U.S. Republicans in Congress reject new gun limits

[webfact]

U.S. Republicans in Congress reject new gun limits

By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan

 

Nikolas Cruz, facing 17 charges of premeditated murder in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, appears in court for a status hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. February 19, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Stocker/Pool

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders of the U.S. Congress said on Tuesday that they would not raise the minimum age for gun buyers, in a sign that one of President Donald Trump's proposals likely will not get far on Capitol Hill after a deadly Florida school shooting.

 

The second-deadliest shooting at a U.S. public school has reignited the long-running national debate over gun rights, pitting many of the students who survived the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, against powerful gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.

 

Several of those students visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to press Congress to enact new restrictions on gun ownership.

Republicans in Congress have rejected those efforts after similar mass shootings in the past, and party leaders said they were not likely to act this time, either.

 

"We shouldn't be banning guns from law-abiding citizens. We should be focussing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place don't get those guns," House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told a news conference.

 

Trump has suggested arming teachers and raising the minimum age to buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, but Ryan said Congress was not likely to act on either idea.

 

Local governments, not Congress, should decide whether to arm teachers, he said.

 

Trump still supports raising the age limit and will release specific policy proposals this week, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

 

Ryan's comments made it clear that more aggressive gun limits, like a ban on the military-style rifle used by the 19-year-old Parkland shooter, were unlikely to gain traction in Congress.

 

Ryan met later in the day with Parkland students, who pushed for a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, as well as other school-safety features, according to Representative Ted Deutch, a Democrat who represents the district.

 

"This isn't the last time they they're going to come to Washington," Deutch said. "It's really just the beginning of that effort."

 

Prosecutors have said that Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland with a legally purchased rifle. Federal and local law enforcement agencies have acknowledged receiving multiple warnings about Cruz's potential for violence.

 

Trump and his fellow Republicans are under pressure to act following the massacre, but they also must avoid angering Republican voters who broadly support gun rights as well as interest groups like the NRA, which spent $55 million in the 2016 election.

 

The House voted in December to bolster the national background check system after the Air Force failed to provide records that could have flagged a former service member who killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November.

 

That legislation has broad support in the Senate as well, and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn, said he wants a vote to take place this week.

 

Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said that by itself would not be adequate. He called for Congress to expand the background check system to cover all gun sales, including those conducted at gun shows and over the internet.

 

That legislation has failed in Congress twice over the past five years, and it fell short again in the House on Tuesday as Republicans rejected an effort by Democrats to bring it up for a vote.

 

"We Democrats, at a minimum, believe we should be passing a universal background check legislation that assures that guns don't fall into the wrong hands," Schumer told reporters.

 

The White House does not back that idea, Sanders said.

 

ACTION IN FLORIDA

 

As Congress has failed to tighten gun laws in the wake of other mass shootings, states have taken action on their own.

 

Legislation that would raise the minimum age to buy assault weapons from 18 to 21 passed a committee in the Republican-controlled Florida legislature on Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

 

The measure, which passed on a party-line vote, also would create a program to train teachers to carry guns in schools and impose a three-day waiting period to buy a gun. It must win approval from the full state legislature and Republican Governor Rick Scott to take effect.

 

CRUZ TO PROVIDE DNA

 

The Florida court where Cruz faces 17 counts of premeditated murder on Tuesday cancelled a hearing where prosecutors had been scheduled to seek hair and DNA samples from the suspect.

 

Cruz's publicly appointed defender, Gordon Weekes, said he reached a deal with Broward County prosecutors late Monday to provide those samples, making the hearing unnecessary.

 

Cruz's case is due to return to court on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether he has sufficient assets to pay for his own defence, Weekes said. Cruz's mother died in November.

 

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Katanga Johnson and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Zachary Fagenson in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-28

[Samui Bodoh]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

Republican leaders of the U.S. Congress said on Tuesday that they would not raise the minimum age for gun buyers, in a sign that one of President Donald Trump's proposals likely will not get far on Capitol Hill after a deadly Florida school shooting.

What a colossal cluster****!

 

There are 17 innocent Americans who died for no reason other than a small minority of people want to keep their guns as toys. To add insult to injury, after these 17 lives were thrown away needlessly, nothing will be learned and nothing will be gained by their sacrifice.

