A forum on preventing gun violence Monday night turned into a heated debate on gun laws.
“At what point do you stop infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens and start enforcing the laws that are in place?” one gun rights advocate asked U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., who hosted the event in Arlington.
"When the death of innocent people is reduced,” Moran retorted. “Then we will probably be less aggressive.”
The forum — "Preventing Another Newtown: A Conversation on Gun Violence in America” — featured a mix of panelists, including former federal agent David Chipman, who is an adviser to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook, and Jonathan Lowy, the director of the Legal Action Project, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The forum took place at Washington-Lee High School in a crowded auditorium of gun rights advocates and gun control supporters.
Before the meeting had even started, a cluster of protestors held signs outside the high school with messages such as “Honk! For gun rights.”
Matthew Hurtt, who is the vice chairman of the Arlington Falls Church Young Republicans, said the group was there to show support for the Second Amendment.
“The overwhelming response during our demonstration was positive,” Hurtt said.
The panelists talked for the first hour about current gun laws and what measures are in the works.
“Most people think if you are mentally ill you can't get a gun, but that’s not the way the law reads,” said panelist Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “Seriously mentally ill is not the standard for being prohibited from buying a gun.”
Horwitz said under current federal laws, Jared Lee Loughner, who pleaded guilty to shooting former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011, would not have been prevented from buying a weapon.
Cook, speaking from the point of view of law enforcement, said, “You won't find my profession trying to take guns away from America. You will find my profession trying to better control those weapons to protect us and our society."
“There is no such thing in America as 'I can’t believe it happened here.' We are all potential places of violence,” Cook said.
Stella Covre, who lives in Old Town Alexandria, took issue against Moran’s desire to restrict ammunition magazines to 10 rounds through the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act
“I’m a small person. I can’t handle the recoil of a large-caliber weapon,” said Covre, who spoke during the forum and later clarified her stance with Patch. “…Small-caliber bullets do not have the stopping power; that’s why you want more than 10 rounds.”
She added: “Mr. Moran expressed opinion, but I value my life more than Mr. Moran’s opinion.”
Moran, meanwhile, said he “expected most of the people here would be opposed” to his position.
“The fact is that those who tend to be in favor of gun rights tend to feel more intensity then those who feel we should have stronger gun laws,” Moran said.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/17/a-moranic-career-rep-jim-morans-violent-political-life/4/
The Brady Bunch well represented on the panel but nobody from the NRA, Gun Owners of America, VCDL etc. Typical. Democrats. Stack the deck and then whine when opposition shows up.
There were some outbursts when audience members went into long preambles before they got to their questions and which point having limited time for debate someone would shout out “What is Your Question?” to try to keep things moving. The real show was Rep. Moran who just refused to answer some basic questions from the audience. Basically his mind is made up and no amount of logic, new data or public opinion in opposition to his will sway him. He also couldn't even cite the sources for the statistics in his hand out, perhaps it was written by an anti gun lobbyist. Overall he seemed somewhat uncomfortable at the large number of people wearing orange stickers whom oppose all his objectives. Based on looking around it looked like I believe the anti-gun crowd was out numbered 2-1 by the pro-gun.
I wasn't born yesterday.
Decriminalize drugs and thousands of criminal deaths due to guns goes away. (see what has happened in Portugal after decriminalizing 10 years ago) When asked if he was serious about reducing the number of gun deaths he said he didn't know how many people were killed due to this insane policy of drug prohibition. When asked about why the government is buying up 2 billion rounds of ammo, much of it hollow point (which is illegal under the Geneva Conventions in a time of war) he could not answer. When asked why does the government need 2,700 military style armored personnel carriers he had no answer. When asked why when the government buys full auto(machine guns) are they called "personal defense weapons" but when a civilian buys a semi-auto rifle it is called an "assault weapon", he had no answer. He believes no civilian should be allowed to own a gun that has more than 10 rounds, but police officers in every part of this country are arming up and training as if they are to be deployed to Benghazi. The Police chief called for mandatory gun registration three different times in his speech. When asked after the event ended how many "assault weapons" he has see personally in his area he said very few and that the guns used were almost always handguns.
WellsFargo/Wachovia and HSBC bank laundered BILLIONS in illegal money, fines but no jail. Our government lied to the public to get us into Iraq costing trillions and over 1 million deaths, and still no one goes to jail. Our own government is directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people by using manipulation and false flag events to fool the public into believing they needed to go to war. The anti-war left goes silent when their guy enters the white house and the Patriot Act gets reinstated. Sandy Hook while tragic is nothing compared to our own governments actions. Wake up people.
I found it difficult to call David Chipman "balanced" -- although his presentation on "firearm characteristics 101" was close. He did *imply* but not state that some cosmetic features have sinister purposes - in the wrong hands of course; he's special. Chipman's idea, for example, that pistol grips help law enforcement control a firearm (good) but others control a firearm (bad) was another non sequitur. The idea that he (an "agent") was issued a 15-round magazine, but that any other citizen is somehow less-deserving is/was ludicrous. His claim that Ft. Hood was not a gun-free zone completely destroyed any credibility he had with the audience who knows anything about how our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are totally disarmed when on post ... guarded only by a security force. Chipman's presence and Chief Cook's presence were to pretend to bring some objectivity to this conversation-that-wasn't. I believe Moran wanted the pro-rights people to get rowdy so he could have more talking points, but it backfired.
Law-abiding citizens realistically CAN'T control access to their guns by others. For example, Mrs. Lanza and her son in Newtown. Just a fact of life. Almost anyone can figure out how to get access to anything he or she wants. Less selfishness and more self-denial is good for the soul, and would be good for the country - or any country.