c2dd50e6   
   XPost: alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.bush   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats.d   
   From: kinkysr@yahoo.com   
      
   "Of the $11.8 million spent to defeat President Obama and $3.4 million   
   across six key Senate races — 88 percent of its federal independent   
   expenditures — the gun lobby, aka NRA, could claim no victories."   
      
   ---------------------   
      
   "Where ignorance and stupidity lie, there reside gun nuts."   
      
      -- Judge Antonin Scalia   
   =======================   
      
   "Gun control at center of Tucson shooting case"   
      
      
   Editorial   
   The Washington Post   
   November 9,  2012   
      
      
      
      
   JARED L. LOUGHNER was the one being sentenced for last year’s shooting   
   rampage that left six people dead and 13 wounded. But some of the   
   strongest words of condemnation at his federal sentencing hearing were   
   directed — deservedly so — at the country’s political leaders for   
   their cowardly refusal to debate, let alone deal with, gun violence.   
      
   As Mr. Loughner awaited sentencing Thursday for the shooting spree in   
   a Tucson shopping center parking lot that targeted and critically   
   injured Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman’s husband   
   delivered a stinging denouncement of the failure to enact meaningful   
   gun control. Mark Kelly’s powerful words bear repeating:   
      
   “We have a political class that is afraid to do something as simple as   
   have a meaningful debate about our gun laws and how they are being   
   enforced. We have representatives who look at gun violence not as a   
   problem to solve but as the white elephant in the room to ignore. As a   
   nation we have repeatedly passed up the opportunity to address this   
   issue. After Columbine; after Virginia Tech; after Tucson and after   
   Aurora we have done nothing.”   
      
   U.S. District Court Judge Larry A. Burns, who sentenced the 24-year-   
   old defendant to the seven consecutive life terms plus 140 years in   
   prison that was a condition of his guilty plea agreement, expressed   
   wonder at allowing the unrestricted sale of high-capacity magazines   
   like the one Mr. Loughner used. Judge Burns was careful to note that   
   he was just “a single federal judge” who had “no intention to change   
   the law.” But the decision by state and national figures to go AWOL on   
   gun control in fear of what they perceive to be the powerful clout of   
   the national gun lobby leaves this critical public safety issue   
   unaddressed.   
      
   Consider that the recently concluded presidential campaign barely   
   heard mention of gun violence; it came up only in a single question at   
   a presidential debate that essentially went unanswered. Arizona Gov.   
   Jan Brewer (R), whom Mr. Kelly called out for “feckless” leadership on   
   gun control, responded that it would be inappropriate to engage in   
   politics on the solemn occasion of justice to the victims of the   
   Tucson shooting being meted out. It’s a common politicians’ dodge,   
   used whenever a mass shooting occurs and they don’t want to be put on   
   the spot about the need for rational gun regulation.   
      
   Examination by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence of spending   
   by the National Rifle Association in the 2012 elections showed that,   
   of the $11.8 million spent to defeat President Obama and $3.4 million   
   across six key Senate races — 88 percent of its federal independent   
   expenditures — the gun lobby could claim no victories; all of its   
   candidates lost. This evidence that the association’s ability to   
   influence elections may be exaggerated should stiffen the spines of   
   Mr. Obama and congressional leaders to take on this important issue —   
   before another person touched by gun violence has to stand up in court   
   to offer words about the horrors of loss.   
      
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/politicians-fear-of-the-g   
   n-lobby-is-a-scandal/2012/11/09/c31edd04-2ab5-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)