Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mother of VA Tech shooting survivor: NRA shouldn’t be part of gun safety debate
msnbc.com ^ | January 30, 2013 | Morgan Whitaker

Posted on 01/30/2013 9:46:42 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

The mother of one of the survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting told elected leaders to stand up to the NRA, a group she argues doesn’t even deserve to be “at the table” in the gun safety debate.

Lori Haas joined PoliticsNation Wednesday after attending the contentious Senate hearing which featured testimony from gun control advocates, gun rights supporters, and experts in law enforcement. NRA head Wayne LaPierre voiced some of the strongest opposition to new regulations, including shooting down a proposal to close the background check loophole.

“We are hopeful and impressed with some of our leadership on the hill but frankly we need leadership from all of our representatives,” Haas said. “It shouldn’t take much courage to stand up to the NRA. Courage is facing down the barrel of a gun, and my daughter did that and there were 16 other injured students at Virginia Tech who did that.”

“The NRA should not even be at the table,” she said. ”I don’t see reports from them, I don’t see studies from them, I don’t see activities from them, I don’t see policies from them that contribute to the public safety debate.”

Haas, who joined the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence as an organizer in her home state of Virginia in 2010, pushed back against those who think argue regulations like background checks attack legal gun owners in America. “I find it very, very telling that the commentary is always ‘you’re targeting law abiding citizens’,” she said. “No, we’re not targeting law abiding citizens, we’re targeting criminals, dangerous individuals, felons, domestic abusers, terrorists. We want to stop those individuals from getting a firearm and harming our neighbors, our friends, our communities.”

“We need to do a background check on all buyers on all gun sales.”

(Excerpt) Read more at tv.msnbc.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; guncontrol; secondamendment
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 last
To: Steve1789
Her grief and concerns are totally misplaced. A deranged human being planned and carried out this atrocity. The tools he used are beside the point. What if he'd used a suicide bomb vest or used gasoline to immolate himself and the victims? If you allow CCW on campuses instead of making them target rich environments by branding them as Gun Free Zones, that is a positive step.

In school settings where mass shootings have occurred, where a firearm was used against the killer, the killer only averaged 2 victims. Where firearms were forbidden and the police were called, the average body count was 14. When an armed citizen confronted the shooter with deadly force, the shooter either surrendered or killed himself. Scapegoating the firearms and their owners, people who are not and will never be a threat, is just EVIL.

41 posted on 01/31/2013 1:30:57 AM PST by MasterGunner01
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Sarah Barracuda
Haas knew she was sending her kid to a gun free zone to attend college.

She knew her daughter was going to class in a building never designed with numbers of students in mind.

She knew ........

There's a percentage of responsibility here she doesn't want to address ~ I'd keep her out of the debate as well (if we are going to keep people out of the debate).

42 posted on 01/31/2013 2:01:44 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe
Dear Lori,

The person who shot people on the VA Tech Campus was already in violation of campus regulations. Discharging that firearm on campus is a violation of campus policy, and probably some local laws as well. Shooting people violates the law. Do you seriously think just one more law would have tipped the balance and stopped a madman from slaughtering students and staff there? Really?

Since the NRA runs training programs for Law Enforcement, as well as firearm safety, I think their presence in any debate to promote public safety vis-a-vis firearms is highly germane.

Your misguided ranting, simply on the basis of your daughter's misfortune, however, is not.

I pray you find more constructive ways to deal with your grief. As a parent, grandparent, and great grandparent, I'd be upset if one of ours got hurt, too. I would look for solutions which might have a real effect, though, and so far the only meaningful deterrents to maniacs have been forceful--on occasion, lethally so.

Disarming in the face of that threat is not the way to become more safe, quite the opposite.

Have a better day,

Smokin' Joe

43 posted on 01/31/2013 2:31:44 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MileHi
“The NRA should not even be at the table,” she said.

That's right. We only want to hear the emotional, irrational side of the argument. Who can stand to listen to that reason and logic stuff? /s

44 posted on 01/31/2013 2:45:34 AM PST by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe

“We need to do a background check on all buyers on all gun sales.”

Once again I ask - What difference would that have made?
There was nothing stopping him from passing a background check because he had no criminal record. Nothing about his mental state would have been a factor in the approval process.


45 posted on 01/31/2013 2:47:38 AM PST by servo1969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe

46 posted on 01/31/2013 3:32:45 AM PST by Zakeet (Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage - Mencken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe
“The NRA should not even be at the table,” she said. ”I don’t see reports from them, I don’t see studies from them, I don’t see activities from them, I don’t see policies from them that contribute to the public safety debate.”

Seriously?

If she doesn't see them, it's because she's refusing to look. Her ignorance is culpable.

47 posted on 01/31/2013 3:35:56 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SoldierDad
Lori Haas can STFU. Who the hell does she think she is denying 1st Amendment rights to anyone???

Whe the goal is to eliminate the 2A, I don't think fidelity to the 1A means much.

48 posted on 01/31/2013 3:52:20 AM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe

I thought Lindsey Graham did quite well in that hearing also.


49 posted on 01/31/2013 3:52:37 AM PST by tbpiper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe

The government should not be at the table. Read the founders’ words on the second amendment - it is to keep the government in check. Why would anybody want the very entity for which the second amendment protects us from to have any say whatsoever in the issue?

Don’t let the fox guard unarmed hens.


50 posted on 01/31/2013 4:04:34 AM PST by meyer (When people fear the government, you have Tyranny)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SoldierDad

Would be tyrants like this woman who have no respect for the 2nd Amendment naturally hate the 1st Amendment as well. Everyone must thinks and behave exactly as she wants them to, or they have no rights.


51 posted on 01/31/2013 4:49:11 AM PST by Above My Pay Grade
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

And the auto industry.


52 posted on 01/31/2013 4:52:49 AM PST by Above My Pay Grade
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe
When’s the last time an NRA member went on a insane shooting spree in an educational institution?

If the PTA would get off their butts and insist on putting armed parents in every hallway of every school, our children would not just be safer from intruders, but also predator teachers.

53 posted on 01/31/2013 4:57:51 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tailgunner Joe
I'm getting real sick of these skewed statistics being thrown around.

74% of NRA members support background checks.. BULLsh24. I would say 74% of them MIGHT support background checks if they were done in good faith and done properly... such as not allowing an FFL to charge me 40 bucks for it, not running the sellers background, NOT recording any information about the firearm being sold... see, we all know these grabbers real intent is REGISTRATION. This is their chance for the first major step toward complete confiscation.

And just think, are we really willing to allow these grabbing bastards to decide who is actually fit to PASS a check? We've all seen just how easy it is to get on a no-fly list... and how equally impossible it is to get OFF of it in the case of mistakes. They won't even tell us what criteria they use to decide such things, why would this be any different?

Sure, even I would support the idea of background checks IF... no fees to seller or buyer, seller is not subject to scrutiny, no information about the firearm is recorded, all evidence of the check being performed is destroyed after it has been approved AND most importantly, only the truly dangerous individuals be classified as such and denied a transfer. See, there is far too much trust put into the hands of those who are trying to disarm us so in reality, very FEW NRA members would actually support these checks because history has shown us time and again that it will be abused without fail.

54 posted on 01/31/2013 5:55:15 AM PST by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steve1789

I see, so she is an opportunist.


55 posted on 01/31/2013 10:03:25 AM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: umgud
Gun control is like trying to solve drunk driving by making it harder for sober people to own cars.

What do you think all the proposals to put ignition lock devices on all cars is about?

56 posted on 01/31/2013 10:36:10 AM PST by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson