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MTP LiveBlog - LaPierre; Shchumer & Graham; Roundtable - 12.23.12
Sun Dec 23, 2012 6:14 AM EST
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A mass shooter in Moscow Idaho killed his wife, took his semi-auto rifle with a large magazine and opened up on the outside of the Sheriff's office. Three armed men, two officers and a civilian, took him on. The result of having 3 armed men against one lunatic with this kind of fire power? One officer dead, the other officer and civilian wounded. The shooter then went into a church, killed a sexton then killed himself. If three men can't take one of these people out, what is one armed guard going to do? Look it up.
You are right - let's disarm our police force - obviously your reasoning would apply there too? The problems are at the social level and must be addressed - tougher laws to keep criminals behind bars and better programs to help those with mental problems.
Let's try this one more time. Had that weapon not been available, the police would not have been outgunned. We do not need these weapons in the hands of civilians. You want your revolvers et al, great. No one needs these.
I agree to a point – the real problem was Not the guns, but
the lack of a support network to help someone that was obviously very
disturbed. China has very strict gun control (there are Non – except the
military) and yet a knife wielding mentally disturbed person just recently
slashed 22 schoolchildren. Yes, thank God all those children are still alive
today – but the route cause is the lack of aid for the mentally disturbed.
Am I not entitled to the same self defense as police? Are they a special class of citizen, better than you or I? There are and estimated 300 MILLION firearms in the US, and if you think the criminals are going to be suddenly obeying any gun laws you're living in fantasy. Your choices as to your own security are your business, but my choices are not yours to dictate.
He is completely closed minded. Armed guard in schools? Really? It will become an arms race on a mirco-level. Oh boy...you guys are in trouble.
In 2000, Clinton proposed putting armed guards in the schools, but it is wrong for the NRA to propose the same? I hope the elitist hypocrites keep running their mouths.
And no need to spare the 1st Amendment as the Pen is mightier than the Sword. MTP, and all news shows, should submit their programs to a Federal review board to make sure the reports are 100% factual. I mean, what would it hurt if their news reports came out a few days later if it could save just 1 life. If that is what you are truly concerned with.
It seems to me that Wayne LaPierre is advocating a Police State and what do you think that would ultimately lead to when it comes to the second ammendment? LaPierre is walking around any issue that has to do with restricting the things that will keep our children safe. All the talk about mental health seems to think that rational thought goes into what these crazed killers are thinking! How can LaPierre truely believe that armed officers are going to stop such an individual from at least attempting such acts?
After working amongst violent criminals for thirty years I can tell you they do not think the same way we do. Why comprise responses to such things using normal logic against people that have a bent view when it comes to what is moral and what is not.
I do not think a Police State is the direction we want to take; as history has provin this not to be the drection a people pursue that want to maintain all their freedoms.
The Second Amendment, and the right of citizens to keep and bear arms, is the ONLY real protection from having a police state. Think it through.
Just to be clear, he is NOT advocating a police state. That is your own invention.
I guess we know what camp Graham is in - no big surprise.
20 Minutes ago I was a Non-gun Owner and not a member of the NRA, I see no need to own a gun. However, on Monday I will become a member of the NRA - I do not believe gun ownership will make me safer, but I also believe the laws in this country are failing. We have given the 'bad' guys too many rights and we train our youth on street level/urban combat in video games. I believe we need to look at what Mr. LaPierre proposes - they are sound solutions or at least discussion points - to protect those of us that do not own guns. God Bless this Country and provide our leadership with some wisdom to rise above!
One of the main reasons the bad guys have guns is there are so many available to steal. I had two assault rifles stolen from my home and fortunately got them back before anything happened. Your new gun will be two things, a possible safety feature for you, a definite score for a thief. You may want to get a damned good dog instead.
I have No plans to purchase a Gun - I only stated I will be supporting the NRA. I
believe in the Constitution that this Country was founded on. I hope your assault
rifles were stored in a secure vault when they were stolen and you did not
provide them easy access to ammo too. In addition I hope the people that stole
your guns were prosecuted and not just with a ‘slap on the hands’.
Charlie from NY. Same here. Just saw Schumer and heard his comments. Realizing that those who grabbed podiums and tv spotlights soon after the NRA proposed a solution or remedy to these tragedies in the future, are Jewish politicians who spoke from CA and CT, and Bloomberg, Lieberman and others, I would ask that David, host of Meet The Press, pose this question to his Jewish panel members who are against the NRA plan to protect children across this nation: If you were in a similar position of authority in Germany at the start of Hitler's regime, would you have told the Jewish people to turn in their firearms? Remind them that if the Jewish people had firearms at that time many lives might have been saved, likely including some of their relatives. Knowing that, I want to know why they are demanding that Americans release ANY of their legally owned firearms. An argument from them refusing to compare this country with Hitler's Germany would be recognized as a refusal to answer, to which i would respond... if you are an American who Swore the Oath to uphold our Constitution and our Founding documents, you would know that the 2nd Amendment was not to enable muskets for squirrel and rabbit hunting. FIREARMS were assigned as RIGHTS to American citizens for the purpose of keeping our Repubic... and protecting our country from political tyrants. Our firearms are to protect us from THEM and to ensure our Republic remains strong. Any Jewish politician who so disrespects America's Right to keep and bear arms has an agenda that is not in keeping with the USA. ALL politicians who try to damage our 2nd Amendment are traitors and must be removed from office
It seems to me that at this point and time there is a bigger problem in this country. it is our national debt. we the people are sitting on our bums letting washington run us in the ground financially. we will all be in grave danger of losing everything we have worked for as a nation. not to mention look like total fools to the world. when our economy collapses we willl all be carring GUNS. to protect what we have left. isnt something that we are not up in ARMS about this problem.
Liberals love to say smugly that Fox News is biased and so obviously pro-conservative. Conversely, I have heard it suggested over and over from NBC with a certain priggishness that they are unbiased and simply present the issues and the facts as responsible journalists ought to do. Humbug and balderdash! David Gregory is as biased as they come demonstrating his puffed up prejudice against the NRA with his belligerency and badgering of the NRA chief this morning. I am appalled by the lopsided logic and narrow-minded niggling of his guest--particularly in this case. If he acted this way in my living room I would have to take him aside and ask him to mind his manners and try to act more gentlemanly--he was being rude. He wasn't listening and trampled his guest instead of inviting dialogue. This tends to make for good show business, albeit banal entertainment, rather than responsible moderating. I used to think NBC was something, and I think at one point it was, but this morning I am especially ashamed that my parents waved at me from the Today Show in the 1960s. And, I even think that J. Fred Muggs would be ashamed too!
Liberals love to say smugly that Fox News is biased and so obviously pro-conservative. Conversely, I have heard it suggested over and over from NBC with a certain priggishness that they are unbiased and simply present the issues and the facts as responsible journalists ought to do. Humbug and balderdash! David Gregory is as biased as they come demonstrating his puffed up prejudice against the NRA with his belligerency and badgering of the NRA chief this morning. I am appalled by the lopsided logic and narrow-minded niggling of his guest--particularly in this case. If he acted this way in my living room I would have to take him aside and ask him to mind his manners and try to act more gentlemanly--he was being rude. He wasn't listening and trampled his guest instead of inviting dialogue. This tends to make for good show business, albeit banal entertainment, rather than responsible moderating. I used to think NBC was something, and I think at one point it was, but this morning I am especially ashamed that my parents waved at me from the Today Show in the 1960s. And, I even think that J. Fred Muggs would be ashamed too!
As a born citizen of this great country, we are missing a very important topic. our national debt. to hell with the gun problem for now. we the people of the U.S.A. should be shouting to the top of our lungs to washington. they are running us in the ground, our national debt is totally embarrassing. they , washington should all be fired buy us the american people. they work for us. not for themselves. it seems to me that they do not care that we are falling into a big whole in the ground. total economic collapse is right around the corner. a great country we no longer will be. and what will happen when we lose everything. the thugs will come out and we will all be caring GUNS. so america ARM yourselves for the end as we know it and the freedom as we know it. will end in total fiancial ruin. and a much darker problem will be at hand. do you want that to happen it seems to me we need to redirect our prioritys today.
Lapiere is a monster, figuratively speaking. His weapon-based idiot-ology is built on hate, fear and deceit, and it stands to erode and destroy civilization in the long run if allows. One way to label it is "law of the jungle" mentality. For one thing, by the time a shoot-out begins in some public place, isn't it already a monsterous event, a lose-lose situation, a sick minded tragedy where innocent lives are in the balance and there's no justifiable reason. Yet lapiere justifies it. Thankfully people of good-will will win the day. People that care more about people than money and power. The likes of the NRA mouth-pieces and the right wing nut-jobs in general are being slowly Darwin-ed out of existance. I think we're seeing the death of conservativeism. One last point. Dosen't it seem clear that lapeire's motivation is all about power and money and not some high-minded principle? Clearly it is. I am a gun owner, but I know there need to be limits. I go shooting occassionally. I own two six-shooter revolvers. But it is clear to me large magazines and semi-automatic weapons are antithetical to a civilized society to have distributed through out. If you doubt it think of this; why not allow civilians to own grenades? mustard gas? armored vehicles? shoulder mounted rocket launchers? Wake up and smell the coffee extrem right-wingers in America. God willing, your extinction is in sight. Amen.