 

If 17 people died for no reason in my country, I would demand answers and do everything that I possibly could to ensure that it never, NEVER happened again. In the good ol' USA, they do NOTHING.

 

What the hell happened to the USA? Do the lives of your children not matter any more? Is the possession of assault weapons more important than the lives of teenagers? Is the "fear" of "tyranny" that may or may not occur ever worth the wasted lives of your best and brightest? What is the point of 'guarding against tyranny' if you are killing your youth?

 

Do you not understand that when high school kids are being shot for no good reason, you have a terrible problem in your society?

 

Jesus wept.

 

[halloween]

I can only hope Paul Ryan needs a new job after the next election.

[Boon Mee]

Enough laws on the books as it is.  

Don't need any more. 

[PatOngo]

Damn it......wherrrre's ma gurn!

[Saladin]

Many enlightened Americans believe in the right to own weapons for protection against a potentially corrupt government (some might think they already have one). This brilliant thinking has resulted in the risk of being killed by gunshot being reduced to only 60 times per capita what it is in Germany, for example.

As this has proved to be such an outstanding success it follows that the answer to school massacres is to arm ALL children from when they first start kindergarten. This would also open up new opportunities for the weapons industry and American jobs in developing really lightweight assault rifles and sub-machine guns that even the smallest kids could easily handle.

(TIP: - Buy in early as this could be bigger than BItcoin).

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Enough laws on the books as it is.  

Don't need any more. 

 

So why have a legally-mandated minimum age of 18?

 

Golly gee, it's a "God-given" right, so I say if you can walk or talk you can buy a gun, unless you're a ferner.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by mtls2005

[daoyai]

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

What a colossal cluster****!

 

There are 17 innocent Americans who died for no reason other than a small minority of people want to keep their guns as toys. To add insult to injury, after these 17 lives were thrown away needlessly, nothing will be learned and nothing will be gained by their sacrifice.

 

If 17 people died for no reason in my country, I would demand answers and do everything that I possibly could to ensure that it never, NEVER happened again. In the good ol' USA, they do NOTHING.

 

What the hell happened to the USA? Do the lives of your children not matter any more? Is the possession of assault weapons more important than the lives of teenagers? Is the "fear" of "tyranny" that may or may not occur ever worth the wasted lives of your best and brightest? What is the point of 'guarding against tyranny' if you are killing your youth?

 

Do you not understand that when high school kids are being shot for no good reason, you have a terrible problem in your society?

 

Jesus wept.

 

17 people were killed because 1 mentally ill guy killed them. The laws were in place to have prevented this, he slipped through the huge cracks in the system.  The failure is on the enforcement side. Statistically American school kids are very safe.

[yardrunner]

1 hour ago, daoyai said:

Statistically American school kids are very safe.

or as Winston Churchill once said their are lies damn lies and statistics  

[Becker]

One can only hope that the mid terms will give the Republican Congress members a kick in the place where their nuts should have been.

[mike324]

2 hours ago, daoyai said:

17 people were killed because 1 mentally ill guy killed them. The laws were in place to have prevented this, he slipped through the huge cracks in the system.  The failure is on the enforcement side. Statistically American school kids are very safe.

Apparently if he slipped through the huge cracks, the laws in place are not good enough and needs more revisions. Americans school kids are very safe, yes if you compare the death rate to road accidents. But if you look at the school shooting rate, it is increasing every year and schools are becoming more dangerous.

 

Its just like saying flying is very safe, why the need to prevent liquids to be brought on board? why the need to prevent items like sharp object, arming pilots with guns, and what not. 

[Langsuan Man]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

U.S. Republicans in Congress reject new gun limits

That's OK,  we will see how they feel in  251 days from now

[Jonnapat]

What an absolutely pathetic bunch of morons.

All in hock to the NRA.

No hopers.

[Jonmarleesco]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

"We shouldn't be banning guns from law-abiding citizens. We should be focussing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place don't get those guns," House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told a news conference.

Wonder how he differentiates between law-abiding, non-law-abiding, and law-abiding gone-over-to-the-dark-side citizens? And how banning guns, per se, doesn't differ, in his mind, from banning assault rifles?

 

Ah, well, probably only a matter of time before a shooter decides to use an assault rifle to take a few pot shots at some politicians. Then we'll see whether the republicans' viewpoint remains unshaken in its apathy.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Jonmarleesco

[MaxYakov]

"The House voted in December to bolster the national background check system after the Air Force failed to provide records that could have flagged a former service member who killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November."

 

Great! And what is to be done about the Parkland Sheriff's Office and the FBI that knew  that this troubled young man had the real potential to do what he did. And how do we legislate against a Sheriff's deputy that cowers outside the school while the shooter is massacring students?

 

I say if you want to protect valuables, either material or living, armed deterrence seems to be the rule in the real world. The schools have to become part of the real world rather than fantasyland (as uncomfortable as this concept seems to be for so many).

Edited February 28, 2018 by MaxYakov

[jcsmith]

Showing their true donors... err colors...

[jcsmith]

5 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Enough laws on the books as it is.  

Don't need any more. 

We're less than two months into the year and there have already been 8596 incidents of gun violence this year... 2322 deaths, adn 3944 injuries. That includes 89 kids ages 11 and under, 443 kids between the ages of 12-17, 35 mass shootings, and 259 unintentional shootings... 50,000 shooting incidents a year. We have enough laws and regulations?

 

Look, I get why the GOP does it. The NRA has given them bushels of money. It's shady... it's the swamp... But what I don't get is why you defend it? You are gaining nothing from it. You've been bamboozled.

The fact that the same people who support this also make up a large portion of the people who think we need tighter immigration laws, or think muslims are the problem. Those numbers in the first two months of this year dwarf the number of people injured or killed in islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11. Yet you see that as a major problem. Why isn't this?

Edited February 28, 2018 by jcsmith

[Chelseafan]

16 hours ago, daoyai said:

17 people were killed because 1 mentally ill guy killed them. The laws were in place to have prevented this, he slipped through the huge cracks in the system.  The failure is on the enforcement side. Statistically American school kids are very safe.

What statistics? I would argue that they are the LEAST safe of any civilised nation on the planet. This isn't the first shooting nor will it be the last until action is taken.

 

Here is the full list of US school shootings. It makes horrific reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States

 

There have been 8 school shootings this year alone. How many in Europe ? 1.......in the last three years...

 

It doesn't take a genius to see that the US gun laws are archaic but as always these things will be washed over until the next massacre.

 

 

[Chelseafan]

15 hours ago, yardrunner said:

or as Winston Churchill once said their are lies damn lies and statistics  

I think that was Benjamin Disraeli.

 

 

[ncc1701d]

Absolutely nothing should be done until there are at least 3 independent entities research how to best reduce gun fatalities in the USA. It’s a big place. Suggestions for Chicago may be different for Louisville. Who knows. But without the data, there will be be never ending debates.

[Andaman Al]

On 2/28/2018 at 8:03 AM, Boon Mee said:

Enough laws on the books as it is.  

Don't need any more. 

Well perhaps you need to get rid of some of the more useless laws to make room for the laws that really matter. For example there is still a law in Arizona that it is illegal for a Donkey to sleep in a bath tub.

In Connecticut it is illegal to label a pickle a 'pickle' unless it bounces when thrown on the floor.

In Iowa it is illegal for one armed piano players to charge a fee for a performance.

In Vermont it is illegal for a woman to wear false teeth unless she has written permission from her husband.

 

I think there is room for a law that makes it more of a challenge for criminals and headaches to get a gun - don't you? though reviewing  some of the laws that still exist in the US, if mental disease should prevent anyone from owning a gun it seems there should not be a single gun in private hands in the whole country.

 

 

On 2/28/2018 at 9:42 AM, daoyai said:

 Statistically American school kids are very safe.

Possibly the most ridiculous comment on the forum this week, and you have some stiff competition.

 

 

On 2/28/2018 at 1:40 PM, MaxYakov said:

 

I say if you want to protect valuables, either material or living, armed deterrence seems to be the rule in the real world. The schools have to become part of the real world rather than fantasyland (as uncomfortable as this concept seems to be for so many).

No! The USA needs to become part of the real world and in that world that the rest of us live in there is no need for schools to have armed guards and armed teachers.

[mrwebb8825]

On 2/28/2018 at 1:32 PM, Jonmarleesco said:

Ah, well, probably only a matter of time before a shooter decides to use an assault rifle to take a few pot shots at some politicians. Then we'll see whether the republicans' viewpoint remains unshaken in its apathy.

It already happened.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/steve-scalise-congress-shot-alexandria-virginia.html