How?
Paul Helmke from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership:
A Victory For The Families Of Virginia Tech, And For Common-Sense Gun Control
How is that? This bill would not have stopped Cho.
Wednesday night, the U.S. Congress approved by “unanimous consent” a bill that CBS News called “the first major new gun control bill in more than a decade,” and the Washington Post called “the most significant gun-control legislation since the early 1990s.”
This is not a gun control bill. Paul’s efforts at painting it as such are a weak attempt to make it look like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership has actually accomplished something. It has not.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Wait and see.
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:15 am
Imagine a lush, green pasture a mile square. In the pasture is ONE cow patty, clearly marked and fresh. Now imagine S. Brady and the other anti-gun nuts surveying the entire field. After this lengthy survey, they congregate and RUN, RUN, mind you, all the way across the pasture and flop face first into the cow patty. Then with their best “how can we fool em’ today” smile, they have a press conference to declare their “victory” over the evil NRA.
Whoops.
I googled this.
The measure, which added a number of changes after the House version passed, was supported by the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and now awaits President George W. Bush’s signature to become law.
“The end product is a win for American gun owners,” the NRA said in a statement, describing the measure as “pro-gun legislation.”
A number of safeguards were built into the legislation so that people who have “overcome a disqualifying mental illness or disability may reclaim their rights” of gun ownership through federal “relief from disabilities programs.”
The NRA pointed out that the bill “prevents use of federal ‘adjudications’ that consist only of medical diagnoses without findings that the people involved are dangerous or mentally incompetent.
“This would ensure that purely medical records are never used in NICS. Gun ownership rights would only be lost as a result of a finding that the person is a danger to themselves or others, or lacks the capacity to manage his own affairs,” the gun lobby said in a statement.
Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, which advocates tighter gun control, said this shows that the legislation was “hijacked by the gun lobby and would now do far more harm than good.
“Rather than focusing on improving the current laws prohibiting people with certain mental health disabilities from buying guns, the bill… will waste millions of taxpayer dollars restoring the gun privileges of persons previously determined to present a danger to themselves or others,” Rand said.
“Once a solution, the bill is now part of the problem,” she said.
So, to summarize, the bill adds NO ONE to the list of prohibited people and AUTHORIZES MONEY so people wrongfully denied can have their rights restored. It will give money to the states to update databases. And the Virginia Tech shooter WOULD STILL BE ELIGIBLE TO BUY GUNS.
So much for the anti-gunners “big win”.