Posted on 12/16/2012 9:10:40 PM PST by EinNYC
Like millions of Americans, I watched the news reports from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and was horrified.
There are no words to express my sadness and outrage over the loss of so many young innocent lives. Politicians have rushed to offer words of sympathy for the victims, but Americans expect more from us. And they deserve more from this Congress.
Congress has ducked a serious national debate over common-sense gun laws for too long. While there may be nothing we could have done to have stopped this deranged individual from killing and terrorizing so many people, how many more tragedies must we live through before we say enough is enough?
We have an obligation to act and prevent tomorrow’s senseless deaths by coming together and ensuring that guns stay out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill. Gun violence became very personal to me when my friend, Rep. Gabby Giffords, was nearly killed at the hands of a mentally ill gunman while conducting the same type of “Congress at Your Corner” event I have done dozens of times in my career. Six people that day, including 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, had their entire futures taken away from them. I have seen too many parents’ lives shattered, from Binghamton to Brooklyn.
I will never forget the faces of slain 17-year-old honor student Nyasia Pryear-Yard’s parents, whom I met just weeks after being sworn in to the Senate.
My own two boys are ages 9 and 4, the same ages as many of the children attending Sandy Hook Elementary School when the gunfire rang out.
As a mother, and a lawmaker, I will not allow these tragedies, and the roughly 34 gun violence related deaths that happen every day, to go unanswered. We can no longer sweep the conversation about access to guns under the rug, it is time to demand real solutions. But in Washington, old and tired political battles have prevented progress. Like far too often in this town, partisans talk past each other, and nothing gets done. The moment someone proposes a solution, it is labeled pro-gun or anti-gun, people run to their respective corners, and nothing is accomplished.
Keeping our children safe from the scourge of gun violence is not a Republican or a Democratic principle; this is an issue for all Americans. There is no political ideology that finds this loss of life acceptable.
The mothers, fathers and reasonable gun owners of America need to take back this conversation.
The truth is that supporting the Second Amendment and reducing gun violence are compatible and consistent. Responsible gun owners vehemently oppose the kind of gun violence afflicting the streets of America. But when gun owners and non-gun owners leap to their opposite corners, we give up our ability to thoughtfully analyze the challenges and forge an honest debate.
As someone who believes in the Constitution and an individual’s right to bear arms, I believe the first place we should look for answers is in the Second Amendment itself, which says, “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The words “well-regulated” prove the Founding Fathers themselves understood the need to have reasonable limits.
So we must come together around common-sense solutions. We should be able to agree that no American should have access to the high-capacity ammunition clips made for our military. We should be able to agree on closing the gun-show loophole and banning military-style weapons that have no recreational sports use.
And it is well past time to crack down on illegal gun traffickers and their criminal networks, so that we can stop the flow of illegal guns and reduce the violence that plagues too many communities around New York and across the country.
Every day, illegal guns are flowing into cities around the country. Here in New York City, nearly 90% of the guns used in gun crimes come from out of state, and 90% of these guns are estimated to be illegal. Yet while local law enforcement agencies work overtime to track down these weapons, federal law still restricts their ability to investigate and prosecute those who traffic these firearms.
The absence of any federal law defining gun trafficking in this country is shocking. We have thousands of laws, but effectively none of them are directly focused on preventing someone from Virginia from driving to New York City, parking their car in a parking lot, and selling hundreds of firearms out of the back of their trunk to criminals.
In this next Congress, I hope we can move forward the Gun Trafficking Prevention Act I authored working closely with Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the Brady Campaign and New Yorkers to crack down on illegal gun trafficking and stop the flow of illegal guns into our communities. This holiday season many of us will gather around the table with our families to give thanks for our blessings. Tragically, some of us will be missing loved ones due to gun violence and illegal guns.
Let us honor these families and their loved ones by doing all we can to eliminate illegal guns and prevent the loss of even one more innocent life.
Stop dancing in the blood biatch! You could care less. All you want is a communist Amerika. Lighten up! You ain’t getting it.
Anything but the real solution: a return to private religious morality (repentance, anyone?) and strengthening the family. Can’t have that, because that will destroy leftism.
The British tried to disarm us once.
I wonder if we still have the grit to resist like they did in the 18th century.
If Gillibrand wants to save innocent lives, all she has to do is close down Planned Parenthood.
Millions of yet to be born children will thank her for it.
I am not completely familiar with NY laws on this subject, but I have a strong suspicion doing this breaks quite a number of them.
It may be logistically difficult to stop someone from doing this, but that's different from saying it isn't illegal.
Also hyperbolic. Does anyone ever actually park their car and sell "hundreds of firearms" out of the trunk? Wouldn't that require a remarkably large trunk?
Was she this mouthy when our wonderful military were gunned down at Fort Hood by a Moslem?!?
FUKG
Hyperbole never bothered a demagogue. Whatever lies it takes to make their point. This b*tch also revved up the lies and very sketchy data to personally push through legislation this past April to allow USDA swine to come into a federal bird preserve and murder 800 innocent Canada geese. Bad enough that Mayor Buttberg arranged that every Canada goose in every City park be killed, based on the same very sketchy data, but then to allow this in a federal park? What’s next? Gillibrand doesn’t like herring gulls, therefore all herring gulls in the federal preserve are rounded up to be killed?
I’m stunned at the arrogance of these people, that they can exert their power and prevent this from happening again. How many sheeple will buy into this lie.
“and banning military-style weapons”
That works so well in Mexico.
Everyone in in Second Grade was allowed to have a box of crayons by the school charter.
One day a bad student threw a red crayon at the teacher. The teacher then immediately took all the red crayons from all her pupils, telling them “I have an obligation to act and prevent tomorrow’s senseless crayon-throwing at teachers!’
Luckily all the good students had all lot of other color crayons left in their school crayon boxes and more at home too.
Color me Red White and Blue.
School teachers should be trained and equipped to protect their students. People who are unable or unwilling to accept that duty should find a different line of work.
School teachers should be trained to use guns to protect students.
That’s really silly. My ex wife was an tiny art teacher. She loved children, clay...murals...designing fashion.
She had no use for guns nor should she have to. If the men in this society aren’t up to protecting our woman and children we deserve to have our guns taken away.
My dear Blackirish,
While your notion that men should protect women and children is quite commendable, the fact is that most elementary schools are staffed almost exclusively by women. The custodians are usually males, but may not the best or brightest knives in the drawer. There would have been no ready cadre of armed men in Sandy Hook or most any elementary school I could think of.
Send your son to be first through the door to confiscate my guns.
Yes, we have a winner! PP kills more beautiful, innocent children every year and our president is for partial birth abortion too. So this whole teary eyed speech is pure Barbara Streisand
>> crack down on illegal gun trafficking and stop the flow of illegal guns into our communities
Is she talking about Fast & Furious?
The pious arrogance of control freaks in govt knows no limits.
It is the use of unproven, dangerous PHARMACEUTICALS that cause these sorts of things...NOT GUNS!
“We know these drugs’ effects. We know a number of psychiatric drugs cause brain storms that push people into committing suicide and homicide.”
We need to change the conversation to point out what is actually killing our children and making them kill others!!.......
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLBRAND
A “Fully Automatic Moron”
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