Posted on 01/17/2013 8:47:23 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter ripped the National Rifle Association for using President Barack Obama’s two daughters in an ad, declaring it “beyond the bounds of human decency” at a congressional hearing Wednesday.
“As a father, I find it reprehensible, disgusting and beyond the bounds of human decency that the NRA would place an ad on television attacking President Obama’s daughters,” Nutter said to applause from the dais at a meeting of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, adding: “The NRA has struck a new low and that should be removed immediately.”
The NRA released an ad Tuesday night calling the president an “elitist hypocrite” for opposing the NRA’s plan to put armed staff in schools while his own daughters are protected by the Secret Service. The White House condemned the ad earlier Wednesday.
Nutter, the president of theU.S. Conference of Mayors, gave the panel of roughly 30 Democrats policy recommendations they largely wanted to hear, endorsing a ban on assault weapons, stronger penalties for straw purchases and the mandatory background checks for private gun sales.
Newtown, Conn. superintendent Janet Robinson also drew applause from the dais after she read the letter a fourth grader named Ava from the beleaguered suburb wrote to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asking for a ban on semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines.
“In Newtown’s municipal center, there are hundreds of thousands of cards and pictures from children and adults from all over America,” Robinson said, reading the letter and holding up a poster with images of the town center. “It’s so sad. I think people against changing the gun laws should walk through the long hallway and read one card out of every box and realize how many people want this change.”
While Robinson’s original testimony didn’t include any policy recommendations, she voiced opposition to arming teachers when asked by members.
“I have great respect for guns,” Robinson said. “My dad used to take to an old ranch in New Mexico and teach me how to shoot. I have great respect for them. … Teachers are teachers. And if you think about elementary teachers, elementary teachers just love kids. They’re not gonna go packing and sit on the floor on the rug and read to the kids with a gun at their hip.”
“There was some very insensitive individual, who will go unnamed, but immediately after this — and I did not watch TV after this, made some complaint that if [Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung] had just had a weapon in her desk, she could’ve taken care of it,” Robinson continued. “Number one: She wasn’t at her desk, and no good principal is. So that means she would have to be carrying it around. And what if she’s like [former New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress] and shot herself in the foot? How many kids could get injured with inexperienced elementary school teachers walking around with guns? It’s not even logical.”
Robinson’s unnamed individual is likely Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) who said in December in reference to Hochsprung, “I wish to God she had had an M4 in her office locked up and so when she heard gunshots … she takes his head off before he can hurt those kids.”
Robinson also said she supported a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines.
“He shot every one of these six-year olds three to 11 times,” Robinson said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “That wasn’t necessary. … Maybe Dawn and the people who came out could’ve stopped him. They didn’t have a chance with a semi-automatic weapon. And those six-year-old bodies didn’t have a chance.”
Nutter wasn’t the only witness at the hearing to criticize the NRA.
“Please do not be swayed by the line that the only way to combat a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Emily Nottingham, the mother of Gabe Zimmerman, a Gabrielle Giffords staffer who died in the Tucson, Ariz., mass shooting just over two years ago. “In fact, there was a good guy with the gun at the Tucson shooting. But he almost mistakenly shot the citizen hero who had tackled the shooter. I do not want to carry around an assault rifle to go to the grocery store to buy broccoli or take a grandchild to soccer practice.”
Chaska, Minn. Police Chief Scott Knight also testified at the hearing.
I have. And my grandkids didn't blink an eye about the firearm. I don't even think they noticed it.
My favorite phrase is "It's always time for school for midshipmen". My kids know that phrase, my grandkids know what that means. I love teaching youngsters. My kids, young airmen, my grandkids, random kids I meet. You can always talk to them, and find their interests and teach them something that applies.
Whether I am carrying a firearm doesn't change that a bit.
/johnny
coloradan ~ :” The ad didn’t attack Obama’s daughters at all, it attacked Obama’s hypocrisy in seeking protection for them, but not for other children. That isn’t an attack against the daughters.”
Lib’s don’t understand hypocrisy ~ they are too busy living it !
You can’t spell it out to them ~ too much kool-aide
There was a reason why the mayors father took him out to New Mexico / Arizona : to appreciate the responsibility of markmanship and gun ownership
Markmanship to know where the round was going to go
Responsibility to know how to harness the power of the firearm
Nowadays , our kids shoot in an online virtual world where they come back alive in 10 -15 seconds ; no harm / no foul !
This virtual world desensitizes personal responsibility to those whom they shoot , and may kill , because they come back alive an willing to fight as soon as they rejuvenate .
The only harm the NRA did was to show that OBama and his kids are ‘elitist’ ~ entitled by their position of prominance to certain protections, not afforded to the common citizen’s children .
Comforts which our kids do not have
That’s all .. no more / no less .
Good job , NRA !!
Obama constantly uses his daughters as political props,,,, so they are fair game. Also, since when has the democrat party respected our point of view?
