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Staffers of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today posted new photos of the congresswoman. Giffords continues to improve, but reportedly has difficulty forming complete sentences. She faces more cranial surgery.
The GOP-dominated Florida legislature has made it a crime for a doctor to ask a patient if he owns any guns. Because even potentially violent mentally ill people have a right bear arms.
The measure (HB 155) cleared the Senate Thursday on a 27-10 votes and goes to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature, two days after the House also voted largely along party lines to place more restrictions on doctors and other medical providers when they question patients. The original bill filed by freshmen Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, and Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, called for punishing doctors with up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine if they inquired about whether their patients owned guns. Gun groups have accused doctors of espousing an anti-firearm political agenda, and Evers has said he was pursuing the issue after a complaint from a constituent in his Panhandle district grilled about guns in the home. “When this goes on in the center and heart of my district, then I have a problem with it,” Evers said. “That’s the reason for the bill, and there’s been some great compromises.”The Florida AMA says there are "many valid reasons" that a doctor might inquire about gun ownership. Democrats say the bill will punish pediatricians who might ask children about careless gun ownership by their parents.
Gothamist notes: "One investigator was able to pay cash for a .9 mm semiautomatic even after telling the seller he probably wouldn't pass a background check. Instead of refusing the sale, as required by federal law, the gun peddler pockets the $500 and directs his shady customer toward the tent with the cheap ammunition."
Arizona shooting hero Daniel Hernandez hustled up from last night's State Of The Union address to join NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial gun control campaign.
“It is my hope that President [Barack] Obama and Congress will work together right away to reform our gun background check system so that all records of dangerous people are in the system and all gun buyers will have to pass a thorough background check,” Hernandez said in a statement. While Congress is unlikely to act on any gun control legislation given the Republican majority in the House, Bloomberg has repeatedly argued for such measures in the wake of the shooting.RELATED: In 2006 Bloomberg formed the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition, a group that once numbered over 500 members, but has since dwindled due to a letter writing campaign from the NRA. Bloomberg has raised the ire of out-of-state law enforcement agencies by sending undercover NYPD detectives to gun shows in the states funneling illegal guns to NYC.
Tea Party-backed GOP state Rep. Carl Wimmer wants the Browning semi-automatic to be named Utah's official state gun. This model Browning is very similar to the gun used in Arizona's massacre.
The bill to make the Browning M1911 the official gun breezed through a committee hearing this week and is scheduled to be debated by the full House as early as Wednesday. Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer said the state should have the gun as one of its state symbols to honor John Browning, a Utah native who invented it in 1911. "He invented a firearm that has defended American values and the traditions of this country for 100 years," Wimmer told the House Political Subdivisions Committee. The committee approved the bill to add a state gun on a 9-2 vote.Next up: The official Utah state land mine! The official Utah state pipe bomb!
(Tipped by JMG reader Corey)
Because we haven't had enough mass murders at our nation's universities, Florida GOP state Sen. Greg Evers has introduced a bill making it legal to carry firearms at college campuses.
Florida currently prohibits concealed weapons on all school campuses, one of 49 states that either bar them outright or leave the issue up to individual schools. The proposal comes in the wake of a mass shooting in Arizona and the accidental shooting death of a Florida State University student. The police chiefs of Florida's state universities, including UF Police Chief Linda Stump, have come out in unanimous opposition to the measure. "I don't think you're going to find anybody in higher education in law enforcement who is going to want guns on their campus," Stump said.RELATED: Despite the screams of "responsible gun owners," across the nation the rate of deaths by handgun is directly tied to the percentage of people nearby who own guns. That may seem like a motherfucking obvious result, but try telling that to the gun nuts.
"People have tried to politicize this and make everything except the killer responsible." Guns don't kill people...etc etc.
One of the victims in last Saturday's shooting in Tucson was arrested today after saying, "You're dead," to a man advocating for gun ownership. The arrest of Eric Fuller, 63, came at a taping of ABC's Town Hall, which was being moderated by Christiane Amanpour.
