers and fathers who lost their children to gun violence. Giffords and Lewis called on both parties to take action.
“Stopping gun violence takes courage, the courage to do whats right. The courage of new ideas. I’ve seen great courage when my life was on the line,” said Giffords.
“We have got to push and we have got to pull and we must never ever be satisfied until we get the congress to act,” seconded Lewis.
Richard Martinez, who’s son Christopher was killed in the 2014 UC Santa Barbra shooting, talked with us about his son’s death.
“He left us on that day, we could not have known or imagine that we would never see Chris again.”
Martinez wasn’t the only family member at the rally in memory of a lost loved one.
Tyisha Harris, a senior spokeswoman for Mothers in Charge of New Jersey, lost her cousin Jermaine Kelly in Philadelphia to gun violence. Her biggest concern about gun legislation is people who suffer from mental issues. “We need to have some kind of comprehensive gun control, some kind of mechanism to screen people before they are allowed to have weapons. We are not against the second amendment, and we believe people are allowed to have the right to bare arms, but we want it done responsibly.”
For Brett Sabo and Joan Petters, both members of Moms Demand Action, the attacks in Sandy Hook and San Bernadino inspired them to join the gun advocate movement.
“How fortunate that I haven’t lost anyone to gun violence, but that I really felt like just a matter or time, and I wasn’t okay with just sitting there waiting for that to happen,” said Sabo.
“Crying in the car after Sandy Hook. I can’t imagine a country where you can kill kids like that, and do nothing to stop gun violence,” added Petters.
After the rally Giffords possed for pictures with supporters including one woman who was overcome with emotion. Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty told us voices matter but only as votes.
“For far too long the gun lobby has been able to intimidate politicians in thinking they’ll be punished to vote to do the right thing, and this is the year, this is the year when we need people to vote to say congress needs to respond to the needs of the american people,” said Esty.
Evil people do evil things. They will run you over with trucks, they will slash you with machete’s, they will cut your head off with swords or knives, they will blow themselves up and you along with them, they will put you in cages and watch you drown as they lower you into water, and they will cut the unborn child out from your womb. None of these can be avoided by car, truck, knife, machete, cage laws, or un-licensed surgery laws. No one with total disregard for human life will be stopped by yet another gun law. Efforts to “strengthen” gun laws will only serve to remove the means of self defense/protection from those inclined to obey the law, and leave all of us more vulnerable to the evil, heartless, sociopaths who enjoy preying on us.
Re: “I can’t imagine a country where you can kill kids like that, and do nothing to stop gun violence”
The sad fact is you can’t stop every lone wolf who is a first time offender so the reality is you need to get used to it. Even if all the guns could be banned, there are plenty of other methods available to kill a lot of people thanks to the internet – i.e things like pipe bombs (San Bernardino), pressure cooker bombs (Boston), propane tank bombs (Columbine), truck bombs (Oklahoma City), gasoline cans and a match (Happy Land fire on 3/25/90), heavy truck crashing in to a crowd of people (Nice, France), home made flame throwers made from plumbing parts and gasoline (nowhere – yet) and any pressure vessel filled with shrapnel and gun powder manufactured the same way it has been since the 6th century that will momentarily confine an explosive pressure wave. And when any of those things are used and there are no civilian firearms to deter the government from limiting our Bill of Rights, it’s likely no one will know about them because at that point in order to silence any criticism for actions they can’t control and to maintain civilian support and power, the government has no reason to allow them to be reported. In other words, banning “assault weapons” and standard capacity magazines just starts us down the road of incessant, progressive bans on other firearms with the end result being that only criminals and the government will have guns
Re: “biggest concern about gun legislation is people who suffer from mental issues. We need to have some kind of comprehensive gun control…to screen people before they are aloud to have weapons”
In addition to the doctrine of prior restraint, there are 2 problems with this. First, mental health issues aren’t necessarily present at the time of an evaluation and lots of mentally ill people “present well” – i.e. they are good at hiding their true personality unless it is inadvertently revealed in a psychotic break or crisis situation. The second problem is there are no objective criteria for a mental health evaluation. As is evidenced in court trials, you often have “experts” who disagree and reach completely different conclusions. When this ambiguity is married to regulations written by unaccountable bureaucrats and used by people who are trying to ban all guns from private citizens it would make it extremely difficult if not impossible for a law abiding citizen to own a firearm.
Re: “We need to have some kind of comprehensive gun control”
In 1934, 1938, 1968, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1994 I suspect similar arguments were made for “comprehensive gun control” when more restrictive federal gun laws were passed. Since all of the regulations derived from these laws are apparently not enough, maybe you can understand the reluctance of gun owners to entertain the idea of quietly accepting the any more. The problem is the real agenda of the people leading the charge for more gun control is to ban all guns except for the government and governments (unlike individuals) have the track record for killing people that don’t agree with them. This is really just about using relatively infrequent, isolated incidents of gun crimes to whip lawmakers into an emotional frenzy to goad them into quickly advancing the agenda of gun control irrespective of any facts in more incremental “progressive” steps in order to set a new baseline and move the goal posts to the point where an unscrupulous government would have the option to do what ever they please.
There are over 370 “mental disorders” listed in the latest version of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.) The list includes “Tobacco Addiction Disorder” among other equally mundane and ridiculous so-called “mental illnesses.”
If the DSM is the standard by which politicians wishes to remove our rights to own guns, then I’d guess 90% of the American people could probably be classified with a mental disorder of one kind or another.
BEWARE, BEWARE
The TRUTH about the “supremacy clause” – our Constitution does not delegate to the national government authority to restrict our arms, ammunition, regulate firearms dealers, do background checks, etc. The national government may not lawfully circumvent this restriction by means of a treaty wherein the signatory governments agree to disarm their Citizens or Subjects.
https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/?s=The+TRUTH+about+the+%22supremacy+clause
another moderated/censored site
And how many of those Gun Control proposals being pushed by Giffords would have stopped the attack against her?
How many of them will actually stop criminals, terrorists, and nut-jobs while not needlessly trampling on the Rights of the law abiding citizens of this nation?
When will Giffords come clean and admit that the endgame is the complete disarmament of the American People?
The problem with the demand for new laws is the same problem suffered by previous legislation. They demand a law, then after a certain amount of time they will choose to not enforce or finance the laws. There are currently THOUSANDS of laws which are SELECTIVELY enforced. The celebrities/politicians need not abide, as the authorities that be WILL ignore violations by the powerful/connected. So the new laws will be enforced against ONLY the law abiding. Gang bangers, repeat offenders and those who commit the vast majority of the crimes, will continue with their modus operandi, because going after them would be politically incorrect. The wayward urban youth are not the problem, but the victims……..We as a country are FUBAR.
Giffords needs to shut up and go away.