From http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39821-2000Sep9.html
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Guns--and a Congress Unfazed
Sunday, September 10, 2000; Page B06
THE 106th CONGRESS, nearing adjournment, has failed to pass a single gun control measure of any consequence. The thousands of mothers and their families who gathered four months ago to try to jolt legislators into action are still waiting for a response. America's sad global leadership in gun violence, both criminal and accidental, remains unchallenged. And the list of sensible gun safety measures that deserve attention lies on the table untouched.
For starters, Congress ought to establish minimum standards for licensing of handgun owners and registration of the handguns. It also should limit handgun purchases to one per month. Some states have enacted such a restriction, which any law-abiding gun user could live with. But without any national system, gun traffickers continue to make huge purchases in certain states for sale in illegal markets everywhere. States that attempt to set some sensible limits are undermined by those that don't.
A rational Congress also would move quickly to close the gun show loophole. Calls for better federal enforcement of laws already on the books--a favorite diversionary refrain of the National Rifle Association--are devalued by loopholes that Congress has failed to close. Unlicensed sellers at gun shows are not required to conduct background checks; straw purchasers buy firearms from these sellers and transfer the weapons to other unlicensed sellers or people prohibited from making legal purchases.
Finally, if toy guns can be recalled for safety reasons, why shouldn't real ones be subject to safety standards? The answer has been because the gun lobbyists like it that way and Congress has never bucked them on this issue.
Most effective would be a ban on the general sale of handguns, but that clearly is not in the legislative cards this year. Nor were most of the concerned Americans who gathered last Mother's Day seeking such a ban. They were, and still are, asking for these other, less sweeping but patently useful reforms. The lawmakers hear the public when shootings in schools or summer camps or offices make news; they make a show of concern; and then they vote with the gun lobby. It's a shame, and one worth remembering on Election Day.
[/quote]
Yes; on Election Day let us all remember those of this 106th congress who voted against gun control. Number them among the good guys and keep 'em in office!
pax
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"Is there anything wrong with a woman preferring the dignity of an armed citizen? I don't like to be coddled and I don't like to be treated like a minor child. So I waive immunity and claim my right -- I go armed." -- Longcourt Phyllis in Beyond This Horizon by Robert Heinlein
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Guns--and a Congress Unfazed
Sunday, September 10, 2000; Page B06
THE 106th CONGRESS, nearing adjournment, has failed to pass a single gun control measure of any consequence. The thousands of mothers and their families who gathered four months ago to try to jolt legislators into action are still waiting for a response. America's sad global leadership in gun violence, both criminal and accidental, remains unchallenged. And the list of sensible gun safety measures that deserve attention lies on the table untouched.
For starters, Congress ought to establish minimum standards for licensing of handgun owners and registration of the handguns. It also should limit handgun purchases to one per month. Some states have enacted such a restriction, which any law-abiding gun user could live with. But without any national system, gun traffickers continue to make huge purchases in certain states for sale in illegal markets everywhere. States that attempt to set some sensible limits are undermined by those that don't.
A rational Congress also would move quickly to close the gun show loophole. Calls for better federal enforcement of laws already on the books--a favorite diversionary refrain of the National Rifle Association--are devalued by loopholes that Congress has failed to close. Unlicensed sellers at gun shows are not required to conduct background checks; straw purchasers buy firearms from these sellers and transfer the weapons to other unlicensed sellers or people prohibited from making legal purchases.
Finally, if toy guns can be recalled for safety reasons, why shouldn't real ones be subject to safety standards? The answer has been because the gun lobbyists like it that way and Congress has never bucked them on this issue.
Most effective would be a ban on the general sale of handguns, but that clearly is not in the legislative cards this year. Nor were most of the concerned Americans who gathered last Mother's Day seeking such a ban. They were, and still are, asking for these other, less sweeping but patently useful reforms. The lawmakers hear the public when shootings in schools or summer camps or offices make news; they make a show of concern; and then they vote with the gun lobby. It's a shame, and one worth remembering on Election Day.
[/quote]
Yes; on Election Day let us all remember those of this 106th congress who voted against gun control. Number them among the good guys and keep 'em in office!
pax
------------------
"Is there anything wrong with a woman preferring the dignity of an armed citizen? I don't like to be coddled and I don't like to be treated like a minor child. So I waive immunity and claim my right -- I go armed." -- Longcourt Phyllis in Beyond This Horizon by Robert Heinlein
