The bodies in Thousand Oaks, California weren’t even at room temperature and the NY Times Editorial Board was already calling for gun control
Trump Said He Wants Tougher Gun Laws. Can a New Congress Help Get Them?
This is what it’s come to — there are now Americans who have lived through two gun massacres. Many of the people who were able to flee a California bar where a man shot dozens of people late Wednesday night had also survived an attack last year in which a gunman in a Las Vegas hotel fired down on a music festival, killing 58 people. But at least one of the Las Vegas survivors was among the dead at the bar.
The gunman on Wednesday opened fire in a crowded country-music bar, a popular hangout for local college students. He shot a security guard first and killed at least 12 people, including a sheriff’s deputy who responded to the attack. More than 20 were believed to have been wounded. (snip)
If Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Trump are sincere about coming together to fix problems the public cares about, there seems hardly a more pressing place to start than reducing gun violence.
This would not require much of a shift for Democrats. Ms. Pelosi had already planned an early push to tighten background checks for gun purchases — a move favored by a vast majority of Americans, including most National Rifle Association members. Other popular measures previously introduced in Congress, like raising the minimum purchase age to 21 from 18 or banning bump stocks, which convert guns to automatic weapons, could be revisited as well. (snip)
For his part, Mr. Trump has been erratic on the subject of gun safety. In February, post-Parkland, he held a memorable meeting with lawmakers at which he voiced support for a “comprehensive†package that included “powerful†background checks. He called for raising the minimum age for purchasing rifles, seemed open to a Democratic plan to ban assault weapons, and slammed Republican lawmakers for being “afraid of the N.R.A.†(snip to the ending)
But Mr. Trump is the ideal president to tackle the issue. He enjoys the adoration of his party’s culturally conservative base to a degree few politicians even approach. If inclined, he could burn just a small fraction of that capital on promoting some of the common-sense gun measures desired by a majority of the electorate.
Better still, since Mr. Trump has a taste for combat and prides himself on shaking things up, what could be more disruptive than pressuring lawmakers to grow a spine and attack gun violence?
As legacies go, Mr. Trump — and Ms. Pelosi and her colleagues — could do far worse.
Pray tell, what new laws would have stopped the shooter, who apparently had mental issues following deployment to Afghanistan? He was over 21. He passed a federal backgrounds check. He did not use an “assault rifle.” Depending on which you read, California is the most gun restrictive state in the nation. They have everything that Democrats have been calling for. The only thing they’re missing is just simply banning possession of firearms by private citizens.
After Thousand Oaks shooting, picture emerges of a troubled ex-Marine known to authorities: https://t.co/r9sow76PVM
“[Police] department had had several interactions with Long"
“X was known to kick in the walls of the home he lived in with his mother”
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) November 8, 2018
They have red flag laws in California, as well. The Washington Post Editorial Board is likewise pimping gun control. What would have stopped this?