Mark Levin made a good point tonight. They are not just attacking NRA as the enemy...but we the American people. Our rights as this country is based on. It does not matter what race, money status, location or party. We the people need to unit against it. (Paraphrase), Don't let them control the message as a fight with NRA
Sanctimonium from a mayor of a town where 3,405 murders were committed in a ten year span.
http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/local/article/1074010—open-murder-cases-are-open-wounds-for-philly
I don’t know for sure but I’m willing to bet, a semi-automatic rifle is waaaay down the list of weapons used.
But of course when Obama appears on stage with a bunch of 8-10 year olds with letters they’ve written demanding gun control (which they no doubt wrote all by themselves) that’s perfectly appropriate political theatre. Sure. Whatever.
Awesome!
When an ad causes liberal scumbags like Michael Nutter and Pork Porkie of New Jersey to throw conniption fits, you know it hit the mark.
That hardly matters. Human beings are naturally irrational, or moreso than they are rational. Most of us long to be as irrational as possible. And this is one of those cases where we grant license to be so, despite the truth.
The mayor’s name says it all.
What else can you expect from the mayor of a city where Obama received 100% of the vote in some districts?
Most of these shooters are scum. Many will shoot as much victims as possible, if suicide by gunfight was the intent, then the shooters should take on the arriving police in one violent gun battle finale. Instead when they see the police, they simply duck back into a room and shoot themselves. One account Adam shot half of the K class, stayed in the hallway till the officers arrive. One of the officers recanted that Adam quickly ducked back into the K class when he saw them, open fire to kill the remaining kids and shot himself with one round before the police officers can reach the K classroom. Question, would Adam kill himself once he is confronted by someone stopping his advance by shooting back at him?
Talk about indecent - how about crassly using the tragedy in Conn. to advance a political/power agenda even though you know it will result in more violence against innocent people. That is sick, disgusting, and criminal.
The ad doesn’t attack the president’s daughters.
It makes a point saying that according to Obama, his daughters are more important than everyone else’s kids because they get armed protection that he denies to other peoples’ children.
Hardly an “attack” on them. If anything it’s an attack on Obama’s blatant hypocrisy.
GOOD point, and that will NEVER happen. They can all GTH.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter: NRA has no ‘human decency’
How many Police Officer have been killed in and around your city this past year Mayor?
You have no room to talk about human decency.
Philly! I glad it’s across the river ten miles away!
Crime ridden hell hole of America. I think they compete with Chicago!
I have been here in NJ for 3 years now and have no desire to even visit that city for any reason!
Even though I love our Nations History and would love to walk the ground our Forefathers walked, or to run the steps Rocky did!
Nutter take your City back from the criminals that posses your streets! Philly is a Third World Country and no passport needed!
I seem to recall a Philly mayor who ordered bombs dropped on his own citizens. Four kids burnt to death in the target house and a multi block confligration ensued.
As I recall the mayor was black and people that he ordered massacred were black. There was no racial animosity involved.
Now this current mayor may say that he would never order such a thing, but now there’s a precedent should he ever decide to.
A low level politician who has the power to order bombing attacks on a citizenry but then chastises these same citizens for wanting to exercise their God given right to defend themselves, is the epitome of an out of control hypocrisy.
The City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Office, people in their right minds, massacred children long before a madman with a rifle in Connecticut did.
1985 bombing
In 1981, MOVE relocated to a row house at 6221 Osage Avenue in the Cobbs Creek area of West Philadelphia. On May 13, 1985, after months of complaints by neighbors that MOVE members were broadcasting political messages by bullhorn at all hours and also about the health hazards created from piles of compost, as well as indictments of various MOVE members for crimes including parole violation, contempt of court, illegal possession of firearms, and making terrorist threats[8] The police department attempted to clear the building and arrest the indicted MOVE members, which led to an armed standoff with police.[9] The police lobbed tear gas canisters at the building and the fire department battered on the roof of the house with two water cannons. MOVE members fired at the police, and the police returned fire with semiautomatic weapons.[10] The house was heavily fortified with old telephone poles lining the interior walls and a bunker was built on the roof. A police helicopter then dropped a four-pound bomb made of C-4 plastic explosive and Tovex, a dynamite substitute, onto the roof of the house to clear the bunker so that police would not be injured.
The resulting explosion caused incendiary materials listed in the police indictment, and stored by MOVE in the house, to catch fire, therefore causing the house itself to catch on fire. The resulting fire ignited a massive blaze which eventually destroyed 65 houses nearby.[2][11][12] Eleven people, including John Africa, five other adults and five children, died in the resulting fire.[13] The firefighters were stopped from putting out the fire based on allegations that firefighters were being shot at, a claim that was contested by the lone adult survivor Ramona Africa, who says that the firefighters had earlier battered the house with two deluge pumps when there was no fire.[11] Ramona Africa and one child, Birdie Africa, were the only two survivors. Police shot at those trying to escape the house[14] and acknowledge firing over 10,000 rounds.[15]
Aftermath
Mayor W. Wilson Goode soon appointed an investigative commission called the PSIC or MOVE commission. It issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that “Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable.”[16] No one from the city government was charged criminally.
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