After Calif. shooting, senator calls for Congress to revisit gun control legislation
(CNN) – A day and a half after a shooting rampage in California left six victims dead, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Sunday the tragedy serves as a reminder of the legislative efforts to stem gun violence that occurred in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.
The Democrat from Connecticut, appearing on CBS’s "Face the Nation," said statements from the California victims' families bring the nation back to "when it seemed like we were on the verge of, potentially, legislation that would stop the madness and end the insanity."
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Twenty first-graders and six adults died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, the second-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Efforts to enact stricter gun laws fizzled in April of last year, when a bill that included stronger federal background checks for gun purchases failed to pass the Senate.
Elliot Rodger, who is accused of killing six people and then himself on Friday night around Santa Barbara, California, passed the background check needed to buy the firearm used in the shooting, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN.
But Rodger did suffer from an undisclosed mental health issue, and was under the care of a variety of health care professionals, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.
Asked if he believes the failed legislation that emerged after Sandy Hook would have prevented Friday's shooting, Blumenthal said at least better mental health resources would have been available.
"The legislation that failed to pass - it got support from 55 senators - would have provided a mental health initiative with more resources, greater ability for the Santa Barbara police to intervene," Blumenthal said.
"I am going to urge that we bring back those bills, maybe reconfigure them to center on mental health, which is a point where we can agree that we need more resources to make this country healthier and to make sure that these kinds of horrific, insane, mad occurrences are stopped - and the Congress will be complicit if we fail to act."
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As always a small percentage of the population, NRA members, with the loud voices pay congress to vote their way.
I wonder how any of them would feel if a loved one was shot and killed in cold blood in one of these instances or just a plain old robbery.
Nothing will be done about responsible gun control until one of these maniacs targets congress and they experience first hand what it means. Then watch how fast the fat cats can move.
Your right Chuck me to ! and everbody should . But some PPL like the bondage thing and take it .
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Three people were killed and a fourth person was wounded in a shooting at an oceanfront motel in Myrtle Beach,
Nobody was stabbed with a knife .
"Never Let a Good Tragedy go to waste" Rohm Emanuel
IF (as the NRA suggests) more guns is the solution to gun violence, THEN, more alcohol would be the solution to drunk driving.....right...???......or.......do NOTHING until after the election and hope something like this "never" happens again.....
I am a supporter of the 2nd Amendment and a gun owning Viet Nam Vet.....but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, time to come up with some "solutions" rather than more "slogans"
Thypical Democrat, trying to take adventage of a tragedy in orfer to forward his Liberal agenda. I guess he's trying to avoid wasting a perfectly good crisis.
The only amandment on the whole constitution that the repubs know and respect is the second amendment. The rest of the constition can take a hike where they're concerned.
rs – care to show us the statistics to prove your "truth"? You won't, because you can't....
And what law would of prevented him from getting a knife? Half the people killed were stabbed to death. So I guess we should ban knifes too?
To the simple minded who want a gun ban. Go look at Australia's and the UK's homicide rate for the last 100 years then come explain to me how you think a gun ban did anything to lower their homicide rate.
What, again.
Why do politicians call for more gun control every time some crazy murders people ? More responsible citizens need to be carry guns so the rest of us have a fighting chance. Politicians scramble at the chance to speak out against guns every time some nut murders innocent people. The reason they do it is to be a part of headline news. Does it make any sense to make more laws intended to eliminate gun violence, when it's the lawless that commit gun crimes ? Wake up ! America is saturated with guns. Make it more possible for law abiding citizens to carry guns !
Another liberal FAILING at parenthood.
There is always been and always will be gun violence sadly
THESE frigging dems MUST stop there march to trample on our 2nd amendment and ban guns!
ITS TIME TO VOTE OUT ALL THESE PROGRESSIVE SENATORS LIKE BLUMENTHAL!
typical of the scummy demorats to use a tragedy to further their agendas.
