From Big Government
Twitter reaction:
https://twitter.com/#!/mboyle1/status/181567724810551297
https://twitter.com/#!/BenjaminHodge/status/181594460801597440
https://twitter.com/#!/BenjaminHodge/status/181594047452938240
https://twitter.com/#!/joelpollak/status/181591420778450945
Blast from the past. Time article on Obama and Mexican gun violence 2009:
Obama concedes that one major problem in stopping the traffic is the strength of U.S. gun laws — and the gun lobby supporting them. Mexican officials have pushed for the United States to reinstate a Clinton-era ban on assault rifles. Such weapons — especially Kalashnikovs and AR15s — are behind the vast majority of Mexican gang-killings. Both types of guns have been sold widely in Arizona and Texas since the U.S. ban on sale of assault weapons was repealed in 2004. A 2008 Supreme Court decision reinforces the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making a future ban even more difficult. In his first visit to Mexico in April, Obama said apologetically that it was beyond his power to overturn that. “Assault weapons, as we now know here in Mexico, are helping to fuel extraordinary violence,” he said. “Having said that none of us are under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy.”
Right after that meeting. From CNN:
As Mexico approaches its bicentennial, Mexico’s president says his country is fighting significant security problems — many of which are fueled by U.S. policies.
The 2004 end to the U.S. federal assault weapons ban gave criminals new resources, he said.
“They gained access to powerful firearms that they didn’t have before,” he said.
*****
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have repeatedly publicly acknowledged that the United States plays a role in drug violence.
“It’s not only guns; it’s weapons, it’s arsenals of all kinds that come south,” Clinton told the Council on Foreign Relations Wednesday. “So I feel a real sense of responsibility to do everything we can. And again, we’re working hard to come up with approaches that will actually deliver.”
And finally from the Arizona Star:
President Obama: We must seek agreement on gun reforms
It’s been more than two months since the tragedy in Tucson stunned the nation. It was a moment when we came together as one people to mourn and to pray for those we lost. And in the attack’s turbulent wake, Americans by and large rightly refrained from finger-pointing, assigning blame or playing politics with other people’s pain.
But one clear and terrible fact remains. A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun.
That’s why our focus right now should be on sound and effective steps that will actually keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.
• First, we should begin by enforcing laws that are already on the books. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System is the filter that’s supposed to stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun. Bipartisan legislation four years ago was supposed to strengthen this system, but it hasn’t been properly implemented. It relies on data supplied by states – but that data is often incomplete and inadequate. We must do better.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member