{"id":13061,"date":"2011-01-25T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-01-25T19:31:56","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T19:31:56","slug":"gun-control-and-making-tucson-shooting-even-scarier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/25\/gun-control-and-making-tucson-shooting-even-scarier\/","title":{"rendered":"Gun Control and Making Tucson Shooting Even Scarier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As you might have guessed, I tend to get a lot of press releases. Most of them are relevant to what I do. Some are not, but are occasionally interesting. &nbsp;Today, I got what must certainly rank in the top 5 of the most offensive emails I&#8217;ve received since starting Calitics over 5 years ago. A group is apparently planning on eliminating a Georgia ban on carrying weapons in a place of worship. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are literally one Jared Loughner away from a major massacre here in Georgia in one of our places of worship. Right now, you are in violation of the law, and a criminal, if you carry in your place of worship. Once H.B. 54 is passed, people like Jared Loughner will know that there is at least the potential for someone in a place of worship that would put him down before he could do any damage,&#8221; said Mr. Parsons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is wrong on so many levels, but let&#8217;s start with the biggest piece of faulty logic: more people with guns would prevent the situation. Of course, as we discovered in Tucson, that simply isn&#8217;t true. In fact, one of the heroes who disarmed Loughner was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/41018893\/ns\/slatecom\/\">almost shot by an armed passerby who thought he was the gunman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But before we embrace Zamudio&#8217;s brave intervention as proof of the value of being armed, let&#8217;s hear the whole story. &#8220;I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready,&#8221; he explained on Fox and Friends. &#8220;I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this.&#8221; Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. &#8220;And that&#8217;s who I at first thought was the shooter,&#8221; Zamudio recalled. &#8220;I told him to &#8216;Drop it, drop it!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the man with the gun wasn&#8217;t the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. &#8220;Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess,&#8221; the interviewer pointed out. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/41018893\/ns\/slatecom\/\">Slate<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, the same debate is going down in Arizona, where legislators are going so far as to say &#8220;When everyone is carrying a firearm, nobody is going to be a victim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The sheer lunacy of this is astounding, and fortunately, Senator Feinstein understands that the way to combat gun crimes isn&#8217;t to arm the citizenry. &nbsp;In fact, she&#8217;s been discussing the topic of bringing back a regulation that she originally passed in the 1994 assault weapons ban. &nbsp;It&#8217;s a simple, and sensible regulation: limit the size of clips to ten bullets. &nbsp;Jared Loughner&#8217;s clip had 30, and he didn&#8217;t need to worry about reloading as he carried out his murderous spree.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Feinstein said in an interview Friday that she was exploring the idea of reviving a law to limit the size of ammunition clips. The assault weapons ban of 1994, of which Feinstein was the principal sponsor, limited clips to 10 bullets, a third of the size of the one Loughner used to kill six people and injure more than a dozen, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, his intended target. (<a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2011\/jan\/16\/local\/la-me-0116-theweek-20110116\">LA Times<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While gun control can split the Democratic party, as the Western libertarian concept likes a wide open gun system, surely we can recognize that our failure to control the proliferation has <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gun_violence#cite_note-unsurvey-7\">resulted in higher rates of violence compared to similarly situated nations<\/a>. &nbsp;MoveOn <a href=\"http:\/\/pol.moveon.org\/guncontrol\/index.html\">is supporting an action<\/a> by NYC Mayor Bloomberg&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org\/html\/members\/members.shtml#CA\">Mayors Against Illegal Guns<\/a> calling for additional gun reform. Perhaps now might be a good time to let our leaders know that America hasn&#8217;t given up on controlling guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you might have guessed, I tend to get a lot of press releases. Most of them are relevant to what I do. Some are not, but are occasionally interesting. &nbsp;Today, I got what must certainly rank in the top 5 of the most offensive emails I&#8217;ve received since starting Calitics over 5 years ago. A group is apparently planning on eliminating a Georgia ban on carrying weapons in a place of worship. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are literally one Jared Loughner away from a major massacre here in Georgia in one of our places of worship. Right now, you are in violation of the law, and a criminal, if you carry in your place of worship. Once H.B. 54 is passed, people like Jared Loughner will know that there is at least the potential for someone in a place of worship that would put him down before he could do any damage,&#8221; said Mr. Parsons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is wrong on so many levels, but let&#8217;s start with the biggest piece of faulty logic: more people with guns would prevent the situation. Of course, as we discovered in Tucson, that simply isn&#8217;t true. In fact, one of the heroes who disarmed Loughner was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/41018893\/ns\/slatecom\/\">almost shot by an armed passerby who thought he was the gunman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But before we embrace Zamudio&#8217;s brave intervention as proof of the value of being armed, let&#8217;s hear the whole story. &#8220;I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready,&#8221; he explained on Fox and Friends. &#8220;I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this.&#8221; Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. &#8220;And that&#8217;s who I at first thought was the shooter,&#8221; Zamudio recalled. &#8220;I told him to &#8216;Drop it, drop it!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the man with the gun wasn&#8217;t the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. &#8220;Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess,&#8221; the interviewer pointed out. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/41018893\/ns\/slatecom\/\">Slate<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, the same debate is going down in Arizona, where legislators are going so far as to say &#8220;When everyone is carrying a firearm, nobody is going to be a victim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The sheer lunacy of this is astounding, and fortunately, Senator Feinstein understands that the way to combat gun crimes isn&#8217;t to arm the citizenry. &nbsp;In fact, she&#8217;s been discussing the topic of bringing back a regulation that she originally passed in the 1994 assault weapons ban. &nbsp;It&#8217;s a simple, and sensible regulation: limit the size of clips to ten bullets. &nbsp;Jared Loughner&#8217;s clip had 30, and he didn&#8217;t need to worry about reloading as he carried out his murderous spree.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Feinstein said in an interview Friday that she was exploring the idea of reviving a law to limit the size of ammunition clips. The assault weapons ban of 1994, of which Feinstein was the principal sponsor, limited clips to 10 bullets, a third of the size of the one Loughner used to kill six people and injure more than a dozen, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, his intended target. (<a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2011\/jan\/16\/local\/la-me-0116-theweek-20110116\">LA Times<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While gun control can split the Democratic party, as the Western libertarian concept likes a wide open gun system, surely we can recognize that our failure to control the proliferation has <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gun_violence#cite_note-unsurvey-7\">resulted in higher rates of violence compared to similarly situated nations<\/a>. &nbsp;MoveOn <a href=\"http:\/\/pol.moveon.org\/guncontrol\/index.html\">is supporting an action<\/a> by NYC Mayor Bloomberg&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org\/html\/members\/members.shtml#CA\">Mayors Against Illegal Guns<\/a> calling for additional gun reform. Perhaps now might be a good time to let our leaders know that America hasn&#8217;t given up on controlling guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[312,8212,9587],"class_list":["post-13061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-312","tag-8212","tag-9587"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3oF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}