Toward the end of the taping, Amanpour brought up the issues of gun safety and mental health. As one member of the audience stood up and expressed his support for gun ownership, Fuller, seated near the front in an area reserved for victims and special guests, appeared increasingly frustrated and agitated. Fuller then swiveled in his chair, raised his camera and took a photo of the pro-gun speaker, muttering, "You're dead," according to Joel Tranter, who was sitting behind him. "I told him, 'You need to be respectful. You need to calm down,'" Tranter said. "He said, 'What'd you do, vote for this guy?'" As police officers approached to escort Fuller outside, he turned and shouted at the audience: "You whores!" The rest of the taping continued without incident and wrapped up about five minutes later. Outside, Fuller was arrested for making threats, said Capt. Byron Gwaltney of the Pima County Sheriff's Department.According to a local Tucson television station, Fuller's comments were directed at Tuscon Tea Party founder Trent Humphries, who garnered some poor press of his own on Thursday when he blamed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords for not carrying a firearm to prevent her own shooting.
GOProud prefaces the release of its 2011 agenda with this message:
The so-called “gay agenda” is defined by the left through a narrow prism of legislative goals. In contrast to the approach of the left, GOProud’s agenda emphasizes conservative and libertarian principles that will improve the daily lives of all Americans, but especially gay and lesbian Americans.On their list of 2011 legislative goals: The repeal of healthcare reform, opposition to gun control, defense of constitutional originalism, cuts in corporate taxes, support for school vouchers, and opposition to federal marriage reform. Not stated is GOProud's opposition to ENDA, which we presume has not changed.
Teabagger Rep. Louie Gohmert says he will introduce a bill authorizing members of Congress to bring guns to work.
“It’d be a good thing for members of Congress who want to carry a weapon in the District,” he said. “I know friends that walk home from the Capitol. There’s no security for us,” he said, adding that the measure would deter people from attacking members. “There is some protection in having protection.” He said there were times during the health care debate last year that he felt afraid, including when a stranger approached him on the street and started screaming at him. Though Gohmert doesn’t have a concealed weapon permit in Texas, he’s long been a strong advocate for Second Amendment rights.What could possibly go wrong?
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) plans to introduce a House bill that would ban the carrying of firearms within 1000 feet of members of Congress and other high-ranking federal officials.
King is the first Republican to announce any kind of gun control legislation in the wake of the shooting. He joins fellow New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat, who is seeking to restrict sales of high-capacity ammunition clips like the one Loughner allegedly used in his attack. Under federal law, it’s illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a school. King wants to apply that same standard to federal offices, including the president, vice president, members of Congress and federal judges. King joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and several local officials Tuesday morning to call for “common-sense” solutions to “keep guns out of the hand of criminals, the mentally ill and other dangerous persons.”Wags on Twitter are already claiming that King's bill would effectively reinstate DC's ban on handguns, which was overturned in 2008.
The husband of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) was murdered in a 1993 mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad. When Congress reconvenes after this period of mourning, she will introduce a bill similar to the 1994 law banning gun clips that hold more than ten bullets. That law was allowed to expire on schedule in 2004 due to pressure exerted on the GOP by the National Rifle Association.
The Glock 19 bullet magazine used by Jared Lee Loughner had been banned under a 1994 assault weapons law instituted during the Clinton administration. But under enormous pressure from the National Rifle Association, in 2004 the GOP successfully worked to allow that ban to expire. AmericaBlog posts this excerpt from Salon:
According to police and media reports, the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, legally purchased a semiautomatic Glock 19 with a high-capacity magazine in November at a gun store in Tucson. Under the assault weapons ban, it was illegal to manufacture or sell new high-capacity magazines, defined as those that hold more than 10 rounds. The magazines used by Loughner had 31 rounds each, according to police. If Loughner had been using a traditional magazine, "it would have drastically reduced the number of shots he got off before he had to pause, unload and reload -- and he could have been stopped," Daniel Vice, senior attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, tells Salon.Loughner was tackled by several heroic bystanders as he paused to load a second 31-bullet clip into his weapon.