Wow - If words could kill - you just massacred many - even while interjecting God and prayer! I don't happen to agree with you, your labels, your biases or your means of expressing them, but I, like many, defend your right to have your say and wish you and yours nothing but peace and prosperity.
Watch out, folks, we are being invaded by a Mars Babe. At least SHE knows she in not from this planet. No wonder she sees Americans who defend the 2nd Amendment, who like the Japanese military leader at the surrender meeting said they didn't attack the mainland USA because they knew there was a gun behind every blade of grass here. Some things don't and won't change, Babe.
God willing, you won't have to beat your plowshare into a sword. But since you depend on a military and police force for your protection, please allow those of us who are a little more self reliant to have the means for our own protection as our Creator endowed us with, and as described as inherent to all men in the Constitution.
Did the President of the NRA, that bastion of support for the 2nd Amendment which was designed to protect America from an armed government tyranny, just advocate increasing the number of armed government officials in society?
Read it again. Robertear179. Slowly. Watch a rerun if not yet archived.
Did the president of the NRA, that bastion created to defend the 2nd Amendment which was created to protect Americans from an armed government tyranny, just recommend increasing the number of armed government officials in our society?
It is just absolutely amazing that the Sandy Hook tragedy is only being addressed from the gun control perspective. When are we going to address the fact that the Federal Governments failure to provide adequate assistance to mental health issues is the problem here. Since the demise of funding for Mental Hospitals and Clinics, dealing with such people has been diverted to Law Enforcement, Jails and Prisons, but no one wants to address that as the underlying problem here. If the mentally ill are treated properly, them getting a hold of a gun would be a much lesser problem or concern.
I agree.
Really, he wants to spend more money by having police officers at schools! Why doesnt the NRA pay for it!! Looks like Wayne doesnt want to discuss taking away semi automatic guns or assault rifles. Big surprise here. These types of guns are not needed to protect yourself or for hunting purposes..Every shooting there has been a mental health issue involved with the gunman. Guns should not be in the presence of mentally ill people wether in their own hands or family members hands that they live with!!!
Bill Clinton had the same program, we didn't have a problem paying for it as a Justice Dept grant. If we took a tenth of the foreign aid we send to our enemies we could fund this program for decades.
I woke up at 2 AM to see a man staring at me through my open bedroom window in North Fort Myers, Florida. I froze as I looked at his face & he looked at mine. He then proceeded to walk to the front of my house & began to kick my front door in. There were only minutes before the door would be broken into. I took my firearm, fired a shot through the open window into the ground & shouted for him to haul his ass off of my property or the next bullet would be aimed at his head. There had been no time for police to arrive before this happened. THE ONLY THING THAT SAVED ME FROM BEING ROBBED, RAPED & OR MURDERED WAS THE FACT THAT I HAD A FIREARM TO DEFEND MYSELF. CRIMINALS DON'T RESPECT LAWS OR DECENT PEOPLE. I am a LIFETIME MEMBER of the NRA. I respect all life and all laws of this country. I support the Second Amendment & I will not give up my right to defend myself with a firearm.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that you don't have a right to defend yourself. I am sorry that you went through that terrible experience and I am glad you were able to prevent it. The question is this: Would it have made a difference for you to have a high capacity clip to enable you to fire 30 bullets in under a minute? Is there a self-defense reason to have a weapon capable of level of "self-defense"?
Obviously. If criminals can acquire these weapons, the law abiding should not be constrained. Common sense. Which is not very common, sadly.
Sorry Cathy, what you are asking us to believe is that your intruder, instead of jumping through your "open bedroom window" immediately when he came face to face with you to disable you before you had a chance to think or react since by your own admission you were "frozen", he instead chose to go round to the front of your house to create the commotion of kicking your front door in, drawing even more attention to himself and giving you the time to get your gun and shoot it into the ground? A VERY stupid intruder or a very dishonest writer. I don't buy the whole story, even if it were relevant to the discussion at hand which it is not.
Can someone PLEASE tell this NRA machine gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, that America and the world at large does NOT agree with his idea of more guns on
the street is the solution to stop gun violence. This fool stated that by locking
up more drug dealers and violent criminals we will solve our senseless massacres
of children, teachers, parents, families, innocent by standers…the last time I
checked, neither a drug dealer nor a hard core criminal went into a school, a sheik
temple, a shopping mall or a movie theater and kill the innocent!