You all are totally overlooking the fact that this person was CRAZY. He was going to kill people period. If you took all the legal guns out of the picture, there would still the the ILLEGAL guns that he could get on the street for cash and still kill all of these people. Where there is a desire to kill, there is a way to kill. He didn't have to us a gun. Remember Oklahoma City? No guns involved there just some fertilizer and some other products. If we don't find a way to deal with the mentally ill, regardless of the access to guns, they will still kill whether with guns, bombs, or knives...
Aren't they going to ban knives also?
Obviously this "lawmaker" is making. a political jest!
The young man killed not the firearm. Start blaming the real reason for these deaths. What of the three others that were killed with a knife? Remove all knifes from every household? The anti gunners are just as crazy as the shooters..........
It is the crazy politicians that pile on the 2nd amendment when ever a crazy person does harm with a gun. How about those who are killed with a hammer, golf club, Knife, car, electricity, or drowned in a bath tub.
So it must be time to be rid of Hammers, golf clubs, knifes, cars, trucks, Airplanes and bath tubs.
What is really behind a congressman's zeal to rid us subject of our guns is the fact that they are afraid if the liberal loonies step much further out of line that one day they may be at the business end of a firearm.
The war on guns is waged by those that a fear another civil uprising can happen with Government way to big for it britches and the tax and spend and printing of money out of thin air is not longer tolerated. It is not some crazy lunatic that goes nuts and picks up a gun for his stupid reasons and fires on innocent people. It is truly the fear that those of sound mind and reason are fed up with Big Government out of control.
Have a Great Memorial Day. Keep our Troops in our hearts and minds and prayers.
When will we get it the SCOTUS of the US in multiple cases does not support the uninhibited individual right to a gun it even has outlawed sawn off shotguns. The NRA would like us to forget the well regulated militia part which historically and factually allowed each man to own a gun and keep it at home and was for the purpose of preventing a king like George from usurping the will of the people when called upon by via militia leaders to bear arms in conflict with oppressors of the state.
Stand your ground, concealed carry, or open carry with a license, its nonsense . then we get the mental health argument... Yes because they are able to get a gun without a background check or mental health check equally nonsense.
the logic gets worse when gun suicides and " home accidents" often involving kids account for around 1/3rd of gun deaths.
The problem lies with other US laws like Justifiable homicide and in cases like Trayvon Martin you can apparently Kill another human being because you has a gun and he had neither Gun or Knife and not even face a manslaughter charge.
The NRA would ban a gun that can only be fired if the owner caries an identifying chip UGH!!
In my biblical world you don't get to kill without it being a sin and paying some kind of price ( eye for an eye)
Regards,
Hodgson
Time to issue concealed carry permits for all who want it.
Oh the wacko simpletons already pushing for more weakness through disarmament! Do they ever stop and grieve or just use these idiots acts to push their own agenda's? No – Liberal disarmers call bystanders the "terrorist" (a shameful diversion of blame) and want to overturn the Constitution by infringing individual rights! This shooter was purchasing legal and carrying legal ( CA no less) and being ignored by the authorities once again and he was under medical help to some extent and no-one saw this coming again. The lefty's solution take rights from all law abiding citizens for acts committed by one idiot- I say no pure and simple no! Enough arm everyone and let him shoot at armed defended people who would assist him sooner on to his glory a road he chose to travel and take innocent people with him. If California would stop disarming people someone may have been nearby with a gun to stop him sooner, with far fewer victims!!
Do we stop to think that making new laws and restrictions are not going to solve the problem. I agree that there needs to be a change. How about we start punishing the criminals. If a person kills another person, then that person gets the death penalty. I don't mean sit on deathrow for 25 years appeal after appeal tax payer money after tax payer money. The sentenced get a month to say there good byes. Then they lethal injection. If we start to give harsher penalties then people will realize that if they get caught the system shows no mercy, just as they showed mo mercy. I know that people will say that my view is harsh, but what about the families that have to go on living with this horrendous crime. what about those families? Where is the justice for them? Stop thinking with your hearts and start thinking with your minds. I leave with this, ask yourself this question. What if that was your son, daughter, mother, father, or friend that was brutally killed because a killer wanted to make the new and nothing else, what would you want?