Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Obama calls for new gun restrictions

President Obama on Monday began the first serious push of his administration to attempt to reduce gun violence, directing Cabinet members to formulate a set of proposals that could include reinstating a ban on assault rifles.

The effort will be led by Vice President Biden, according to two people outside the government who have spoken to senior administration officials since Friday, when a gunman killed his mother and rampaged through Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children, six adults and himself.
Read the rest here.

No one should be able to legally buy a gun without undergoing a criminal background check. To the extent that this is not the case, it needs to be fixed. Beyond that I seriously doubt the efficacy of any proposed laws.

6 comments:

Jason said...

I understand where the gun control folks are coming from, but they need to do some serious reflection after this upcoming legislative victory.

They need to also take a look at, and some accountability for, the excessive violent content in television, movies and video games. I don't think this will happen though. These gun control proponents will just go home and watch the lastest episode of "CSI," the latest "Batman" movie, or play the most recent tactical assault video game - likely with their children - and completely miss the connection.

Phil said...

I agree. As others have pointed out, if video messages of this sort don't influence behavior, why is so much spent on advertising? It's something I think one learns as one ages, but killing is not a game. Yet some will defend products that treat it as exactly that - demanding guns be taken away when the overwhelming majority of them will not be used to commit a Newtown, while insisting videogames must be permitted that explicitly allow the player to act out a Newtown.

Visibilium said...

I'm fine with the removal of all regulatory hurdles to small arms purchases, including background checks.

John (Ad Orientem) said...

That's nuts.

Visibilium said...

You may wish to elaborate on how regulatory hurdles, including more expansive background checks, have made us safer, particularly since the 1968 GCA.

You know, it's possible that re-instituting a universal military service requirement would make us safer than background checks. Under a draft, most males and many females would become very familiar with small arms. This is a preferable situation to the current environment in which most folks are clueless about firearms. While America leads the world in firearms ownership, it's estimated that only 30% of American households own at least one gun.

Visibilium said...

You may wish to elaborate on how regulatory hurdles, including more expansive background checks, have made us safer, particularly since the 1968 GCA.

You know, it's possible that re-instituting a universal military service requirement would make us safer than background checks. Under a draft, most males and many females would become very familiar with small arms. This is a preferable situation to the current environment in which most folks are clueless about firearms. While America leads the world in firearms ownership, it's estimated that only 30% of American households own at least one gun.