Santorum: Georgia gun law to improve safety, says 'a well-armed America is a safer America'
(CNN) - Fresh off a speech to the National Rifle Association's annual meeting, former - and potentially future - GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum praised a controversial new gun law in Georgia.
The bill, signed by Gov. Nathan Deal last week, will allow Georgians to carry guns into some bars, churches and government buildings.
[twitter-follow screen_name='politicalticker'][twitter-follow screen_name='danadavidsen']
Critics have slammed the law, calling it the "guns everywhere bill," but Santorum defended the legislation Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," arguing that if criminals aren't sure whether potential victims or bystanders are armed, they likely won't take the risk.
"I think people do analyze the situation and if they want to accomplish something, they want to kill a lot of people, they're not going to go someplace where someone will shoot back," the former Pennsylvania senator said.
The Georgia bill, which will go into effect July 1, will allow residents who have concealed carry permits to take guns to certain parts of airports.
"I don't think this is going to do anything to encourage some bad guy to cause harm at the airport, but it's going to create an opportunity where if something bad does happen at an airport, there'll be someone there to stop it," Santorum said.
“I think a well-armed family is a safe family,” he said. “A well-armed America is a safer America.”
Santorum was one of a series of Republicans considering a bid for the White House show who spoke at the NRA convention – a three-day event in Indianapolis that drew tens of thousands of gun-rights advocates to its sprawling shooting, hunting and outdoor exhibits as well as rallies, seminars and concerts.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, another speaker at the NRA convention and potential 2016 candidate, said on "Fox News Sunday" that citizens with guns "makes our communities more safe, not less safe."
Related: NRA cites eroding freedoms, warns of Hillary candidacy
Asked about the Georgia law, Pence said he's not read the legislation, but he reiterated his pro-gun stance and his welcome to the members of the NRA in Indianapolis over the weekend.
Pence recently signed a law in the Hoosier State that would allow guns in locked vehicles in school parking lots. Like the Georgia law, it’s been blasted by opponents as unsafe and unnecessary around schools.
"We actually had parents that had a permit to conceal and carry a weapon that were finding themselves guilty of a felony just by dropping their kids off at school. So we made a modest change, a common-sense change in Indiana law, and I strongly supported it,” he said.
And now for Sundays Stupid Statement we have...............
Last week a three year old killed her two years old sister with a gun.
Now in Georigia things like that could happen a church!
It must be Satan who is behind this law. America, wake up and support your President
on this issue for once.
Spoken like a true NRA payroll. Nowhere in the world has more guns equated more safety, and here even in Arizona di our GOP Governor Brewer declare this package of laws "flawed".
For fools like Santorum, this is just part of the NRA arms race. Naturally the more heavily armed society becomes, the more armed our police and law enforcement agencies must be.
And after their usual serving of "government doesn't work" and "hate the government" these clowns wonder why law enforcement has to show up with so many arms?
Crazy, carzier, craziest.
31,000 people have to die each year so a few thousand can pretend they're Clint Eastwood or John Wayne. Bad enough, but the politicians on both sides are so afraid of losing a few votes, they genuflect to LaPierre as though he's the Second Coming.
Yes i suppose it takes a crook to kill a love one or a home invasion or 50 massacres before folks wakeup and arm themselves or feel safe around a carrier ! If gunowners were as crazy as the anti gun advocates claim there would be no advocates left gee get real you may need a legal gun owner oneday lord forbid before the police can arrive to help you or your love one from a mad man hello wake up ?
Men with these narrow mind sets are dangerous. Pro gun, anti government, anti gay, pro religion is a bad combination. Look at how this exact scenario played out in the forming of the Taliban. The GOP / Tea Party is afraid of everything, the entire party is based on fear of losing rights, illegals taking jobs, Guns and Religion. Never mind that 99% of the people in the GOP / Tea Party would never do these jobs in the first place. Health care and caring for the elderly of the United States. Not an issue for the GOP / Tea Party because it is not about doing the right thing it is about money. They would rather put money int big business and the industrial war machine than into benefiting the people. The GOP / Tea Party will take American to yet another war, it is certain. But why does the United States need to be the world police ? Because it all come down the the profits of war. Money Trumps religion unless it comes to gay rights or abortion and then it is immoral. But talk about guns and shooting anyone for almost anything and that is "ok" in gods eyes. Basically the GOP / Tea Party has a way of either making things seem ok in gods eyes, or making their voters panic in fear.
The NRA will not be happy until the legal terminology of death certificates is changed. From Cause of Death-Gunshot Wound--To Cause of Death-Natural Causes.