The acts you refer to were all criminal, therefore the focus on criminals is appropriate. And frankly, as and American I don't care what the "world at large" thinks. Perhaps you'd be happier in another country?
2hawk, it’s obvious that you watched a different interview than we did. Tell that nonsense to the family members of those we lost and to members of the fallen fire fighters in NY!
More importantly, you should care what the world thinks; perhaps, you reside on the moon and don’t care about the world in which we all share.
and of course you realize that the nut who murdered the fire fighters previously murdered his grandmother, right? And you realize he was not condemned to death or life in prison for this murder, right? And you realize that, most likely people like you, let him out of prison early, right?
When they come for you, and nobody is there to stand up, hypocrites such as you will be screaming the loudest "why doesn't somebody do something."
LaPierre's position is the same as sanctioning the Newtown massacre, Aurora, and other mass killings as collateral damage necessary to protect the rights of gun owners... ridiculous!
Ridiculous indeed. He has never said or implied any such thing, and I defy you to prove otherwise. Lying when the facts don't fit your argument is pretty average for the anti-NRA people, so I guess you fit in.
Regardless of whether it will work (per NRA), why does ANY civilian need a high capacity magazine? Give me one reason.
To defend my self, my loved ones, and my community if need be, from any attack. Try to remember, the Second Amendment was written to guarantee the citizens of this nation would have a means with which to counter a tyrannical government. That's four reasons, let me know if you need more.
We register our cars and license those who drive them. Cars and drivers kill thousands every year. Why shouldn't we register guns and their owners ?
Read the history of the Constitution, and why the Second Amendment was put there. Our founders distrusted unfettered government power, and didn't even want a standing army. Your proposal to register guns flies directly in the face of the intent of the Second Amendment.
Moreover, why would criminals, who are outside the law by definition, be affected in any way by registrations? Look at the gun violence in Chicago just this past summer, and tell me that gun bans work with a straight face.
Regardless of whether it will work (per the NRA), why does ANY civilian need a high capacity magazine???? Give me one reason.
So, if the access to the weapons is not the issue, ask him why we can't all have grenade launchers, surface to air missiles, and automatic machine guns ... i'd like to hear that answer. Unbelievable.
I am open to hear all sides of the debate on coming up with possible new law on gun control. I believe that all law abiding citizens should be allowed to have a gun to protect life and property! I also believe in preventive measures. One preventive measure is to close the loopholes that allow people with ill intentions and mental health access to purchase weapons. I have lived my entire life without ever owning a gun and knock on wood, I have not ever been shot at or robbeed at gun point, I tend to stay away situations that could put my life in danger, but as I am in a darken theatre enjoying a movie, I would feel safer if a person shows up hell bent on killing had a small clip wrather than a large magazine . LaPierre comes off as a very angry man who just wants to maintain status quo...the reality is our world is changing, we are more educated than ever and have access to endless amounts of information to make more informed decisions and better choices, the saftey of our children should never be comprimised to posture and make points.
Ask LaPierre why we try to control nuclear proliferation ... he will not concede that the weapons have anything to do with the destruction. Then, why can't we all have nukes? His logic does not hold up.
I want to live unarmed in society. I actually don't want to have armed guards in our schools. I'd like to think it is reasonable and rationale to do this. LaPierre wants to sell guns. He perpetuates fear when everyone is armed. Innocent bystanders are killed on a daily basis with this given situation. The lunatics and criminals whom he claims are responsible for violence have to be gotten off the streets. That happens AFTER the acts that kill people. He doesn't want assault rifles to have less bullets in the magazine because it doesn't work??? He wants to support what works, not change the capacity, but keep the assault rifles and lots and lots of bullets available for purchase. Really? Changing our laws like the Aussies and the Scots have done after their tragedies had great affect in reducing massacres in schools. That did work.
No, it didn't. Both countries have seen increases in violent crime since their bans went into effect. Check your facts.
Let me say I stand by the constitution and I do not want our goverment taking the liberties from the people the 2nd amendment is what stops other countries from attacking us on our on land and being necesssary to the security of a free state the right of the people to keep and bear arms.....
I feel for all the children and adults and families who lost there love ones , but guns do not kill people ...,people do, if you take guns away or restrict them in such away that law abiding people can not protect themselves, the thugs and mental people do not obey the law no matter what law they pass ,khrushchev former soviet premier once said that the U.S.fall unto communism like fruit falling into the hand and would be done with out firing a shot ,that means our goverment will pass laws under the guise of safety which will bring us under bondage I hope the people will open there eyes and think of every avenue!