--these idiots know when USA passes total "GUN-BAN LAWS". Just like healthcare. Sin is ripe here. It will pass one day. NRA, Israel are buying these pathetic republican thugs in the nation. Bad.
rs
After having been a police officer for about ten years-many,many years ago, it has been some time since I have heard anyone make the comparison between police and the society they serve. I went to a state school at that time where a psychologist advised us that "The Police are a mirror of the society, and the people they serve." The more heavily, and deadly armed the society becomes, the more it is the duty of the police to arm themselves to a higher degree. Meaning you don't go up against an M-16 with a six shot .38 special. Violence beget violence. The only way to control this type of violence is to limit the amount of violence any given weapon can produce. The argument of protecting yourself against the government or invasion by a foreign country is total insanity. Perhaps a new cause of death needs to be added to Death Certificates. Cause of Death–Second Amendment. As usual your are dead on.
Sorry Chris, you are the one sleepwalking. Everything these people espouse are rooted in fear and greed. The right-wing proclivity to always see the worst in people different from themselves is poisoning the country. There are good and bad in every group of people that exists. No one is above this.
Safer America? America has the highest gun related deaths among developed nations. Nothing to brag about.
If more guns make us safer, how come we aren't the safest country in the world. Also, how come more has not been made by Wayne La Pierre's opening remarks that were filled with racial code words like "drug cartels" (hispanics), "knock out gamers" (blacks and largely an overstated problem) and the like. People you are being played by the NRA, they take you as fools and think they can scare you into falling in lockstep behind them.
Those of you who think this is such a great law should pack up and move on down to Georgia. There are millions here who don't think this law is a good idea. All we can hope for now is that every church, school, bar, store, etc. gets their "No Firearms/Weapons" signs posted before the deadline. Those signs will be the closet thing to protection we will have. Having the signs posted will at least allow our remaining family members to sue the hell out of the nut job (and maybe the state) who shows up at church and decides to shoot us down for only God knows what reason... We all need to pray... This is just awful..
Well all of you anti lovers can learn how to do kong fool against a criminal gun welding murderer with a gun and good luck and best wishes to ya . Thats your right .
I respect that . Good luck and god speed .
Safer from everybody but themselves.
Santorum's campaign slogan - a Bible on every nightstand and a Glock under every pillow.
31, 000 people a year die of gun violence in the United States. A safer AMERICA????
Wake up America
It's time to split this country. Blue states would be the West Coast, a thin strip of the Northern States to connect New England, and Alaska. The red states could have the rest. Think about how fast the Red states would become a radical christian fundamentalist oligarchy. Christian Taliban anyone?
A well educated America, is a safer nation. This runs afoul of the republican party because the better educated the populace, the less likely people of Santorum's caliber are to get elected
Right..because 300 million guns have made us the least safe country behind Yemen. More people have died from guns in the last 40 years, >1 million people, than all the US wars combined going back to the revolutionary war. 8 kids a day are killed, >30,000 people a year are killed… Schools, movie theaters, cars, street corners, grocery stores, college lecture halls, and the list goes on and on…. These narcissistic paranoid freaks are no Christians..they choose guns over saving the lives of innocent children. It's sick, wrong, morally defunct and just outright evil.
we are as international student will be the weak factor in this equation . police and people could armed and also thieves but what about international student who protect them . i am not saying we should armed also but i think this is the worst idea
I ever heard.
I think that everyone and anyone who gets a weapon needs to go through hours of weapons safety classes. There also needs to be an easier time for prosecutors to convict with the current laws.
Churches guns, whatever happened to the thing err what was it? thou shalt not kill.
Bars Ok so the drunk refuses to pay his tab requested by the bar owner he gets angry and shoots him a gun in the hands of a drunk is worse that with a lunatic.
Government buildings we've already seen what happened at a tax office, mow think about the home based citizen terrorists and the havoc they could bring... my guess is he'd exclude the Georgia House and senate.
The 2nd amendment say's the right to bear arms that can in no way be interpreted as right to carry a concealed weapon by a strict reading of those words. lets get it straight the criminal is the only person who conceals his weapon until he/ she needs it to achieve his/her crime.
the whole logic he proposes means he is mentally unstable... QED no concealed gun license for Santorum!!
Regards,
Hodgson.
Shady Deal had me until he said bars and don't ask don't tell regarding permits. All we need is a bunch of drunks packing. And he you can't ask to see a permit until a crime is committed...sounds like a free for all. And this is the man that said kids who get free or reduced lunch should have to clean cafeteria afterwards so they learn young, no such thing as a free lunch. What a low-life.
Firearms give the average Jane or Joe a fighting chance.
I'm surprised even hard core gun supporters could be ok with this insane bill. America has been "well armed" for decades now and we still have a higher rate of gun deaths in this country, then any other. According to this fruitcake, more guns means more safety...really? More guns, more deaths, pure and simple. This is just another corporate giveaway to the gun industry, disguised as a "social benefit". As someone who has owned guns, I find this pure idiocy.